@article{THESIS,
      recid = {2882},
      author = {Liang, Chen},
      title = {The Twitter Network of Think Tank Experts in D.C.},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2021-06-12},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {The influence of a political idea rarely relies only on a  few scholars and politicians. Instead, it emerges, evolves,  and transforms into feasible policies when policy experts  of various backgrounds and reputations cooperate and  communicate through organizations and their personal  networks. Previous research on the roles of policy experts  in the policy making process, however, focus primarily on  celebrities whose personal connections with other political  actors are more publicly visible and politically  influential. Two narratives are thus missing: First, what  are the roles of the majority of lesser-known experts?  Second, how much are experts’ cooperation and communication  shaped by organizations such as think tanks? To provide a  more complete picture, I construct a Twitter follow graph  which covers 609 experts with valid Twitter accounts, which  is about 70% of all listed experts on the websites of the  Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute,  the Center for American Progress, and the Heritage  Foundation. Then, I analyze the structure of this Twitter  follow graph and explore the implication and limits of  Twitter-based connections. With a DeepWalk Algorithm, I  argue that the Twitter connections among experts are highly  reciprocal and organizationally based. Finally, with  edge-based regressions, I show that the organizational  based connection between experts is significant even when  the similarity of experts’ policy interest is controlled.  That is, social media usage seems ineffective in exposing  experts to opinions from those beyond the reach defined by  their offline constraints. In all, I construct a framework  to study the expert network through Twitter data and  provide a complementary narrative to the existing  qualitative discussions on how opinions and information may  circulate among policy expert networks.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/2882},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.2882},
}