For social movements, the online world replicates traditional offline structures and networks of social capital

Many have hailed the rise of social media as the beginning of new ways of constructing social networks that are unconstrained by traditional forms of structure and organisation. In new research, Javier Sajuria examines social capital and social behavior via Twitter use in three campaigns in Chile, the UK, and the US. He finds that far from creating new social structures, traditional structures seen offline are replicated online.