Everyday Politics: Engaging Chicago Politicians on Twitter

This paper investigates the use of Twitter, a microblogging and social network service, by local Chicago politicians. Twitter provides a public communication medium in which constituents and their representatives can have public conversations that others can witness and record. We collected over 1800 tweets posted by or mentioning Chicago Aldermen or Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the summer of 2011. Using qualitative and social network methods to examine conversations between Chicagoans and representatives in city government, we present data about the content and manner of the tweets as well as the networks formed through social media participation. Through an examination of the users’ “mentioning” behaviors, our analysis indicates that Chicago’s Aldermen and Mayor use Twitter for social conversations more often than political ones and that just two of Chicago’s aldermen dominate the social media conversation. Examining their social media conversations enables us to explore how the city’s politicians frame their issues, position themselves as community leaders, and engage with their constituents.

Going ‘Bald on Record’: Relationships Among Public Officials’ Social Media Behavior and Language Use

Public officials use polarizing language – supporting language for one’s self versus pejorative language for others – as a means of establishing clear boundaries on certain issues. This has been explored to some degree in terms of how such language is conveyed in the traditional media, but minimal research has been done with regard to the role of polarizing language within social media. This paper explores how elected U.S. officials use potentially polarizing language (“civility,” “politeness,” and related forms) to draw in supporters. We analyze the content and behavior of more than 30,000 tweets from the available Twitter accounts of each elected member of Congress, particularly in terms of the nature (size and party composition) of Twitter networks for officials who use polarizing language. Network analysis via Network Workbench and NodeXL confirms that officials’ use Twitter for much more than broadcasting, officials’ interaction networks differ from their follower/friends networks, and polarizing language is not correlated with peripheral locations in a network. These indicate that Twitter plays a more nuanced role in political communication than previously expected.

Public officials use polarizing language – supporting language for one’s self versus pejorative language for others – as a means of establishing clear boundaries on certain issues. This has been explored to some degree in terms of how such language is conveyed in the traditional media, but minimal research has been done with regard to the role of polarizing language within social media. This paper explores how elected U.S. officials use potentially polarizing language (“civility,” “politeness,” and related forms) to draw in supporters. We analyze the content and behavior of more than 30,000 tweets from the available Twitter accounts of each elected member of Congress, particularly in terms of the nature (size and party composition) of Twitter networks for officials who use polarizing language. Network analysis via Network Workbench and NodeXL confirms that officials’ use Twitter for much more than broadcasting, officials’ interaction networks differ from their follower/friends networks, and polarizing language cannot be correlated with peripheral locations in a network. These indicate that Twitter plays a more nuanced role in political communication than previously expected.

#danahjsb network

Image size depends on the user’s number of followers. Edge color depends on the kind of edge – yellow indicates a following relationship, blue a reply/mention relationship. Compare our graph to Marc Smith’s graph of the #win09 hashtag users:

#win09 network

You’ll notice a couple of things. First, Marc is better with NodeXL than I am, and his graph is just easier to read. Then, dig a little deeper and notice that the network of users who used the #danahjsb hashtag is more densely connected. The #win09 network is brokered by the guy in the middle, and the #danahjsb network has no obvious brokers. More to come on my thoughts about the symposium talk and panel, stay tuned.

* only users whose tweets are public are included in these network diagrams

More Info:

What the hashtag?! – view the tweets

Coming Soon – watch the symposium talk and panel

In my data, members of the bridge building project indicate their perspective taking abilities and social thinking when they make comments such as

I would think that if you guys got involved with maybe [a community college], they have a concrete technology program up there. You could get a lot of free help with a lot of experiments up there, and they’re more than willing to work with concrete and do labs and anything you guys don’t like doing.

By saying, “I would think…,” the interviewee indicates awareness that someone else might think something else. The speaker implies that there is more than one idea about what the listener (“you guys”) might want to do. In other interviews, my participants express concern about the goals other members of the project have when they make statements such as, “Well, I know he’s more concerned about cost.” Here, the speaker explicitly tells us that he understand another person’s concerns and knows their relative importance.

Why does it matter that my participants demonstrate perspective taking and use social language? Project teams that include people who respect and understand perspectives that differ from their own are more successful. By “more successful” I mean those teams are more likely to accomplish their goals, have positive affect and impressions of their work, and maybe even to work together again. The social aspects of the relational engagement that perspective taking produces eases tension and builds commitment among project team members, making it easier for project teams to work together smoothly. It may be that positive relational engagement – interactions among team members characterized by perspective taking and social thinking – is more important than project structure or timing. When we talk about projects, especially engineering projects, we often focus on how they should be managed at the project level; when should what get done, who should do it, to whom should that guy report. It may make more sense for us to focus on managing interpersonal relationships on the project team, developing trust and concern for one another. The way we relate to our project teammates is likely to have a huge impact on our ability to work together successfully.

