Animal rights (by Lina Niehaus)
As a start, we had a look at the animal cruelty sub-topic. For this, we first decided to review the development of this trend in the past five years via Google Trend analysis:
Looking at the graph, it can be said that the animal welfare trend had its peak in January 2017. Overall, this topic has experienced a lot of extreme ups and downs. However, currently it is coming back and rising steadily. Since some vegans identify themselves as animal activists, this trend is heavily related to our topic and plays a vital role in finding out whether this movement might be the main motivator for people to have a vegan lifestyle.
To gather valuable information, we collected data on Instagram via Netlytic for three days. Instagram is a highly visual driven platform, which is why we thought this platform is more suitable for this subtopic than Twitter. Users still have the opportunity of using hashtags, however, we think that looking at the choices of pictures people use in this context are interesting to look at as well.
All in all, the total messages retrieved were 1043, whereby 592 of them were unique posters. Looking at the 210 geotagged posts (20%), most of them were uploaded in America (Florida), Germany, Perú, Brasil, China, India, Vietnam and Australia (Sydney). With a frequency of 870, #animalcruelty was by far the most used hashtag during the data collection period (see figure 1 and 2).
As already explained before, out-degree explains the frequency of users posting content and hence refers to their activity. The bigger the nodes, the more active and influential they are. According to Netlytic, the top poster on Instagram regarding animal cruelty is @webofjoy (37.6%), followed by @animalsabove (16.6%) and @vegan_do2others (10.2%, see figure 3). When looking at the accounts, it becomes clear that @webofjoy_ rather is an account about same-sex love and making cannabis legal, hence this account is not really relevant to us. Yet, @animalsabove and @vegan_do2others are accounts used to spread the word about veganism, whereby chiefly @animalsabove can refer to many followers. Especially the equality of animal lives to human lives is being empathized by using these accounts as ‘the voice of animals’ (see figure 4). This is something we also already found out through the preliminary research: ethical vegans have a strict mindset, that does not allow them to cause harm to any animals. However, with this online data research, we did not find out whether they are living by this lifestyle longer than those vegans, who have a vegan lifestyle because of the health benefits.
Figure 3: Top ten posters
However, when analyzing the given data with the help of Gephi, there seems to be an inconsistency. Looking at the network created, the Instagram users sending out the most messages are @get_repost, @yourkarmasabitch, @realfranalvarez and @jennifersheil (see Figure 5). As it turns out, @get_repost is just an account that helps users repost content uploaded by others and not an actual account, which is why this can be ignored. Yet, it shows that many social media users prefer this platform to spread their message. The account @yourkarmasabitchcannott be found anymore, which means it has either been blocked by Instagram or completely deleted. However, the account @realfranalvarez turns out to belong to a vegan Youtuber with 1664 followers. He usually uses this platform to advertise his Youtube channel and his App Petmosphere, which aims to end pet homelessness. Apart from that, he posts vegan recipes or vegan groceries that are new to the market. However, this also underlines our findings from the literature review: just because people are vegans does not mean they are automatically animal activists. On the other hand, @Jennifersheil is an account where the two variables apply: the owner is vegan due to her animal activism. She uses the platform to spread the word about animal cruelty, yet, she does not have as many followers as @realfranalvarez (881 followers).
Looking at the network created, there seems to be another trend within in this community (see Figure 6). When looking at the account @no_meat_may, it turns out there is a movement, which encourages individuals to abstain from meat for the whole May. The message: “Plant-based farming is key to feeding the future”. Thus, this trend is first trying to turn people into vegetarians, hoping that they will convert into vegans once they reflect on their eating behavior and lifestyle. However, all in all it can be said that there is a lot of engagement and communication around this topic, both initiated by accounts with few and many followers. In this case, the account’s influence is determined by its activity rather than the number of followers.
Figure 5: Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 691
Number of edges: 1012
Figure 6: Outdegree in Gephi, no_meat_may
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 691
Number of edges: 1012
Apart from the outdegree we also had a look at the indegree, so the extent to which individuals get mentioned in posts. The bigger the nodes, the more prominent and popular these users are. According to Netlytic, the most mentioned posters are @animalsabove, @a_lallie_ and @a_rdq (see figure 7). Since we already had a look at the outdegree of @animalsabove before, this again underlines the account’s passion, activity, popularity and influence in the animal cruelty community. Furthermore, the account @a_lallie_ can refer to many followers (10.400) and hence a big popularity. Even though the account @a_rdq can not refer to as many followers (171), this user still seems to have a big popularity due to the shocking and abusing pictures posted. However, both accounts are rather animal activists than vegans, who try to spread the word. Hence, from all these accounts @animalsabove remains the most relevant one regarding our topic.
