Center-Left and Right-Wing News, YouTube, and Twitter as Key Connectors in the Social Media System
Extending research on technological affordances and user practices, this article treats social media as a system comprised of differentiated yet interconnected platforms and shaped by users’ information sharing practices. Specifically, hyperlinks — generated through cross-platform and cross-media i...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
HOPE
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journalqd.org/article/view/5984 |
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| Summary: | Extending research on technological affordances and user practices, this article treats social media as a system comprised of differentiated yet interconnected platforms and shaped by users’ information sharing practices. Specifically, hyperlinks — generated through cross-platform and cross-media information sharing — facilitate information diffusion and reveal major connectors in the social media system. Analyzing the linking patterns of 186 platforms with two large-scale datasets on prominent social and political issues in the U.S., we find the leading role of cross-media sharing, with center-left and right-wing news outlets serving as major pathways of system-wide information flow. Also, YouTube and Twitter emerge as hubs in the social media system via cross-platform sharing. Integrating established theoretical perspectives and providing robust quantitative descriptions, this study advances social media research and introduces a system-of-information perspective for addressing social-media-related communication challenges.
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| ISSN: | 2673-8813 |