Who says what to whom on twitter

TLDR

The study examines long‑standing media communication questions about information production, flow, and consumption on Twitter. The authors aim to assess how distinct Twitter user categories allocate attention to various news topics. They use Twitter lists to classify users into elite (celebrities, bloggers, media representatives) and ordinary categories. The analysis shows that roughly half of Twitter URLs originate from a small elite group, that users exhibit category‑specific homophily, that the two‑step flow theory is supported, and that content lifespans differ by user type and content.

Abstract

We study several longstanding questions in media communications research, in the context of the microblogging service Twitter, regarding the production, flow, and consumption of information. To do so, we exploit a recently introduced feature of Twitter known as "lists" to distinguish between elite users - by which we mean celebrities, bloggers, and representatives of media outlets and other formal organizations - and ordinary users. Based on this classification, we find a striking concentration of attention on Twitter, in that roughly 50% of URLs consumed are generated by just 20K elite users, where the media produces the most information, but celebrities are the most followed. We also find significant homophily within categories: celebrities listen to celebrities, while bloggers listen to bloggers etc; however, bloggers in general rebroadcast more information than the other categories. Next we re-examine the classical "two-step flow" theory of communications, finding considerable support for it on Twitter. Third, we find that URLs broadcast by different categories of users or containing different types of content exhibit systematically different lifespans. And finally, we examine the attention paid by the different user categories to different news topics.