Local interactions and the emergence of a Twitter small-world network

Ch’ng, Eugene (2015) Local interactions and the emergence of a Twitter small-world network. Social Networking, 04 (02). pp. 33-40. ISSN 2169-3323

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Abstract

The small-world phenomenon is found in many self-organising systems. Systems configured in small-world networks spread information more easily than in random or regular lattice-type networks. Whilst it is a known fact that small-world networks have short average path length and high clustering coefficient in self-organising systems, the ego centralities that maintain the cohesiveness of small-world network have not been formally defined. Here we show that instantaneous events such as the release of news items via Twitter, coupled with active community arguments related to the news item form a particular type of small-world network. Analysis of the centralities in the network reveals that community arguments maintain the small-world network whilst actively maintaining the cohesiveness and boundary of the group. The results demonstrate how an active Twitter community unconsciously forms a small-world network whilst interacting locally with a bordering community. Over time, such local interactions brought about the global emergence of the small-world network, connecting media channels with human activities. Understanding the small-world phenomenon in relation to online social or civic movement is important, as evident in the spate of online activists that tipped the power of governments for the better or worst in recent times. The support, or removal of high centrality nodes in such networks has important ramifications in the self-expression of society and civic discourses. The presentation in this article anticipates further exploration of man-made self-organising systems where a larger cluster of ad-hoc and active community maintains the overall cohesiveness of the network.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/748999
Additional Information: Article ID:55990
Keywords: social network analysis, social movement, community, #freejahar, small-world networks
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham Ningbo China > Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Computer Science
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.4236/sn.2015.42004
Depositing User: YUAN, Ziqi
Date Deposited: 04 Jan 2018 13:05
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 17:05
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/48876

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