A first step towards understanding Saudi political activities on Twitter

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the underlying social structure of Saudi citizens' interaction and discussion of political topics over the Twitter sphere.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs social network analysis (SNA) measurements such as centrality, eigenvector and graph density on tweets produced in June 2012 by the Saudi community.

Findings

The result of SNA reveals relevant differences in the patterns of interconnection among different political topics. It also provides insights into sociological characteristics of modern political issues in Saudi Arabia.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this study resides in the lack of large data set for robust analysis.

Originality/value

This is the first study aiming to understand social network dynamics of Twitter targeting the Saudi community.

Citation

Al‐Khalifa, H.S. (2012), "A first step towards understanding Saudi political activities on Twitter", International Journal of Web Information Systems, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 390-400. https://doi.org/10.1108/17440081211282883