Dva primera upotrebe teorije grafova u društvenim naukama: Analiza interakcija na Tviteru tokom izbora 2016. u Srbiji i analiza GivingBalkans podataka o filantropiji na Zapadnom Balkanu
Two Examples of the Use of Graph Theory in Social Sciences: Analysis of Interactions on Twitter during the 2016 Elections in Serbia and Analysis of the GivingBalkans Data on Philanthropy in the Western Balkans

Author(s): Marko Galjak
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Media studies, Electoral systems, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: social network analysis; Twitter; philanthropy; politics; graph
Summary/Abstract: Graph theory and social network analysis are increasingly being used in various disciplines for data analysis and data visualization. Moving the focus from entities to the connections they form, reveals a completely new dimension for research, a dimension which is often overlooked. Here I present two examples of applying the graph theory and social network analysis. In the first example I analyze the interactions of Serbian politicians on Twitter during parliamentary elections of 2016. Twitter was chosen as an online social network which takes a special place in the public discourse, but also for its transparency. Social network analysis can offer new insights which we could never obtain by performing content analysis, or looking into conventional metrics such as number of flowers or number of retweets. The insights gained by this analysis can be used by the political actors, to see the failings of their Twitter presence and potentials to improve it, but can also be useful to the wider public and researchers. The second example is related to data on philanthropy. Catalyst Balkans, a regional nonprofit from Belgrade collects data on donations from the Western Balkans, who gives to whom, in what way and for what purpose. This kind of data is then abstracted as graphs and this enables us to have a much clearer picture of the philanthropy landscape, then the conventional analysis of philanthropy.

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