Collecting and Connecting On and Offline Political Network DataLibby Hemphill

Department of Humanities

Illinois Institute of Technology

libby.hemphill@iit.edu

my work in general

Public policy

Social Media

Civic action

today’s topic

Policy discussion

s

Congress on

Twitter

focus of inquiry

Whole populations

Bounded groups with known members

connecting disparate data sources

offline data

social media data

Better

insight

Does social media provide an alternate route to influence?

Nope.

data sources

My data

Co-sponsorship

Govtrack

Twitter

ICPSR IDs

Congress.gov

First, fast movers control the discussion.

The same people wield influence online and off.

who’s influential online?

PersonNormalized Connectedness

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

1.00

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) .99

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) .94

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) .91

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) .91

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR) .91

Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) .88

Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) .88

what’s my point?

Social media data is most useful when we connect to other data sources.

Social media is not an alternate route to influence for politicians.

Male-ness and Republican-ness are still the most reliable routes to power.

a call to action

Respect expertise beyond the technical

Educate students to be adequate coders and outstanding theorists

Thank you

Libby Hemphill

Department of Humanities

Illinois Institute of Technology

libby.hemphill@iit.edu

http://libbyh.com

Who said it first – Congress or the press?

How do constituents lobby Congress via Twitter?

How can we measure the impact of online protests like #stopthensa?

Rep. J

ohn

A. Boe

hner

(R-O

H)

Rep. K

evin M

cCar

thy (R

-CA)

Rep. D

arre

ll Iss

a (R

-CA)

Rep. S

teny

Hoy

er (D

-MD)

Rep. P

aul R

yan

(R-W

I)

Rep. T

im G

riffin

(R-A

R)

Rep. D

avid C

icillin

e (D

-RI)

Rep. B

ob Lat

ta (R

-OH)

Rep. V

irginia Fox

x (R

-NC)

Rep. N

ancy

Pelos

i (D-C

A)

Rep. M

ichele

Bachm

ann

(R-M

N)

Rep. A

ndy Har

ris (R

-MD)

Sen.

Har

ry R

eid

(D-N

V)

Rep. J

ohn

Garam

endi (D

-CA)

Rep. T

om P

rice

(R-G

A)

Rep. C

athy

McM

orris

Rod

gers

(R-W

A)

Rep. R

enee

L. E

llmer

s (R-N

C)

Rep. X

avier B

ecer

ra (D

-CA)

Rep. K

enny

Mar

chan

t (R-T

X)

Rep. S

am G

rave

s (R-M

O)0.75

0.8

0.85

0.9

0.95

1

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