Ad-hoc publics and influencers on the Russian Twitter: The case of discussion on migrants

Abstract

With the emergence of discussion platforms like Twitter, the hopes rose that computer-mediated public sphere would become more even in access to discussion than mass-mediatized public sphere of the late 20th century. Scholars have argued that it will eventually form an ‘opinion crossroads’ where conflicts would be discussed by all the parties involved. But today, existing research provides mixed evidence on whether ordinary users, rather than mainstream media and institutional actors, can become influencers in discussions on current issues, e.g. relations between host and migrant communities. We focus on the Twitter discussion about an inter-ethnic conflict in Moscow’s Biryuliovo district in 2013, as well as the comparative ‘calm’ period in March 2014, and look at who were real influencers by reconstructing the discussion’s web graph, as well as analyzing and juxtaposing its metrics to figures indicating user activity. Our results show that ad hoc discussion differs dramatically from an issue-based one in terms of the influencer nature and composition; the role of active tweeting is questioned. We also show that nationalist accounts play a much bigger role than expected in both periods.