1. Estimating Policy Positions Using Social Network Data
- Author
-
Alejandro Ecker
- Subjects
Structure (mathematical logic) ,Social network ,business.industry ,Microblogging ,Parliament ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,Big data ,General Social Sciences ,050801 communication & media studies ,Library and Information Sciences ,Public relations ,Public opinion ,0506 political science ,Computer Science Applications ,Politics ,0508 media and communications ,Voting ,050602 political science & public administration ,Economics ,Social media ,business ,Law ,media_common - Abstract
Social network site (SNS) data provide scholars with a plethora of new opportunities for studying public opinion and forecasting electoral outcomes. While these are certainly among the most promising big data applications in political science research, a series of pioneering studies have started to uncover the vast potential of such data to estimate the policy positions of political actors. Adding to this emerging strand in the scholarly literature, the present article explores the validity of (individual) policy positions derived from the social network structure of the microblogging platform Twitter. At the aggregate party level, cross-validation with external data sources suggests that SNS data provide valid policy position estimates. In contrast, the empirical analysis reveals only a moderate connection between individual policy positions retrieved from the social network structure and those retrieved from members of parliament individual voting record. These results thus highlight the potential as well as important limitations of SNS data in indicating the policy positions of political parties and individual legislators.
- Published
- 2016