Background Info:
Before you even begin to design your poster, make sure you know

• The dimensions your poster is allowed to be
• How wide the poster printer’s paper is
• What file format the poster printer likes best
• Whether you will be allowed to install fonts on the computer from which you send your poster to the printer

Standard posters for conferences are often 36″ x 48″ or something close to it. Some poster sessions require portrait orientation, some landscape. Most poster printers on my campus (and at FedEx Kinkos) print on paper 42″ wide. Poster printing is usually charged by linear foot. Most poster print shops use Windows PCs and Windows-based software to manage poster print jobs. Using a file format such as PDF with embedded fonts should ensure that your poster looks the same on a Mac and on Windows.

Now, you’re ready to design your poster. Many people use PowerPoint. I am not one of those people. If you’d like help designing and printing a large poster in PowerPoint, go here instead. I use Inkscape, an open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape produces .SVG files and allows you to save in a variety of formats including .EPS, .PDF, and .AI. Inkscape is available for Mac, PC, and Linux. I’m a Mac user, so I use the Mac version.

The instructions below assume you have already finalized your design. I recommend designing a poster with edges no longer than 42″ because that’s the size of the poster printer’s paper. By designing a poster that’s 36″ x 42″ instead of 36″ x 48″, you’ll save yourself a linear foot of printing cost and the hassle of trimming the extra paper off your poster. If you use another tool such as PowerPoint or Illustrator to design your poster, you can still use the instructions but start at #12.

I perfected these instructions using the poster printers, Macs, and PCs, available at the Tech Deck and Angell Hall computing sites at the University of Michigan. Both poster printing shops use HP printers. Both places also offer user support, and all the staff I worked with rocked! See special notes below about each of these poster printing sites.

The Instructions:

1. Open your SVG file in Inkscape
2. Go to File -> Save As...
3. Choose EPS from the drop down at the bottom right
4. Choose a location, probably a jump drive, to save your poster as a EPS
5. Take your jump drive to a computer at the poster print shop that has Illustrator (I’d stick with a Mac at this point if you can)
6. Open Illustrator
7. Choose New Print Document and set the dimensions to the size of your poster
8. Choose File -> Place and select your EPS file
9. Quadruple check all the parts of your poster to make sure it looks right (See Note 1 for tips perfecting your poster in Illustrator)
10. When it’s perfect, save your poster as PDF. DO NOT print to PDF. SAVE AS PDF.
11. Take your PDF on your jump drive over to a PC that can print to the poster printer
12. Open the PDF
13. Quadruple check your poster in Acrobat on the PC
14. Send your poster to the poster printer (See Note 2 for details about appropriate settings in the print dialog box)
15. Cross your fingers, and hope for the best
16. Enjoy your perfect poster!

Note 1: Illustrator and File Formats
Where ever you print your poster probably uses Illustrator. Illustrator will be happy to make a nice PDF of your poster, and you may be able to go straight from placing your EPS file to saving as a PDF. If you use transparent fonts or have placed images from PowerPoint, you will have to make some adjustments. Changing the fonts should be easy enough – you can simply select the text and change its opacity. If you’ve placed an image from PowerPoint, and it looks wrong, go to PowerPoint, save as a PNG, and place the PNG using File -> Place in Illustrator.

Note 2: Setting Properties in the Print Dialog
You’re using Windows because the print dialog box will let you adjust the settings appropriately. The Mac print dialog box will probably not work. Remember, these instructions are for HP poster printers (e.g. HP DesignJet 5500) So, in the print dialog box

• Select the poster printer from the drop down list of available printers.
• Click on the Properties button.
• In the Properties window, select the “Advanced” tab.
• Expand the Paper/Output selection and select “PostScript Custom Page Size” from the Paper Size: drop down menu.
• In the PostScipt Custom Page Size Definition window enter your document’s height and width.
• If the longest edge of your poster is the width of the printer (in my case 42″) or shorter, from the Paper Feed Direction: drop down menu select “Long Edge First.”
• In the print window, verify that your document size is correct.
• Click the Print button to send your document to the printer.

Tech Deck Notes:
The Tech Deck uses some software on a PC directly attached to the printer. You can print directly from Illustrator on the Mac to the poster printer, and then you’ll do your last quadruple checking over on the PC attached to the printer. Tech Deck staff will help you through all of this. You will pay for your poster at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library’s Circulation desk.

Angell Hall Notes:
The Sites personnel may or may not be able to help you. The instructions above will work if you design your poster in Inkscape on a Mac, use a Sites Mac to make a PDF, and then use a Sites PC to print to the poster printer. After you click “OK” to print your poster, you must visit http://mprint.umich.edu/poster and release your job to the printer. Your student account will be billed for the cost of printing your poster.