Analyzing political communication with digital trace data : the role of twitter messages in social science research Intro Preface Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction: How to Use Twitter in the Social Sciences 1.1 Digital Trace Data as Information Source for PoliticalPhenomena 1.2 A Map of the Territory 1.3 Research Goals 1.4 Structure of the Book References 2 Twitter Usage and Research 2.1 Why Twitter 2.2 What is Twitter and How is it Used 2.2.1 What is Twitter 2.2.2 Usage Patterns 2.3 Political Uses of Twitter: Politicians Activists Citizens and the Media 2.4 Rise to Prominence References 3 Twitter in the Analysis of Social Phenomena: An Interpretative Framework 3.1 Analyzing Social Phenomena with Digital Trace Data 3.2 What Are Digital Trace Data 3.3 Computational Social Science Digital Methods and Big Data: What Is Missing 3.3.1 Computational Social Science 3.3.2 Digital Methods 3.3.3 Big Data 3.3.4 Why We Need Theory 3.4 Twitter: Macro Phenomena Micro Behavior and Macro Patterns 3.4.1 Approaches to the Analysis of Digital Trace Data 3.4.2 Macro Phenomena Micro Behavior and Macro Patterns 3.4.3 Metrics for the Analysis of Social Phenomena Based on Twitter Data 3.4.4 Different Services Different Uses Different Data Generating Processes 3.4.5 Politics Through the Lens of Digital Trace Data 3.5 A Mechanism Explaining the Publication of Tweets 3.5.1 Social Context 3.5.2 State of the Twittersphere 3.5.3 External Stimuli 3.5.4 A Persons Propensity to Tweet 3.5.5 What Does This Mechanism Enable Us to Do 3.6 A Framework for the Analysis of Social Phenomena with Twitter Data References 4 Twitter as Political Communication Space: Publics Prominent Users and Politicians 4.1 The Political Communication Space 4.2 Data Collection and Preparation 4.3 Publics 4.3.1 Publics: Message Centric Analysis. This book offers a framework for the analysis of political communication in election campaigns based on digital trace data that documents political behavior interests and opinions. The author investigates the data generating processes leading users to interact with digital services in politically relevant contexts. These interactions produce digital traces which in turn can be analyzed to draw inferences on political events or the phenomena that give rise to them. Various factors mediate the image of political reality emerging from digital trace data such as the users of digital services political interests attitudes or attention to politics. In order to arrive at valid inferences about the political reality on the basis of digital trace data these mediating factors have to be accounted for. The author presents this interpretative framework in a detailed analysis of Twitter messages referring to politics in the context of the 2009 federal elections in Germany. This book will appeal to scholars interested in the field of political communication as well as practitioners active in the political arena.