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The purpose of this study is to begine to address this question. The concept of the ideas-informed society (IIS) represents a desired situation in which citizens actively and critically engage with new ideas, developments and claims to truth. Its successful actualisation is dependent on high-quality educational opportunity at all stages of the life course. Social networks represent our connections to one another. Features of our social networks impact on how we engage with ideas. For instance, homophily dictates that individuals form networks with others seen as being like themselves. A key question, however, is whether there are forms of homophily that, by the nature of those they bring together, promote ideas engagement by individuals and the implications of consequent networks for the IIS?

This study re-analysed survey data from 1,000 voting-age citizens in England. Focusing on friendship networks, the authors used a structural equation model approach to explore the existence and potency of homophilic friendship networks; whether such networks drive respondents’ ideas-engagement with friends; and whether ideas discussions with friends impacts on the importance respondents place on staying up to date.

Political homophily has the strongest influence on whether people discuss new ideas with their friends (ES = 0.326, p < 0.01). In turn, ideas discussion has a significant impact on the extent to which people value engaging with ideas (ES = −0.345, p < 0.01).

The authors consider whether ideas-related discussion within politically homophilous networks is problematic for the IIS and what is required from education systems if we are to build individuals’ capacity to engage with ideas while escaping echo chambers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a network analysis of Twitter discussions about Myung-Bak Lee, a former president of South Korea, to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the public opinion exchange on Twitter.

Opinion leaders in the discussion network were identified by considering the longitudinal distribution of tweets containing the former president’s name, and three types of messages (“followings,” “mentions,” and “retweets”) were analyzed using data collected from November 1, 2011, to April 20, 2012. The sample included 26,150 Twitter users and 892,034 relationships reflecting three types of messages.

The results indicate that the discussion about President Myung-Bak Lee was dominated by liberal Twitter users who already had considerable influence both online and offline. In addition, Twitter users were unlikely to interact with other users with opposing political views.

Almost all of the opinion leaders identified in the study held liberal political views, and liberal Twitter users dominated the discussion network. In addition, the Korean Twitter network showed the presence of the homophily phenomenon, implying that opinion leaders’ influence within the Twitter network was limited to other users sharing the same political views. Further, political views of opinion leaders were skewed toward a particular political stance without necessarily representing the opinion of the general public, possibly hindering the democratic process.

This study tests the homophily thesis in the context of Twitter users in Korea and contributes to the literature on Twitter-based political discourse by identifying opinion leaders in Korean Twitter networks and examining the phenomenon of homophily within those networks.

This empirical study aims to analyse the talent spotters' perception of their tendency to be homophilic in the talent identification process and their stance on it. Besides, this article examines the type of homophily and the homophily attributes involved.

Based on a qualitative design, 37 middle and senior line managers, working for two Argentine conglomerates in six Latin American countries, participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.

Homophily was perceived by most of talent spotters, who judged it as natural, while it was not perceived by a small group of the interviewees. In addition, among those who recognized its presence, another group advocated the homophilic advantages, while a final one admitted the presence of homophily and its negative implications. In addition, a variety of homophily attributes were identified; most of them within the value category. We posit that if homophily attributes are, at the same time, components of high potential models, homophily will constitute a functional bias to the talent identification process.

This is the first study that explores the talent spotters' perception of their homophily bias as well as the diversity of homophily attributes present in the talent identification process. This research highlights the relevance of the homophily attributes' analysis, taking into account its alignment to the potential model in order to improve the talent identification process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of interest groups in the formation of online echo chambers and to determine whether interest groups’ use of social media contributes to political polarization.

This study used a content analysis of nearly 10,000 tweets (from 2009 to 2014) by the Brady campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the National Rifle Association to examine how groups engage with their political allies and opponents.

The results indicated that both groups engaged primarily with their supporters on Twitter while avoiding confrontation with their opponents. In particular, both groups used hashtags designed to reach their supporters, retweeted messages almost exclusively from other users with whom they agreed, and disproportionately used Twitter handles of their allies, while avoiding the use of Twitter handles of their opponents.