Figure 7: Top 10 posters mentioned in messages
This result also accords with the network created in Gephi (see figure 8). According to this, the most popular accounts with the highest frequency mentioned in posts are get_repost, @animalsabove, @a_rdq, @animals.activist and @supportisraell. As we already know, we can ignore the account @get_repost. However, it shows that this @get_repost App is a frequently used tool to share content and spread awareness about animal cruelty.
The other two new accounts interesting to us are @animals.activist (1890 followers) and @supportisreall (6460 followers), which rather is an account about the war in Israel and has nothing to with our topic. The only reason we can think of why this account is in taken into consideration are the posts about animals getting harmed by Palestinians, but other than that this account is far from veganism and animal rights. Thus, this account will be ignored as well. However, the @animals.activist account is interesting to us and very similar to @animalsabove (see figure 10). It educates about animal rights, showing cruel footage while talking about how a vegan diet can help these animals.
What is interesting is that both @a_lallie_ and @jennifersheil have quite a lot of popularity in this network as well, even though it is not as high as Netlytic presents it. Another account that stands out in both analyses is @paulsherman7 (see figure 9). When looking at his profile, it turns out he is a vegan animal activist trying to convince others of a vegan lifestyle. Like many others, he decides to use very cruel footage that makes the viewer instantly feel uncomfortable.
Figure 8: Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 691
Number of edges: 1012
Figure 9: Indegree in Gephi, @paulsherman7
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 691
Number of edges: 1012
Figure 10: Instagram account @animals.activist
Looking at the results regarding animal cruelty, it can be said that the account animalsabove is one of the biggest influencers trying to spread awareness, both posting and getting mentioned in posts. Accounts such as no_meat_may are initiating a new online trend, encouraging individuals to convert into vegans in order to protect animals. In general, most vegan animal activists use cruel footage to express themselves and convince others of a vegan lifestyle. Furthermore, the App get_repost is a popular and frequently used tool to both spread the word and share content.
Health benefits (by Millicent Ndlovu)
Preliminary research showed us that health can be a motivation for individuals to follow a vegan lifestyle. For these individuals consuming a plant based is attractive for its many health benefits. Using the hashtag #plantbased, Netlytic was used to import data from Twitter and this retrieved 1000 results. The reason for choosing Twitter was because this is a social media platform that is very engaging and promotes discussions. This section will discuss the findings from the Netlytic and Gephi analysis concerning the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle.
Figure 11. Netlytic Analysis: Top ten posters
The pie chart above derived from Netlytic shows the top 10 twitter accounts that tweeted the hashtag #plantbased. Among these is @VisionaryJW who is an active account belonging to a hip-hop artist and his tweets (see below) include encouraging people about eating plant-based food for general good health.
Figure 12. Tweets by @VisionaryJW
Another account on this list that is active and has a big following is @veganshirtsuk which belongs to Friendly Vegan news and tweets about the vegan lifestyle and in particular the advantplant-based plant based diet on health such as helping treat disease. For example, the tweets below :
Figure 13. Tweet by @veganshirtuk
Figure 14. Top ten posters mentioned in a message (Netlytic)
The above graph derived from Netlytic, shows the top 10 users mentioned in messages. Among these are @realgoodketchup an active account that belongs to a plant based ketchup company. @vegsoc is a twitter account with over 100K followers belonging to a Vegetarian Charity organization. It can be said that they are popular and influential in the plant based community and hence being mentioned by the most by people that are interested in a plant based diet and its health benefits.
Gephi network analysis
On Gephi, we analysed the data using the indegree and outdegree concepts. Gephi is a software that is used to perform network visualization and analysis and can reveal patterns and trends in data.
