The Dynamics of Protest Recruitment through an Online Network

被引:363
作者
Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra [1 ]
Borge-Holthoefer, Javier [2 ]
Rivero, Alejandro [2 ]
Moreno, Yamir [2 ,3 ]
机构
[1] Univ Oxford, Oxford Internet Inst, Oxford OX1 3JS, England
[2] Univ Zaragoza, Inst Biocomputat & Phys Complex Syst, Zaragoza 50018, Spain
[3] Univ Zaragoza, Dept Theoret Phys, Fac Sci, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain
关键词
COLLECTIVE ACTION; SOCIAL NETWORKS; COOPERATION; CASCADES; MODEL;
D O I
10.1038/srep00197
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The recent wave of mobilizations in the Arab world and across Western countries has generated much discussion on how digital media is connected to the diffusion of protests. We examine that connection using data from the surge of mobilizations that took place in Spain in May 2011. We study recruitment patterns in the Twitter network and find evidence of social influence and complex contagion. We identify the network position of early participants (i.e. the leaders of the recruitment process) and of the users who acted as seeds of message cascades (i.e. the spreaders of information). We find that early participants cannot be characterized by a typical topological position but spreaders tend to be more central in the network. These findings shed light on the connection between online networks, social contagion, and collective dynamics, and offer an empirical test to the recruitment mechanisms theorized in formal models of collective action.
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页数:7
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