Literally Looking at Links - Mapping Communication and Content on Twitter

Rehm M., Daly A. J., del Fresno M., Bjorklund P.

7th European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL), ELECTR NETWORK, 20 - 23 September 2021, pp.579-589 identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/978-3-030-99885-1_48
  • Country: ELECTR NETWORK
  • Page Numbers: pp.579-589
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Social media offers teachers and other educational professionals the opportunity to engage into discussions about (educational) leadership and acquire social capital. In this context, social media platforms, such as Twitter, are increasingly utilized to share resources and initiate relevant discussions about (educational) policy. Yet, while "tweeting" has been identified as a central new information literacy practice, more research is required to map and better understand the underlying communication patterns within these spaces. The present study focuses on a selection of 15 US-based hashtags and employs a mixed-methods approach, using social network analyses, latent semantic analysis and web-scraping techniques. Our results suggest a large network structure in which different types of resources are being shared, ranging from personal blogs to commercial vendors.