Figure 15. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 430
Number of edges: 413
The indegree network showed which accounts were mentioned the most and these nodes appear bigger. The gephi network above shows that @boshtv and @realgoodketchup were mentioned the most by other twitter accounts that tweeted the hashtag #plantbased. I found out that @boshtv is an active twitter account of two vegan recipe book authors. They tweet about their healthy plant based recipes and the benefits. @realgoodketchup is a plantbased tomato ketchup. Tweets from this account are about health benefits of the plantbased tomato ketchup for example the low sugar content which keeps blood levels low. These accounts belong to people are knowledgeable about plantbased recipes and the benefits. They are therefore mentioned the most because people who also tweet #plantbased appreciate them as having information about which foods to eat in a plant based diet and the health gains they offer. The following are examples of tweets from the 2 accounts:
Figure 16. Tweet by @BOSHTV
Figure 17. Tweet by @realgoodketchup
Figure(s) 18. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 430
Number of edges: 413
The outdegree networks above shows that @rkymtnnaturals sent out the most tweets with the hashtag #plantbased. This account belongs to a Non GMO food company so it is justifiable that they send more tweets so that they can advise people on the benefits of their products. Another account with a bigger node is @drjschumacher who is a doctor that tweets about the importance of a good diet on health, including the dietary advantages of plant based foods such as offering protection against toxins in the body. This can be an indication why @drjschumacher sends out a lot of tweets because as a medical practitioner she is able to identify these health benefits of a plant based diet and also believes in them. Her tweets are, for example:
Figure 19. Tweet by @DrJSchumacher
Another account with a bigger node is @eventsveg, a food event company centred on vegan and vegetarian diets that promotes healthy food events. From the outdegree network it appears that this account is in communication with @drjschumacher (check network below) which makes sense as they are both interested in promoting health benefits of a plant based diet. It is also important to note that @drjschumacher is also connected to @drostfeld and @bittersweet, who are also some of the top ten mentioned users. These accounts have similar goals , for example @drostfeld is a plant based cardiologist who tweets about the health benefits of a plant based diet such as its positive effects on the heart while @bittersweet_ is a vegan food author whose interests lie in writing about the plant based diet and its benefits.
Figure 19. Outdegree network
To conclude, the most mentioned accounts are the most influential among people that tweet about #plantbased. A reason for this may be that these accounts provide a wealth of information about a vegan, plant based diet and the type of health benefits it gives such as providing a defence mechanism against diseases. Moreover those that send out the most tweets to other accounts are professionals such as @drjschumacher and @drostfeld who can identify and also believe in the positive health implications of being vegan. Overall this information shows that some people adopt a vegan lifestyle because of the health benefits offered by its plant based diet such as general good quality of life, being beneficial for the heart, brain and sugar levels.
Environment (by Elmar Sietzema)
Through our literature review and Google Trends, the environment came up as a possible motivation for people to adopt a vegan lifestyle. We chose Twitter as the platform to find more data for this specific subtopic due to its more discussion-oriented nature. The dataset looked for Tweets that used both the word ‘vegan’ and ‘environment’ and retrieved 1000 of the most recent Tweets at the date it was run.
The dataset we used on Netlytic looked for Tweets that used both the word vegan and environment and retrieved 1000 of the most recent Tweets at the date it was run.
The graph below show the top 10 Twitter users that used the word vegan and environment in the same Tweet. I also ran a dataset with the hashtags #vegan and #environment, where five of the same users were in the top 10.
Figure 20. Top 10 posters
Looking at the accounts some of them appear to be bots (@animal_warrior), some without a lot of followers (@VeganismBOT) and sometimes only active for a day (@ENGL102VEGAN). They have all sent relevant Tweets about the environment when it comes to finding motivations to adopt a vegan lifestyle though.
Other accounts appear to be companies (@ecomasterypro, @TheSolidBarCo, @Ozaclean1, and @KEarthProject) or people (@wmw111 and @karen1_mc) who care about making the world a better, greener more sustainable place.
Figure 21. Retweet by @karen1_mc
This Tweet shared by @karen1_mc shows multiple reasons to choose a vegan lifestyle. Not just the environment, but also health benefits and taking a stand against animal cruelty are named as reasons to #GoVegan.
All these accounts are helpful in some way since they all give us some insight into what they think should change, is important or could be a reason to live a vegan lifestyle. On the other hand, most of these accounts have no real influence and we just found them because we looked for the right hashtags.
