The world of politics and America seem to go hand in hand. So many millions of people out there wake up and turn on their Twitter to see what’s trending in the world of current affairs. They are interested in breaking history and politics, but you will be surprised to learn one thing.
While politics rule the day, most users on the app don’t actually follow the political accounts of elite members. These could be those coming from Congress, the US President, or just the media.
On the other hand, researchers have found that most app users are more likely to follow people associated with the entertainment industry. This includes celebrities like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and more.
Meanwhile, those who follow such politically active accounts tend to stay in particular communities seen online. They follow or share information that arises in political groups.
Additionally, the study also noted other interesting findings. Those who follow such active and elite political groups on Twitter tend to be politically biased. And you like to engage with such account holders in a standard way. The end result is very similar to an echo chamber.
The authors of this particular research were seen analyzing data involving around 1.5 million users across the app. But the conclusions came after a study of 4 years.
But the authors found that the proportion of those exhibiting political bias was actually far less than they had predicted. However, researchers claim that the accounts were not common. They belonged to some of the most influential names out there. Such individuals are much more vocal, they like to be active on social media and participate a lot in engaging with the audience. In the end, it all comes down to being more visible, and the term political polarization took on a whole new meaning.
To begin with, the authors concluded that about 40% of users on the Twitter platform were inclined to follow people defined as the political elite. This includes pundits, presidents, journalists and those from the news media.
Some of the biggest account holders in the political world such as Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Sean Hannity were studied. But to the shock and surprise of many, only 23% of more than 1.5 million people followed such accounts. So, as you can see, the fraction is quite small.
Those who ended up behind the big political names also followed their groups within. And such active account holders were seen sharing posts outside the group on Twitter more often. And when they were shared, they were mostly related to negative posts or comments.
Those who were more conservative were more likely to share their opinions through in-group gatherings as opposed to going public. And the opposite was seen for the more liberal members of the group. But in terms of inequality, it was more or less the same here.
At a glance, the majority of Americans in the group were not very interested in the world of politics and were found to not even follow a political elite from the list.
As you should be, the authors of the study were obviously horrified. Many people usually associate Twitter with politics, automatically. But this particular study proves otherwise.
In conclusion, the researchers claim that although the share of Twitter users who share political news and opinions is smaller than expected, there are still some who have great influence and can influence public opinion with their actions.
So given the unpopularity of Democrats with increased radicalization in the country and so much support for politically themed violence, the influence of social media should not be ignored.
H/T: University of California, Davis
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