Policy Agenda Setting and Twitter - Three Cases from Canada

Abstract

Social media sites are arenas for online collaboration, political controversy or, at times, mob justice. These sites are also arenas for discussion about policy problems. Dramatic events, amplified by Twitter, create an opportunity for citizens to support solutions to social problems or to hold politicians to account for decisions made or not made. While media portrays such events as transformative and heroic, most policy decisions have a historical pedigree that is invisible to the public. By focussing on three cases of political discussion on Twitter (Idle No More, Copyright, and Cyberbullying), this dissertation measures the extent that policy theory explains the role of online networks on the policy process using a social network analysis of Twitter users in communication with each other during notable policy events. Areas of interest include the national or regional character of the discussion, the role of actors with continued interest in the topic, changes to network demographics from issue to issue, the influence of organizations, the formation of strongly connected components in the network structure and the differences in structure between dramatic events and government announcements. In terms of the Twitter networks, policy theory does a poor job of explaining how Twitter networks form, although the Idle No More and copyright networks did reflect national interest and the importance of the organizational model (including organizations, stable actors and professional groups) on the networks. The cyberbullying networks were more international and less stable in terms of actor participation than the other groups. The networks were found to be less influential on policy than previous legislations and global agreements. The conclusion proposes the use of stakeholder analysis techniques to help manage public agendas for government, including an awareness of “thin” engagement approaches where the stability of networks cannot be assumed for policy issues.