The Influence of Political Actors in the Digital Public Debate on Twitter About the Negotiations for the Formation of the Government in Spain

Abstract

Social media has introduced new parameters that can potentially transform the digital political conversation. Traditionally, in the age of mass communication, public debate was dominated by politicians and journalists. However, digital platforms, primarily Twitter, have allowed other social actors to join the political discussion, trying to influence it. The objective of this research is to establish what factors enable the authority and digital influence of political actors in the public debate on Twitter. We use a big data sample of 127.3 million tweets from the negotiation process around the formation of the Government in Spain. The applied methodology is based on social network analysis and machine learning. The results show that ideology, political initiative, and political career are configured as factors capable of conditioning the authority and influence of political actors in the political conversation on Twitter.