Social Networks in the Twittersphere

Credit: Kacper Pempel, Reuters

Twitter is an online microblogging site that has become one of the most prominent communication technologies in the Age of Digital Media. Since its launch in 2006, the social media platform has transformed into a large, digital nest of enclaves that Internet users visit to receive or exchange information.

The intricate enclaves are created and maintained by opinion leaders, including social justice activists, news organizations, citizen journalists, brands, public relations practitioners and social media influencers. These leaders control what information is temporarily or permanently relevant within their enclaves and others. Consequently, Twitter encompasses complex, social network structures that influence people’s perceptions and behaviors toward current and past events.

The #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate movements epitomize the complex social network structures of Twitter. Although both online movements use hashtag activism on Twitter to inform people about systemic racism and galvanize them to advocate for racial justice, the hashtags were not created in the same enclave. Thus, it took time before the movements reached different social networks on Twitter.

These social movements did not form within the same enclave because of their disparate focal points. The #BlackLivesMatter movement amplifies the structural oppression that Black people face, such as police brutality, inequity in the criminal justice system and implicit bias in health care, in predominantly white countries. Meanwhile, the #StopAsianHate movement primarily raises awareness about the perpetuation of Asian stereotypes in the media, including the perpetual foreigner, yellow peril and the technical robot, which result in racism or xenophobia against the racial group. Therefore, the #BlackLivesMatter movement initially circulated within the enclave of Black Twitter, and individuals within the Asian community were the first participants of #StopAsianHate on the social media platform.

According to Research, Black and Asian Twitter users now retweet both hashtags often to show solidarity. Non-Black and non-Asian Twitter users also inform their followers on the social media platform about both movements. This is because some opinion leaders within the Asian and Black communities on Twitter introduce the movements to users who share other identities with them. These opinion leaders, who engage in various enclaves, are known as bridging hubs.

For instance, professional basketball player LeBron James tweeted about the #BlackLivesMatter movement to inform his millions of followers about the importance of voting to create legislation that helps to dismantle systemic racism against Black people. Although some of James’ followers are Black, users from other racial groups follow him on Twitter because of their shared interest in basketball. Other bridging hubs also follow James on the social media platform, which increased the reach of his message to diverse social networks.

Instead of waiting for non-interactive opinion leaders, like legacy media, to present the topic to their mass audiences on Twitter, James decided to use his platform to spark conversation about the hashtag in different communities on the social media platform. The intention and impact of James’ tweet exemplify how discourse about certain topics that are derived in a specific enclave on Twitter often expands to users in other social groups within the nest because of bridging hubs. This paradox of interconnectedness while residing in separate enclaves is what makes the social network structures on the social media platform complex.

The complexity of social network structures on Twitter further debunks the myth that filter bubbles prevent social media users from being exposed to information that does not reflect the core identity of their online community. Furthermore, these structures describe how social media users gain and sustain social capital. Therefore, it is essential that mass communication scholars use Twitter to examine these complex structures and their effects to advance digital media scholarship and broaden the knowledge social media users have about their online networks.