As part of the research Migration on Twitter (X): Communication Relations in the Hybrid Media Sphere, a database was created covering Slovenian Twitter posts on the topic of the migrant “crisis” posted between September and December 2015. The dataset includes 35,543 posts created by 3,103 users. The data were obtained on 25 April 2021 through the Twitter Academic API based on a set of hashtags and keywords related to migration, refugees, border control, and security.
The main purpose of the research was to gain insight into the structure of the Twitter discussion from the perspective of the hybrid media system model. This model enables an examination of how digitalization, the rise of Web 2.0, and social media platforms intertwine with traditional media structures and shape contemporary communication relations. The model was supplemented with agenda-setting theory and network theory. The analysis also incorporates a critical perspective on media studies, enabling the simultaneous examination of user activities and the structural affordances of the platform (e.g., brevity of posts, the possibility of retweeting, message virality, and user anonymity). Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative methods (social network analysis) and qualitative methods (critical discourse analysis).
The research addressed three thematic areas. The first focused on identifying central users in the discussion. The second examined which posts and hyperlinks received the highest numbers of retweets across the migration-related discussion. We further analyzed the discourses reproduced in these posts, their authorship, and whether they contained hyperlinks to mass media content and other potential sources of information. In the third section, we examined how the hybridity of the media sphere is reflected in the retweet network. We analyzed which communities make up the network, who the most influential users are, which sources of information are most frequently circulated via hyperlinks, and which migration discourses are most viral.
The data used to address all three thematic areas are not publicly available. They were obtained exclusively for the purposes of this specific research, under the assurance that they would not be used for commercial purposes, political campaigns, profiling, or other forms of secondary use. Public release of the complete dataset would allow for uses that are not aligned with the conditions under which the data were originally obtained.
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