Figure(s) 22. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 540
Number of edges: 481
Accounts: @basscouture__, @thevegansociety, and @onegreenplanet
An account that stands out is in this indegree network is @basscouture__. This account is not really relevant though because it is an account dedicated to festivals and fashion and happens to sell sustainable biodegradable glitter. Two other accounts that stand out are @thevegansociety and @onegreenplanet. These accounts have a combined follower count of almost 300k and therefore have a massive influence. Both accounts are very concerned with inspiring people to become vegan and its positive effect on the environment. Through the use of Netlytic and Gephi, we have therefore found two influential accounts that are very concerned with the environment and emphasize that a vegan lifestyle is an important contributor to improve it.
Some examples:
Figure 23. Tweets by @TheVeganSociety and @OneGreenPlanet
Figure(s) 23. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 540
Number of edges: 481
Accounts that stand out: @vegan_with_a_t, @collinrenfro
Accounts that stand out in this outdegree network are @vegan_with_a_t and @collinrenfro. When looking into them, we find out that they are both self-proclaimed vegans and Tweet about the vegan lifestyle quite a lot. The other nodes that are quite big such as @yeoldebell in combination with @harriet_argyle and @arrowheadeats in combination with @chefjames923 and @davidfreirich mostly communicated with each other surrounding specific events surrounding vegan food or a vegan product. They are therefore not interesting for our research. Some (re)tweets by @vegan_with_a_t and @collinrenfro:
Figure 24. (Re)Tweets by @vegan_with_a_t and @collinrenfro
Influence of social media (by Rana Basiri)
Next, we researched if social media is convincing individuals to have a vegan diet. We collected data on Twitter and used #vegansofinstagram and #veganism in Netlytic. To visualize the graphs we used the tool Gephi. We decided to use Twitter because it is an online platform for communication, self-promotion and attention. People share news and their knowledge in short messages.
The figure 1 illustrates, the top 10 mentioned in messages. Those are the ones that were mentioned by others who also posted #veganism or #vegansofinstagram. On top is @thehappypear with 36K followers. It is an account of two vegan authors, who have published vegan cookbooks. On Twitter, they share their own recipes. Whereas, @herbivore_club, has 15 K followers and is only active in sharing posts against animal cruelty. Followed by @BFblogrt, who is a fashion and beauty blogger from the UK. On her Twitter account, she informs her 800K followers about cruelty-free products, such as make-up, clothes, cremes and recipes of vegan food. All three Twitter users are different but they have the same vision and want to make people aware of veganism.
Figure 25.: Top ten most frequently used words
Figure 26: Top ten posters
Figure 26 demonstrates, the top ten posters using #vegansofinstagram in their posts. The leaders are the Twitter users @LohasTopStories and @VeggieWanted. Comparing both users it can be seen, that @LohasTopStories have approximately 10K followers whereas @VeggieWanted only 3K followers. However, both manifest a vegan lifestyle on Twitter. Both share mainly vegan food pictures or recipes. Further, @VeggieWanted shares also picture of animal cruelty and the environment. (see below)
Figure 27. Tweets by @LohasTopStories and @VeggieWanted
Gephi network analysis
Figure(s) 28. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 540
Number of edges: 477
For the network analysis, we used the name analysis ‘who mentions whom’. Hashtag: #vegansofinstagram, #veganism
The first graph illustrates Twitter data, which is based on an in-degree centrality, meaning the amount of attention accounts get from other users. It is clearly to see that @drinktg, is the largest connection in the graph.
Tg green tea is a green tea manufacturer, which produces organic and vegan certified tea in the UK. Tg green tea participates in a healthy lifestyle and uses its own popularity on Twitter to influence its users and consumers, to promote its products and to motivate to become healthy.
Figure 29. Tweets by @DrinkTg
One of the most relevant Twitter accounts is here, @artisanFT. It is an account, which makes people aware and connects artisan food producers with people. With 19K twitter followers and over 55K tweets, they have the most influence. Here, they are promoting Tg’s product.
Figure 30. Tweet by @artisanFT
Another important player is @bigbrovegan, he has 8K Twitter followers but over 70K tweets. In his account description, he states that he is a vegan because of animals, the environment and is own health. To spread his beliefs @bigbrovegan shares pictures of vegan meals, inspiring quotes about the planet, animals and the environment.
