Serial participants of social media climate discussion as a community of practice: a longitudinal network analysis

ABSTRACT

Serial participants of social media conversations are characterized by their sustained commitment to contentious politics. Previous research has mainly focused on the characteristics and motivations of individual serial participants. This study shifts attention to community level dynamics and applies the community of practice (CoP) theoretical framework to examine a group of serial participants who consistently tweeted about the issue of climate change over five years. Our findings reveal the patterns of structural evolution of the serial participant CoP, showing that a once loosely connected set of Twitter users have become more akin to a community of practice. With longitudinal network modeling, the study also reveals how status and hierarchies are established within this network. Our study also demonstrates the values of this CoP, showing that serial participants increased their connection with elites and diversify their connections through their participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• serial participant
• community of practice
• network analysis

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Reciprocation describes the increased likelihood of individuals to send ties to those from whom they receive a tie. Transitivity of a relation means that when there is a tie from i to j, and also from j to h, then there is also a tie from i to h. The three-cycle refers to a triad of actors i, j, and h, it describes the configuration where a tie from I to j, a tie from j to h, and a tie from h to i is present.

2 Detailed coding definitions and codebook available from authors upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Annenberg Big Data Fund, University of Southern California.

Notes on contributors

Luping Wang

Luping Wang is a PhD student at the Department of Information Science, Cornell University. His research topics include social media, online user behavior, user experience research and social network analysis.

Aimei Yang

Aimei Yang is an Associate Professor at USC Annenberg. Yang's research is positioned at the intersection of strategic public relations research and a social network approach to the study of interorganizational relationships.

Kjerstin Thorson

Kjerstin Thorson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations and the School of Journalism. Her research explores the role of digital and social media in promoting – or hindering – political engagement.