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The new opinion leader? Personal influence and political networks
in a hybrid media environment.July 23, 2013
Elizabeth DuboisDPhil (PhD) Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences, CandidateUniversity of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute
www.elizabethdubois.ca | Twitter: @lizdubois
The New Politician
Lead government, policy decisions
Appeal to voters via mass media, campaigns, social media, personal media
Announcements via Twitter
The New Journalist
Constant communication, real-time reporting
Many types of “journalist”
The New Activist
Intensity of engagement
Flexibility New tactics in
their repertoire
The New Opinion Leader?
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) Mass communication and
group dynamics Counter “direct media effects”
“Opinion leader” Higher media consumption Social pressure/support Otherwise average
Media Studies Perspective
Mass media environment
Hybrid media environment
Current Research
DPhil (PhD) candidate Strategies of digitally enabled opinion
leadership American Behavioural Scientist and Social Media
and Society conference Identifying influentials on Twitter
Research Questions
How do digitally enabled opinion leaders exert influence?
Access to social media (Twitter)
Do individuals influence in the same way across media settings? (e.g. online vs. offline, blogs vs. Facebook)
Personal influence, personal social network Change attitudes, opinions, or behaviours
Hypothesis:
Methods
20 mini individual-centred case studies “360 view” Process tracing
Sequential mixed-methods Interviews (individual and followers) Social network analysis (SNA) Media content analysis (global and personal)
Sampling
#CDNpoli (Twitter hashtag community) ABS and SMSoc papers validate selection Randomize list of all opinion leaders, select first 20
Next Steps
Complete survey, compare to other metrics Pilot case study approach with digital and non-
digital prompts Consider technical aspects/areas for advancement
Thank you
Theory: Beyond the Two-Step Flow
Terms
Influence
Personal influence
Methods
1. Identify interviewees and pre-screen asking for a list of online tools they use and media sources.
2. Collect and preform initial analysis of social network data and content from each of these sources.
3. Interview 1 (offline social network analysis, discuss online networks, identify followers).
4. Interviews with followers.5. Interview 2 (reflect on new information from
followers and instances of political communication since Interview 1).
Challenges
Knowledge: identifying topic expertise from social media content
News trends/salient issues: tracking themes and providing visual for use during interviews
Social network graph: visualization for use during interviews (Netlytic)
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