Measuring the Spiral of Silence Using Social Network Analysis

The goal of the presented bachelor thesis is the application of social network analysis (SNA) to the measurement of the spiral of silence. First part of thesis consists of theoretical background of the spiral of silence, including the description of conventional ways of measurement. Second part provides basic introduction to social network analysis and its application to concepts related to the spiral of silence. Last part describes existing works attempting to measure the spiral of silence using SNA and presents a new way of measurement, demonstrated by using data from discussion section of Czech news site Idnes.cz. Key words: communication, public opinion social network analysis, spiral of silence, SN