Methodological possibility for representing sociotechnical networks associated with political debate

Abstract

What is the importance of a methodology for analyzing sociotechnical networks? To answer this question, the research focuses on the Twitter platform and develops a methodology for representing the sociotechnical network associated with the political debate in the period leading up to the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil. The research carried out in the Twitter database reveals millions of networks that form an infinite number of collectives that communicate instantly to form a space for digital and global communication. These are phenomena that break with the accumulated knowledge about the formation of collectives, identification of leaders and enunciation of narratives in the digital public space. This articulation between computer science and social science formed a far-right sociotechnical network that, through the dissemination of fake news, acts globally, misinforms and produces the fragmentation of the social fabric. This article provides a methodology for analyzing sociotechnical networks in the political debate that preceded the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil on the Twitter platform. The methodological procedures developed extract data to represent the narratives that are available, which allows for their analysis and derivations on politics, to then represent the sociotechnical networks and identify the actors and power relations that manifest themselves in the networks. With this methodology, it is possible to identify social groups and their organization in any field, which may explain the 40 billion dollars that were paid by Elon Musk to dominate the communication system in the global digital space.