Leveraging Twitter for Networked Social Movement: Hashtag, Virality, and Symbolic Power

• In Event: Online Media II: Analyses of Communication Networks

Abstract

Guided by the virality framework proposed by Nahon and Hemsley (2013) and New Social Movement Theories (Thompson, 2005), this study examined the mechanisms of leveraging social media to drive a networked movement viral and achieve symbolic power. In this study, we looked into the use of Twitter in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement. In particular, we analyzed use patterns of hahstags to construct interest network. ERGM was conducted to examine if information characteristics (hashtag genre and frequency) and structures of interest networks (transitivity, star-structure, frequency homophily, and genre homophily) could predict the likelihood of co-occurrence of hashtags to drive virality. SIENA was used to estimate factors associated with tie formation and dissolution over time. The results provided implications on how symbolic power was obtained in networked social movement.

Authors

• Rong Wang, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication

• Wenlin Liu, U of Southern California