Figure 31. Tweets by @bigbrovegan
Figure(s) 32. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 540
Number of edges: 477
The second graph illustrates data of an outdegree centrality, here the big circles send the most messages to others. Owning to the graph, it can be said that @realgreektweet and @recHed are the most active users that mentioned others. They are related because both are restaurant’s accounts. To illustrate, both accounts reply to the same accounts such as @pret and @greggsofficial, which are also famous food service accounts in the UK. It is noticeable, that both are not vegan restaurants, but they offer vegans meals. Owning to this, it can be said that veganism is transforming from a mainstream trend to a sustainable way of life.
Figure 33. Tweet by @recHed
Figure 34. Tweet by @realgreektweet
Concluding, the appearance of the network graphs and the number the edges connecting the nodes give insights about our trend, veganism. From this analysis, we gained the insight that social media has an influence of people’s eating behavior. The mentioned Twitter users, who are vegans themselves, are actively sharing their insights and news about veganism. By this, their aim is to make people aware of the benefits of a vegan diet and persuade people to follow their vision and have a vegan lifestyle.
Relation veganism and vegetarianism (Shannon Jordan)
Figure 34. A look at the trend on a macro scale (Google Trends)
This chart shows the increased popularity of the search term ‘vegan’ above ‘vegetarian’ for the past five years (2013-2018).
What is interesting, is that they generally show the same peaks and valleys, indicating that when one of the search terms has a spike or fall in popularity, so does the other. Meaning that the two are searched side-by-side. Although, vegetarian as a search term remains constant, whereas vegan’s popularity has exponentially increased in the past 7 years, as seen in the chart below.
Figure 35. vegetarian vs vegan over the past 14 years (Google Trends)
Gephi network analysis
From twitter analysis on the combination of two hashtags; #vegan and #vegetarian, we found clusters of interaction. These clusters exist out of accounts that are mentioned most.
Figure 36. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 461
Number of edges: 477
When running an analysis on the network data to find statistics of modularity, the program, Gephi, creates a visual representation as above, to show the most frequently tracked data in larger circles (better known as nodes) and the least frequent, in smaller circles.
Knowing this, and knowing that the data set that we are analyzing, is a network of who mentions whom, it can be surmised that the bigger nodes are those accounts that are mentioned the most, and that the nodes grouped around those larger nodes, are those that were the ones to mention the other accounts.
However, when comparing this to a chart showing the top 10 most mentioned accounts, there is an inconsistency.
Figure 37. Top 10 posters
The two biggest nodes, namely vegsoc and girlheartfood are not found in the chart above, hence are not part of the most mentioned accounts.
However, if an out-degree analysis is run on the same data, the following is found:
Figure 38. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 461
Number of edges: 477
Within this representation, the top 10 mentioned accounts can be seen as larger nodes and they connect to other accounts that have interacted with them, by means of mention, or otherwise. Interesting to note, however, is that those inconsistencies are still represented here, but in a much different way to the in-degree representation.
Figure(s) 39. Separate networks within the outdegree network
Here, the circles that were previously the largest, are small, but have one-on-one connections to many other accounts.
Another interesting thing to note, is that some of those top 10 accounts have interactions with each other, creating a seperate network
Figure 40. Separate network within the outdegree network
The conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that these mentioned accounts hold a lot of influence over people who use the hashtags #vegan and #vegetarian. It may mean that these accounts have an influence on the community at large, but this cannot be concluded from this data alone. In order to examine this, we needed to take a look at the accounts and what they post.
When looking at the posts of the top 3 accounts, @lafoodbowl, @friedasproduce and @biokent, two of them can be ruled out as being influencers on the vegan or vegetarian community. @lafoodbowl, because they post about all kinds of food and a lot of it is meat-based, and @biokent, as they post about discoveries and news in the field of biology.
Figure(s) 41. Tweets by the top 3 accounts
When looking at the posts of the top 3 accounts, @lafoodbowl, @friedasproduce and @biokent, two of them can be ruled out as being influencers on the vegan or vegetarian community. @lafoodbowl, because they post about all kinds of food and a lot of it is meat-based, and @biokent, as they post about discoveries and news in the field of biology. The account @friedasproduce posts tweets promoting vegetables and a vegetarian lifestyle, often using the hashtag #plantpower. Whilst looking through their feed, I found many tweets were they had mentioned @lafoodbowl, because they were partnered in hosting a plant-based food event. Although this could mean that they have an influence, the engagement with @lafoodbowl will most likely decrease once the event is finished.
