A new publication in the journal Acta Política entitled A distorted mirror? Party cohesion in political parties’ Twitterspheres, is authored by Rosa Borge, leader of the CNSC group–Trànsic Centre, and Joan Balcells and Albert Padró-Solanet, members of the GADE group – DIGIT Centre, all from the UOC. (Open Access)
The articles tries to answer the question: The internal crisis of the political parties affect its cohesion in the social network? The investigation is based on the study of follower networks (following-follower) and information dissemination (retweets) formed by a sample of more than 4,000 accounts related to the main Spanish political parties (PP, PSOE, Podemos, Cs and VOX) on the social network X (Twitter). The sample encompasses different layers and strata of the various parties, from the ruling elites to supporters and grassroots activists between 2021 and 2023. The period of analysis coincides with various autonomous elections (Madrid, Castile and León, and Andalusia) and with the collapse of Ciutadans (Cs) as a political party. The sample design revealed differences in the composition of the partisan Twitter spheres, with the older parties (PP and PSOE) having a greater presence of officials, especially at the intermediate level, while the newer parties (such as Podemos and Vox) have a greater presence of supporters.
The findings of the article show how Cs, after a series of poor election results, is the party with the greatest difficulties in maintaining its internal cohesion on social media. The Cs party sphere is experiencing a loss of followers among its bases; some party members have stopped following each other and they have got closer to PP and VOX, and the network is losing retweet activity and efficiency in transmitting information.
For a broader commentary on the article, check out the the Law Studies and Political Science blog.