Diffusion dynamics and digital movement: The emergence and proliferation of the German-speaking #FridaysForFuture network on Twitter

Abstract

ABSTRACT Diffusion is a long-established concept that deals with the mechanisms explaining the prevalence of social movements. However, previous empirical studies on digital movement merely used diffusion as a term referring to increasing numbers of posts or public attention, without distinguishing what is diffused nor asking how information is diffused. Studies applying social network analysis have restricted themselves to retweet networks from a static perspective and emphasized the main actors and critical messages driven by the crowds. While the previous studies examined information diffusion as an outcome, they were unable to reveal the underlying processes that define how digitally networked movements spread over time among crowds embedded in different communities. As a case study, this paper investigates how the German-speaking network #FridaysForFuture was facilitated and contested through different diffusion dynamics. By inferring a diffusion network based on 237,892 retweeting sequences and the following/follower relationships of the 51,803 engaged actors in the early stages of #FridaysForFuture, it quantifies the digitally networked movement from a top-down perspective: the network, the tweets, and the retweets, concerning aspects of both actor and content. The findings suggest the development of digitally networked movements depends on their ability to influence and spread among different networked publics. The diffusion mechanisms of information, discourses, and beliefs of digitally networked movements were mainly enabled by, and flowed through, pre-existing networks rather than situational spontaneity. However, they varied according to issue salience and were distinguished by the network structures, political positions, ideological lines, and geographical proximities of the involved communities.