Overall, the terms vegan and vegetarian are both used to refer to a plant-based diet and the message is for society at large to eat less, or rather, no meat. These two communities work together to spread that message, and the vegetarian diet seems to be the first step for those seeking to decrease their impact on this planet.
Community (by Qendresa Rexhepi)
According to google trends, we see a general high public interest in a vegan diet. The neat little graphic below (Figure 42) shows the increase in people searching for the term “veganism” on google. The number 100 denotes the highest interest ever reached, which for this term was hit in July 2017.As the popularity and awareness of the benefits of veganism grow around the world so does the anti-sentiment that builds towards it from local governments and manufactures but also people like us. It is according to the Figure 43. an ongoing discussion.
Figure 42. Popularity of search term ‘veganism’ (Google Trends)
Figure 43. Popularity of search term ‘cons of veganism’ (Google Trends)
In general, it can be said that veganism is generally perceived in a positive light, which made it hard to find google trends precisely to the chosen hashtags: #dairyisscary and #vegancommunity. In order, to layout the current trends more accurate, we made use of other tools such as Netlytics. It analyses conversations, identifies potential influencers on certain social media platforms, in this case Twitter, and gathers data.
Through Netlytics we were able to generate word clouds, which had any relation to the aforementioned hashtags #vegancommunity and #dairyisscary, meaning that were used in the same post.
Figure(s) 44. Wordclouds
While looking at both word clouds we can see that #vegancommunity carries positive associations like #healthy #plantshealhumans. Whereas #dairyisscary outlines rather bad associations such as #death and #cruelty, #sold.
Gephi was used to visualize data that was gathered through netlytic and to identify statistics of modularity. It further showcases the most used data in larger nodes and less ones in smaller nodes.
Different methods can be used to obtain different results. Indegree will demonstrate the prominence of an individual whereas outdegree will help ones to identify influential individuals/ active communicators. In the following the visualizations obtained through Gephi will be analyzed. Even though not much data could be collected, it was proved that the chosen hashtags were the only one we could find when talking about perceptions of vegans within the society. The following 10 top influencer were identified:
Figure 45. Top 10 influencers
While comparing the table and the gephi visualisation, discrepancies occur. The top ten influencer are not mentioned in any of the visualisations and also don’t exit on twitter anymore.
However, the other mentioned above can be find on twitter. @Stephencgill for instance is a big player with approximately 16000 follower. When taking a look at the @VeganCommunity account, it can be seen that they completely commit themself to the vegan community with around 3000 follower.
Taking a closer look on the indegree of the hashtag #vegancommunity, following nodes can be identified: @vegan_with_a_t, @michaelssuxxx, @dr__fishy, @amyythevegan and @fatwazza. These members are the most influential one.
Hashtag: #vegancommunity
Figure 46. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 125
Number of edges: 117
Figure 47. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 125
Number of edges: 117
When looking at the outdegree, we can identify that “respectfulllivin” is one of the most active member. With nearly 18000 tweets and 5,236 follower, it keeps the audience engaged by posting vegan recipes every week. In general, it can be said that multiple conversationals hubs can be seen, some of them linked to each other some completely unattached.
Figure 48: Top 10 posters
For the hashtag #dairyisscary similarity can be identified. The members that hold a lot of influence over people who use the hashtag #dairyisscary are as well: michaelasuxxx, amyythevegan, vegan_with_a_t, dr___fishy and fatwazza.
Hashtag: #dairyisscary
Figure 49. Indegree network
About the image above
Network: Indegree
Number of nodes: 58
Number of edges: 98
Figure 50. Outdegree network
About the image above
Network: Outdegree
Number of nodes: 58
Number of edges: 98
However, the most influential members are not necessarily the most active one, which can be seen on the chart above. According to the chart the most active members is: @dairy_is_scary with 12 900 tweets but only 1036 followers.
Figure 51: Top 10 posters
To conclude, accounts like @amyythevegan or @vegan_with_a_t are big supporter of the vegan lifestyle. Even though the hashtag #dairyisscary was used, members against the vegan lifestyle couldn’t be identified.
#VEGANDOIT 