Origins of the #primaveravalenciana mobilizations. An analysis of the most influential social actors on Twitter

Abstract

Twitter publics have become consolidated research objects. The main aim of this article is to make a contribution to this research current by analysing the social conditions that gave shape to the hashtag #primaveravalenciana. In order to do this, this study shall follow an analysis of the early tweets giving shape to this phenomenon. This approach shall stablish a participant's typology, identifying the most influent actors and pursuying a content analysis of relevant micro-messages which pushed forward the hashtag's viral expansion in the next few days. Against theories which tend to minimise the social distinction of digital actors, data analysis shows that the hashtag's origins were in a homogeneous group of micro-bloggers, coming from well-defined professional strata, who has the necessary skills and institutional connections to encourage and expand the #primaveravalenciana phenomenon.