U.
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Senators’ Social Network — Analysis Based on TwitterHongnan QuBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingApr 12With the continuous expansion of “touching the net”, social media has been integrated into all aspects of modern life, and has become an indispensable way for us to learn, work, make friends, and obtain information.
In addition to being a daily communication tool, social media has been given greater significance in this era — politicians use social media as an important front for their self-promotion.
This article uses graph theory and network analysis to portray the U.
S.
Senators’ social map on Twitter and analyze the interrelationships among them and their positions in this social network.
The U.
S.
Senators’ Social Network on TwitterBased on the social network calculation, the number of edges among U.
S.
senators is 852, which means there are 852 connections among those 45 senators, including 26 Republicans and 19 Democrats.
US Senate (@USSenate) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from US Senate (@USSenate).
the living symbol of our union of states.
Washington DCtwitter.
comThe highest in-degree node is @sendavidperdue, which belongs to U.
S.
Senator David Perdue.
That is to say 39 out of 45 senators have followed David Perdue and he is the most prestigious in the social network and gains the highest popularity.
David Perdue (@sendavidperdue) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from David Perdue (@sendavidperdue).
Official Twitter account for U.
S.
Senator David Perdue of…twitter.
comDavid Alfred Perdue Jr.
, an American businessman and politician, who has served as Georgia’s junior U.
S.
senator since 2015.
Perdue won the Republican primary and beat Democrat Michelle Nunn.
The highest out-degree node is @ChuckGrassley, which belongs to U.
S.
Senator Chuck Grassley.
The result shows that Chuck followed 30 of 45 senators and he is most central in the social network and gains the highest gregariousness.
ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley).
U.
S.
Senator.
Family farmer.
Lifetime resident of New Hartford…twitter.
comChuck Grassley is an American politician, and the senior U.
S.
senator from Iowa, also a member of the Republican Party.
He is now in his seventh term in the Senate, first elected in 1980.
The highest betweenness node is @RoyBlunt, which belongs to U.
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Senator Roy Blunt.
It shows that the number of times @RoyBlunt acts as a bridge along the shortest path between two other senators’ nodes is 79.
33342, which means the control of Roy Blunt on the communication among other senators is the highest.
Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt).
Official account of U.
S.
Senator Roy Blunt.
Honored to represent…twitter.
comRoy Dean Blunt is an American politician and the senior U.
S.
senator from Missouri, who has served since 2011.
He is also a member of the Republican Party and has served in the U.
S.
House of representatives and as Missouri secretary of state.
The reciprocity of the network is 0.
4964706 or saying the ratio of the two-way interactions among those senators is 49.
647%, which means nearly half of the senators followed each other on Twitter.
Community Detection of U.
S.
Senators on TwitterThe community detection results show that there are three communities in U.
S.
Senators.
Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, whose Twitter handle is @SenRobPortman, formed a community himself (shown in yellow).
The most likely reason is that Rob Portman did not follow any other senators on Twitter, and only two senators followed him.
Rob Portman (@senrobportman) | TwitterThe latest Tweets from Rob Portman (@senrobportman).
United States Senator from the Buckeye State.
Ohiotwitter.
comThe second community, shown in blue, is formed by 12 senators, all of whom are Democrats.
The reasonable explanation might be all the 12 senators share the same political stance and are closely interacting with each other.
Another interesting thing is, the second community contains 5 males and 7 females, which means 70% of the whole female senators are in the second community, according to the total of 35 males and 10 females.
That is to say, the second community may be a place where female leadership is more pronounced.
Female Senators (Image Credit to Marie Claire)The third community, shown in green, is made by 32 senators, including 25 Republican and 7 Democrats, which can be also interpreted by the same reason — political stance.
The seven Democratic senators in the third community are — Martin Heinrich (@MartinHeinrich), Micheal Bennet(@SenBennetCo), Joe Donnelly(@SenDonnelly), Tim Kain(@SenKaineOffice), Sheldon Whitehouse(@SenWhitehouse), Joe Manchin(@Sen_JoeManchin), Tammy Baldwin(@SenatorBaldwin).
Among the 32 senators, only three are female.
The third community is a place where male discourse power dominates.
Republican Senators 2019 (Image Credit to The Washington Post)Based on the community detection results, we can make such a hypothesis that the choice of political parties might be related to gender.
.