The new opinion leader? Personal influence and political networks in a hybrid media environment. July 23, 2013 Elizabeth Dubois DPhil (PhD) Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences, Candidate University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute |

The New Politician  Lead government, policy decisions  Appeal to voters via mass media, campaigns, social media, personal media  Announcements via Twitter

The New Journalist  Constant communication, real-time reporting  Many types of “journalist”

The New Activist  Intensity of engagement  Flexibility  New tactics in their repertoire

The New Opinion Leader?  Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)  Mass communication and group dynamics  Counter “direct media effects”  “Opinion leader”  Higher media consumption  Social pressure/support  Otherwise average

Media Studies Perspective Mass media environment Hybrid media environment

Current Research  DPhil (PhD) candidate  Strategies of digitally enabled opinion leadership  American Behavioural Scientist and Social Media and Society conference  Identifying influentials on Twitter

Research Questions  How do digitally enabled opinion leaders exert influence?  Access to social media (Twitter)  Do individuals influence in the same way across media settings? (e.g. online vs. offline, blogs vs. Facebook)  Personal influence, personal social network  Change attitudes, opinions, or behaviours

Hypothesis:

Methods  20 mini individual-centred case studies  “360 view”  Process tracing  Sequential mixed-methods  Interviews (individual and followers)  Social network analysis (SNA)  Media content analysis (global and personal)

Sampling  #CDNpoli (Twitter hashtag community)  ABS and SMSoc papers validate selection  Randomize list of all opinion leaders, select first 20

Next Steps  Complete survey, compare to other metrics  Pilot case study approach with digital and non- digital prompts  Consider technical aspects/areas for advancement

Thank you

Theory: Beyond the Two-Step Flow

Terms Influence Personal influence

Methods 1. Identify interviewees and pre-screen asking for a list of online tools they use and media sources. 2. Collect and preform initial analysis of social network data and content from each of these sources. 3. Interview 1 (offline social network analysis, discuss online networks, identify followers). 4. Interviews with followers. 5. Interview 2 (reflect on new information from followers and instances of political communication since Interview 1).

Challenges  Knowledge: identifying topic expertise from social media content  News trends/salient issues: tracking themes and providing visual for use during interviews  Social network graph: visualization for use during interviews (Netlytic)