Anatoliy Gruzd, Dalhousie University
Abstract
The paper investigates whether or not political polarization exists in social media by using social network analysis to analyze a sample of 5,918 Twitter messages (tweets) posted by 1,492 users on Twitter.com, a popular microblogging platform, during the 2011 Canadian Federal Election. The results suggest that there are some pockets of political polarization on Twitter, but at the same time Twitter as a communication and social networking platform may be able to facilitate open, cross-party, and cross-ideological discourse.
Keywords: Social Media, Twitter, Politics, Social Network, Canada, Election
