Social media network homophily among political candidates in multilevel settings
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12575554 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H Coffe (0000-0002-0020-0227, University of Bath, corresponding author), Iulia Cioroianu (0000-0002-5543-6819, University of Bath), Maxime Vandenberghe (0000-0001-8385-3014, Ghent University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 357-377 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Regional & Federal Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-7566 • E-ISSN: 1743-9434 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13597566.2022.2107632 |
| OpenAlex | W4293452338 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 45 |
Our study investigates political candidates’ networks in the multilevel political setting of Belgium. Using Twitter data collected during the four months preceding the May 2019 regional, federal and European elections, we examine the extent to which network homophily – defined as the tendency to interact with similar others – occurs among political candidates along parliament, language and party lines. Relying on a unique dataset of 20 061 retweets between 935 candidates, we find that network interactions are most likely to occur among co-partisans and candidates speaking the same language. Candidates campaigning for the same parliament also tend to retweet among each other, although this tendency is not strong. Overall, the findings confirm the strong divide of Belgian politics along language lines and Belgium’s ‘partitocracy’ in which parties are the main actors in the representation and policy-making process
Homophily · Multilevel model · Parliament · Political communication · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Representation (politics · Social media · Social network (sociolinguistics · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Social Capital and Networks · Social Media and Politics
The Politics of Belgium
Measuring Regional Authority
Federalism and Regionalism in Western Europe
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Graph drawing by force‐directed placement
The Structure and Function of Complex Networks
The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State
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Birds of a Feather
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |