Shepherding and censorship: Discourse management in the Tea Party Patriots Facebook group

Christopher M. Mascaro, Alison Novak, Sean Goggins

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Political groups on social networking sites enable a new type of collaborative, political discourse among citizens. In this study, we show how political discourse in social media is distinct from prior studies of political groups on the Internet. Specifically, we use network analysis in combination with communication theory to examine conversational social networks that emerge from direct addressals between participants in 10 discussions on the Tea Party Patriots Facebook page associated with the shooting of US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Our findings identify singling out of other participants as a key tactic for clarifying and questioning inaccurate information; apply social network analysis to identify different behaviors between networks and describe the elimination of dissent from the Tea Party Patriots Facebook page over time. Important questions of how users experience political discourse online, including the impact of the traceless removal of discourse by group administrators are framed in the conclusion.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 45th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-45
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages2563-2572
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)9780769545257
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2012 - Maui, HI, United States
Duration: Jan 4 2012Jan 7 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
ISSN (Print)1530-1605

Other

Other2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMaui, HI
Period1/4/121/7/12

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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