A short lecture which looks at a range of different approaches to studying Twitter. Aimed at sociologists, this lecture suggest a multi-method and multi-site approach can help researchers get a full picture of what Twitter is and what it means to people.

1. Jason Rutter
University of Edinburgh
Jason.Rutter@ed.ac.uk
Approaches to analysing Twitter
What’s in a Tweet?
Image: Thomas Leth-Olsen - https://goo.gl/aq1j59

2. • Understand Twitter as a cultural &
technical assemblage.
• Link research methodology and
research question in an informed
manner.
• Understand the relationship between
offline & online practice.
• Recognise the value of analysing online
postings as sociological data for a
research project.
AIMS FOR THE (FULL) SESSION

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Twitter
Facebook
T: 302 million
F: 1.44 billion
WORLDWIDE USERS
3
Annual Revenue
T: US$ 1.4 billion
F: US$ 12.5 billion
Source: http://www.statista.com/

4. The Guardian, Thursday 11 June 2015 - http://goo.gl/K7Z2vb
4

5. Dhiraj Murthy (2013)
Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age
• Global Village
• Real-time Broadcast
• Journalism
• Disasters
• Activism
• Health

6. TWEETS USING #labourdebate
6
Yvette Cooper
Andy Burnham
Liz Kendall
Jeremy Corbyn
Angry Salmond
BBC Newsnight
Corbyn4Leader
MirrorPolitics
RedPeter99
George Aylett
Tweets using #labourdebate during 17-18 June 2015 – n=17584

7. 7
Benedict Anderson (1983/1991/2006)
Imagined Communities: Reflections
on the origin and spread of nationalism
We find community in
networks, not groups.“
”Wellman, B. (2001). Physical place and cyber-place:
Changing portals and the rise of networked
individualism. International Journal for Urban and Regional
Research, 25(2), 227-252.

8. KATY PERRY
Followers: 71 million
Following: 155
Image: Sleepyibis - https://goo.gl/EofMmw 8

9. Twitter
http://sysomos.com/insidetwitter/engagement/ Based on 1.2 billion Tweets in 2010
IN THIS SOCIAL
NETWORK
MOST TWEETS
ARE NOT PART
OF THE
CONVERSATION…
…SO WHAT ARE THEY
DOING?
Only 1.53% of Twitter Conversation
are Three Levels Deep

10. The vast majority of what
happens on social media is
unremarkable, desperately and
dreadfully corporate, and thus
understandably ignored by
scholars and analysts. Social
media scholarship has so far
tended to focus on the edge
cases, the exceptions to the
norm.
“
”Brabham, D.C., 2015. ‘Studying Normal, Everyday Social
Media’. Social Media + Society, 1(1).
Image: Lali Masriera - https://goo.gl/rjQbei 10

11. accomplished
The mundane
has to be
renewed &
maintained
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12. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)
ERVING GOFFMAN
12
• Theatre metaphor
• Different aspects can be displayed
• Based on understanding of the situation
Image:JonWallach-https://goo.gl/vMLH2n

13. Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967)
HAROLD GARFINKEL
13
• We apply common-sense understandings
• Everyday is managed by (invisible) routines
• The site of study is natural occurrence
Image:MiroYen-https://goo.gl/ETjbAA

14. @NtlMuseumsScot,
I did a bit of research
while my other half
played
#winwin
Great afternoon
computer games.
Image: Rebecca Thompson - https://goo.gl/xcnVK3 14

15. Twitter
Nvivo NCapture
Browser add-on to harvest:
Twitter posts
Facebook pages
Web pages (pdf)
Linkedin groups
YouTube video & comments
http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo_add-ons.aspx

16. WHAT DOES A TWEET LOOK LIKE?
16Image: Raffi Krikorian - https://goo.gl/3triKy
Tweet ID, Text, Creation date, Author’s
name, Screen name, No. of followers &
following, URL, Location, Type of location,
A/c creation date, Time zone, Language, No
of retweets, Is the a/c verified?, Country,
Application that sent the tweet…
Plus ‘ANNOTATIONS’

17. Christine Hine (2015)
Ethnography FOR the Internet:
Embedded, Embodied and Everyday
• Multi-site and multi-method
• Follow ‘connections’ (networks)
• Embedded: Our view of ‘the
internet’ is culturally
situated.
• Embodied: We ‘do’ the
internet physically and
emotionally.
• Everyday: Part of our
mundane & familiar routine

18. • Technology and our use of it is social and
socially mediated
• We integrate our everyday identity into
technology
• Twitter is only one tool in the SNS flow –
(Hines on Antiques Roadshow)
• The questions we seek to answer change our
methods.
• Looking Forward - How would this apply to:
Instagram? Facebook? Reactions to
Charleston Shooting? Enthusiasts such a
musicians?
WHAT HAVE WE DISCUSSED?

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