Exploring the Dimensions of Affinity Space, Public Sphere, and Opinion Leadership through Educational Twitter

Exploring the Dimensions of Affinity Space, Public Sphere, and Opinion Leadership through Educational Twitter
Abstract
This study explores the dynamics of affinity space, public sphere, and opinion leadership in the context of education-related conversation on Twitter. Twitter tweet and user data was collected between the months of August 2020 and March 2021 by querying five hashtags related to education. A content analysis of tweets was conducted to define the prevalence of affinity space or public sphere on Twitter. Topic modeling was done to identify possible or latent topics discussed each month. A social network analysis of users was run to identify opinion leaders according to in-degree centrality, followed by a user role content analysis to identify the offline social status of leaders. The preliminary results of this study provide potential contributions to the fields of both education and communication.
Introduction 
The start of the pandemic in March 2020 has significantly impacted thousands of educational institutions across the United States that transitioned to offering completely remote online courses and programs. Anecdotally, it has not been easy for students and educators to transition to an all-digital setting. While the development of communication technologies and online social networking sites has allowed for the expansion of online learning opportunities, the radical shift to online education has also yielded new challenges. Both opportunities and challenges can cause educators to turn to social media for sharing and seeking solutions. In this study, we seek to characterize the space that educators have created for these discussions online. In doing so, we hope to deepen our understanding of interest-based conversations and their ramifications for wider political debates. Using the theoretical framework of affinity spaces, from the field of education, and the public sphere, we aim to quantitatively assess the extent to which political and interest-based conversations are integrated with one another.
As discussed by McGee, affinity spaces are "the kinds of learning communities to be found on interest-based websites, which he presents as a model for learning that seriously challenges current school practices" (Nygard & Skaftun, 2017). This theoretical model differs from the learning environment of traditional face-to-face classes for various reasons such as the medium of communication, modes of learning, and even the stakeholders present, among others. Thus, we begin with the theoretical frameworks of affinity space and public sphere to investigate the topical arrangement of these conversations, making a connection between the two theories and approaching the broader theoretical question of whether political and non-political discussions can be fully separated, particularly on the public forum known as Twitter. Finally, we consider leaders' position in the conversations of educators on Twitter, investigating user characteristics associated with typical leadership in a given topic area based on affinity space and public sphere literature.
Theoretical Overview and Review of the Literature
Educators on Twitter
The literature on Twitter use in education describes various educational appli...