The Influence of Interdependence in Networked Publics Spheres: How Community-Level Interactions Affect the Evolution of Topics in Online Discourse

Aimei Yang, Ian Myoungsu Choi, Andrés Abeliuk, Adam J. Saffer

Abstract: Investigations of networked public spheres often examine the structures of online platforms by studying users’ interactions. These works suggest that users’ interactions can lead to cyberbalkanization when interlocutors form homophilous communities that typically have few connections to others with opposing ideologies. Yet, rather than assuming communities are isolated, this study examines community-level interactions to reveal how communities in online discourses are more interdependent than previously theorized. Specifically, we examine how such interactions influence the evolution of topics overtime in source and target communities. Our analysis found that (a) the size of a source community (the community that initiates interactions) and a target community (the community that receives interactions), (b) the stability of the source community, and (c) the volume of mentions from a source community to a target community predicts the level of influence one community has on another’s discussion topics. We argue this has significant theoretical and practical implications.