Title: Community characteristics of Twitter followers in EU-countries governmental accounts

Authors: Konstantinos Antoniadis; Kostas Zafiropoulos; Vasiliki Vrana

Addresses: Department of International and European Studies, Governance and ICT Laboratory, University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of International and European Studies, Governance and ICT Laboratory, University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Business Administration, Technological Education Institute of Central Macedonia, Terma Magnisias, 62124, Serres, Greece

Abstract: The paper explores the mentions/replies networks of 56 ministries Twitter accounts in 17 EU countries to find out whether followers of governmental accounts form communities. By recording clustering coefficient, degree-skewness, average shortest path and assortativity, this research explores whether the properties of small-worlds, scale-free networks and homophily are present. These indices are then associated with Twitter performance of the accounts in order to distinguish which accounts present community properties to a higher degree. The m/r networks generally are not small-worlds. While the average shortest paths are small, skewness is moderate and clustering coefficients are zero. Assortativity is negative; less active followers mention/reply to more active followers, who serve as authorities in this context. Accounts of high Twitter performance also have higher skewness. However in general, the specific Twitter accounts almost uniformly are not associated with the formation of communities of followers, failing in this way to meet a desirable property of e-government adoption, consultation and discussion.

Keywords: Twitter followers; European Union; government Twitter accounts; mentions-replies networks; small worlds; EU countries; ministries; assortativity; clustering coefficient; skewness; average shortest path; performance; ministry Twitter accounts; scale-free networks; homophily; e-government; electronic government; social media; virtual communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2016.081383

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2016 Vol.8 No.3, pp.283 - 302

Accepted: 27 Jul 2016
Published online: 06 Jan 2017 *

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