Conclusion: Twitter and the Analysis of Social Phenomena

Abstract

This study contributes to the ongoing debate on how to use digital trace data in the social sciences. It does so by presenting a preliminary framework for the use of Twitter data in the analysis of political phenomena and by examining the characteristics as well as the dynamics of Twitter as a political communication space during the campaign for the German federal election in 2009. The analyses presented in this book corroborate the interpretative framework provided in Chap. 3 Twitter offered information on political reality during the course of the campaign, but this information was filtered by individual level decisions, interests, and intentions. Twitter, therefore, presents not a true but instead a mediated image of reality. Firstly, while Twitter data enabled us to identify and analyze users’ points of interest, it did not allow us to construct an objective timeline of events during the campaign. Secondly, Twitter data did not permit us to make valid inferences on public opinion at large or correctly assess the electoral chances of political parties. If we want to unlock Twitter’s potential as a sensor for political events, we first have to understand the mediating processes that dominate the political communication space on Twitter. This chapter ties together the results presented in the previous chapters and gives an outlook for future research.