The findings suggest that interest groups’ use of social media accelerates the formation of online echo chambers, but does not lead to an increase in polarization beyond existing levels, given practices that maintain civility between opposing sides.

This is one of few studies to examine the role of interest groups in the formation of online echo chambers. It also uses a novel approach – the examination of both the interactions that occur among social media users and those that are explicitly avoided.

The spread of rumors on social media has caused increasing concerns about an under-informed or even misinformed public when it comes to scientific issues. However, researchers have rarely investigated their diffusion in non-western contexts. This study aims to systematically examine the content and network structure of rumor-related discussions around genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on Chinese social media.

This study identified 21,837 rumor-related posts of GMOs on Weibo, one of China's most popular social media platforms. An approach combining social network analysis and content analysis was employed to classify user attitudes toward rumors, measure the level of homophily of their attitudes and examine the nature of their interactions.

Though a certain level of homophily existed in the interaction networks, referring to the observed echo chamber effect, Weibo also served as a public forum for GMO discussions in which cross-cutting ties between communities existed. A considerable amount of interactions emerged between the pro- and anti-GMO camps, and most of them involved providing or requesting information, which could mitigate the likelihood of opinion polarization. Moreover, this study revealed the declining role of traditional opinion leaders and pointed toward the need for alternative strategies for efficient fact-checking.

In general, the findings of this study suggested that microblogging platforms such as Weibo can function as public forums for discussing GMOs that expose users to ideologically cross-cutting viewpoints. This study stands to provide important insights into the viral processes of scientific rumors on social media.

This paper aims to investigate whether female directors of companies are more likely to appoint audit firms (AFs) with women in high-level positions adopting monitoring, reputation and homophily theories.

The paper uses ordinary least square to test the hypotheses using a unique hand-collected data set obtained from various sources. To mitigate potential endogeneity and selection bias issues, system generalized method of moments (GMM) and Heckman two-stage procedures are used. Additionally, alternative independent and dependent variables are created to strengthen the validity of main results.

The findings show that female directors are more likely to appoint AFs with women in high-level positions. Non-independent female directors, compared to independent ones, are particularly inclined to do so. These results are supported by further analyses using system GMM, Heckman two-stage procedures and alternative variables.

This study examines how female directors influence companies’ choices of AFs with women in high-level positions. It introduces unique audit firm governance proxies and variables specific to developing countries. The study also controls for various corporate governance, company and audit firm characteristics.

This study aims to not only develop measurements of preferential attachment and homophily mechanisms based on their definitions and network theory but also examine the associations among these network mechanisms, community commitment, knowledge sharing and community citizenship behavior.

In total, 250 valid questionnaires are collected to examine the hypothesized associations. These hypotheses are examined by using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal both mechanisms are beneficial to develop new entrants’ emotional attachment to a virtual community, thereby motivating knowledge sharing and community altruistic behavior. The results contribute some practical and theoretical implications that are very helpful for the conceptualization of network mechanisms, community development, relationship management and incentives for extra-role behavior.

The literature on the link between network selection mechanisms and knowledge sharing remains unknown. This study is the pioneer to disclose this unknown association and examine the impacts of preferential attachment and homophily network mechanisms.

Grounded in Media System Dependency theory, this work investigates the impact of new media on political efficacy. It suggests that dependence on online resources affects people’s perceptions about the democratic potential of the Internet. Using structural equation modeling, the study tests the relationship between political attitudes and the perceived utility of the Web. The analysis employs measures that take into consideration the facilitating role of communication technologies. Results indicate that online political efficacy is associated with individual views about the comprehensiveness and credibility of new media. Efficacy is also linked to the perceived ability of online tools to aid the maintenance of ideologically homogenous social networks. The intensity of Internet dependency relations is found to be predicted by the perceived comprehensiveness – but not credibility – of online news.