Network Patterns in South African Election Tweets

Social communities play a significant role in understanding complex societies, from communities formed by support interactions between friends and family to community structures that depict the flow of information, money and power. With the emergence of the internet, the nature of social networks changed because communities could form disassociated from physical location, and social network analysis (SNA) on social media such as Twitter and Facebook emerged as a distinct research field. Studies suggest that Twitter feeds have a significant influence on the views and opinions of society, and subsequently the formation of communities. This paper reports on a study where social network analysis was performed on Twitter feeds in South Africa around the 2019 elections to detect distinct patterns within the overall network. In the datasets that were analysed, a specific network pattern namely Broadcast Networks were observed. A Broadcast Network typically reflects central hubs such as media houses, political parties or influencers whose messages are repeated without interaction or discussion. Our results indicate that there were few discussions and interactions and that messages were broadcasted from central nodes even though the general experience of Twitter users during this time was of intense discussions and differences in opinion.