TY - JOUR AU - D'heer, Evelien AU - Vandersmissen, Baptist AU - De Neve, Wesley AU - Verdegem, Pieter AU - Van de Walle, Rik PY - 2017/01/16 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - What are we missing? An empirical exploration in the structural biases of hashtag-based sampling on Twitter JF - First Monday JA - FM VL - 22 IS - 2 SE - DO - 10.5210/fm.v22i2.6353 UR - https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6353 SP - AB - <p>The hashtag is a recognized and often used method to collect Twitter messages. However, it has its limits with respect to the inclusion of follow-messages, or @replies, that do not contain a hashtag. This paper explored to what extent the inclusion of non-hashtagged responses affected the study of interactions between Twitter users. We drew from the Twitter debate on the 2014 Belgian elections, collected under the #vk2014 hashtag. Our dataset included non-hashtagged responses to assess (1) how they differ from hashtagged responses; and, (2) how this affects the conversation network. The findings showed that (1) hashtagged responses were more likely to include other interactive elements (<em>e.g.</em>, hyperlinks); and, (2) the inclusion of non-hashtagged responses generated larger and more reciprocal networks. However, central users further strengthened their position in the network.</p> ER -