Tweeting Russian Politics: Studying Online Political Dynamics

Abstract

The established study of political networks has surged with the rise of digital social networks and modern computational analytics. Social Network Analysis (SNA) enables the study of Russia’s hybrid politics and society as it produces accurate alternative content to controlled official and semi-official statistics, providing live and detailed insight into current political processes in the country. Using six resonant political events, the chapter illustrates how SNA methods allow the designation of political communities and support the evaluation of such important questions as the presence of “echo-chambers, " the dynamic tracing of group reactions to informational events, and the detection of leaders and influencers. These methods provide a framework for the analysis of political phenomena as astroturfing and botnets, opinion mining, as well as topic and sentiment analysis.