Talk:
“The ‘new elites’ of X: Identifying the Most Influential Accounts Engaged in Hamas/Israel Discourse”
by
Mert Bayar
Post-doctoral Scholar
Center for an Informed Public
University of Washington
mbayar@uw.edu
Date and Room Info:
Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 12:30 p.m.
A-130
Abstract:
Since the first news of the attack on Israel by Hamas, we have seen anecdotal reports from users of X (formerly Twitter) that the platform has become less useful for surfacing verified news and, more generally, disorienting. Through a novel data collection process, we identify highly influential accounts in the Hamas/Israel discourse on X that comprise the most dominant English-language news sources on Twitter for the event. In this study, we compare these accounts to traditional news sources and find on average they have far fewer subscribers while achieving far greater views, are of more recent popularity, and show a greater posting frequency. Most of the accounts also use videos and images frequently, framed in emotional ways. Strikingly, many of these accounts have received prior promotion from X owner Elon Musk, either through direct recommendation or through Musk’s account replying to their content, which may explain some of their dominance of “news Twitter.” With seven accounts racking up a cumulative 1.6 billion tweet views over three days of posts, our analysis points to a new crisis Twitter that is faster, more disorienting, and potentially more shaped by Musk himself. We identify these seven accounts as “the new elites,” as they are responsible for a significant portion of the content seen in the Twitter discussion around the conflict. Our findings emphasize the shift in digital influence, showcasing the importance of these new elites in shaping conflict narratives on social media platforms. We replicated our findings using a different data collection method on X to analyze the news environment following former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt. The results suggest that new elite accounts are increasingly dominant on social media platforms, surpassing traditional news outlets in various engagement metrics during different crisis events
Short Biography
Mert Bayar is a political scientist who earned his PhD from Binghamton University. He works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington. His research focuses on public opinion and democracy, with a particular emphasis on conspiracy theories and their role in shifting attitudes toward democracy and autocracy. Dr. Bayar’s work combines comparative political behavior with the study of social media and online information spaces, especially in relation to election integrity claims, as part of the Center for an Informed Public’s rapid-response research in the elections space.