The Use of Twitter Hashtags in the Formation of Ad Hoc Publics

The Use of Twitter Hashtags in the Formation of Ad Hoc Publics
Axel Bruns and Jean Burgess
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
a.bruns / je.burgess@qut.edu.au
@snurb_dot_info / @jeanburgess
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

#hashtags on Twitter
Hashtag =‘#’ + some alphanumeric characters: automatic tracking & aggregation of a topic, represented with a hyperlink
Originally a (lead) user innovation, later integrated into platform
Simple, adaptive and generative
Can coordinate, render visible, and constitute publics

Introduction & Contestation
In 2007, Twitter didn’t have trending topics, integrated search or hashtags

See: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/08/25/groups-for-twitter-or-a-proposal-for-twitter-tag-channels/

Adoption & Retention
Compelling use cases, uptake by influential lead users
Very simple architectural integration (built-in ‘tracking’ feature)
Uptake in external developer community (Twitter Search, hashtags.orgetc)

Popularisation & Proliferation…

#hashtag publics
Publics
Attend to matters of shared concern with some level of co-awareness
Varied in intensity and temporality
Emergent, constituted via discourse & affect
#hashtag publics
Not all hashtags constitute publics; Twitter doesn’t ‘contain’ publics
What are the various patterns in the dynamics of different hashtag-based publics?
What might account for these differences?

Ad Hoc: Labor Leadership #spill
23 June, 19:00-00:00:Speculation
24 June, 08:00-15:00:Party Vote & Aftermath

Forming an Ad Hoc Issue Public
#spill as a hashtag takeover:
Ok what's with the #spill tag? Has BP dumped more oil?
those who do not know a #spill in leadership terms is basically saying the big job is now vacant no relation to the oil spill of bp style

Ad Hoc: #eqnz
22/2 23 24 25 26 27 28 1/3 2 3 4 5 6 7

An Ad Hoc Public: #eqnz @replies
mainstream media
authorities
utilities

Managing the Hashtag
Ensuring ‘proper’ use:
@NZcivildefence please use #eqnz hashtag. Thanks.
Earthquake in New Zealand = #eqnz. Earthquake in Japan = #eqjp. Earthquake in the U.S. = #earthquake. Hmmmmmm.

Ad Hoc? #royalwedding

Ad Hoc? Crises and Other Events
(top 1% most active users in each hashtag;size = percentage of total tweet volume)

Beyond Hashtags
Publics on Twitter:
Micro: @reply and retweet conversations
Meso: hashtag ‘communities’
Macro: follower/followee networks
 Multiple overlapping publics / networks
What drives their formation and dissipation?
How do they interact and interweave?
How are they interleaved with the wider media ecology?
Twitter doesn’t contain publics: publics transcend Twitter

The Australian Twittersphere
Follower/followee network:~150,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~550,000 known accounts so far) colour = outdegree, size = indegree

The Australian Twittersphere

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess

http://www.mappingonlinepublics.net	1203
http://snurb.info	402
http://digitalgovernment.wordpress.com	36
https://twitter.com	3
http://mappingonlinepublics.net	3
http://twitter.com	2
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	1

The Use of Twitter Hashtags in the Formation of Ad Hoc Publics

by Axel Bruns on Aug 26, 2011

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The Use of Twitter Hashtags in the Formation of Ad Hoc Publics — Webinar Transcript