Influencers and Multipliers reinforce political Polarization

Future Research Directions

Global and topic-wise cluster membership score for influencers (left) and multip
Global and topic-wise cluster membership score for influencers (left) and multipliers (right). A membership score of -1 means that the user belongs to the left-leaning cluster (blue color), +1 to the right-leaning cluster (yellow color). Blank lines in the matrix mean that the user did not participate in any retweet network associated to the given topic. We observe that multipliers are more active and aligned across topics than influencers.  

The authors highlight the importance of considering the role of social media in shaping public opinion and the need for further research into the mechanisms driving polarization. The study has limitations that call for further research, such as the need to shed light on the discursive reasons of issue alignment, which the authors plan on investigating through the lens of conflicting narratives. Further research is needed to explore the alignment of regular users and to determine if similar patterns of polarization exist on other social media platforms. Preliminary findings suggest that consistent polarization and issue alignment may hold for the majority of users, and that influential hyper-active users on other platforms, such as Facebook, may have similar effects as multipliers on Twitter.