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Mapping Online Publics:
Understanding the Role of Twitter
in Public Communication
Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

a.bruns@qut.edu.au – http://snurb.info/ – @snurb_dot_info
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/




                                                                  http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Why Twitter?
o Researching Twitter:
   o Significant world-wide social network
   o ~200 million users (but how many active?)
   o Varied range of uses: from phatic communication to emergency
     coordination
   o Healthy third-party ecosystem (for now)
   o Strong history of user innovation:
     @replies, #hashtags
   o Flat and open network structure:
     non-reciprocal following, public profiles by default
   o Good API for gathering data for research




                                                    http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
New Media and Public Communication:
         Mapping Australian User-Created Content
                in Online Social Networks
o   Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project (2010-13) – $410,000
     o   QUT (Brisbane), Sociomantic Labs (Berlin)
     o   First comprehensive study of Australian social media use
     o   Computer-assisted cultural analysis: tracking, mapping, analysing
         blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube as ‘networked publics’
     o   Addressing the problem of scale (‘Big Data’) and disciplinary change in media, cultural and
         communication studies – natively digital methods
     o   Studying society with the Internet (Richard Rogers)

      http://mappingonlinepublics.net/




                                                                                http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
#hashtag Publics
o #hashtags
   o ‘#’ + keyword makes tweets easily discoverable and marks themes
   o E.g. #ausvotes, #qldfloods, #londonriots, #royalwedding, #euro2012, …


o Publics
   o Attend to matters of shared concern with some level of co-awareness
   o Varied in intensity and temporality
   o Emergent, constituted via discourse & affect


o #hashtag publics
   o Not all hashtags constitute publics; Twitter doesn’t ‘contain’ publics
   o What are the patterns in the dynamics of different hashtag-based publics?
   o What might account for these differences?




                                                              http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Tools
o Data Gathering
   o yourTwapperkeeper + in-house crawler

o Data Processing
   o Gawk – open source, multiplatform, programmable command-line tool
     for processing CSV documents

o Textual Analysis
   o Leximancer – commercial, multiplatform: extracts key concepts from
     large corpora of text, examines and visualises concept co-occurrence
   o WordStat – commercial, PC-only text analysis tool; generates concept
     co-occurrence data that can be exported for visualisation

o Visualisation
   o Gephi – open source, multiplatform network visualisation tool



                                                           http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
But Why?
o Possible research questions:
  o Ad hoc events and publics:
     o How do online publics form and dissolve? How do they
       interact, what structures do they form?
     o Where do they draw information from? What do they share?
     o Do they simply consist of the usual suspects? How insular
       and disconnected are online publics?
  o Hashtags in context:
     o How do different hashtag events compare? Are there
       common types of hashtags/publics?
     o How ‘big’ are they? What topics attract attention on
       Twitter?
     o What community (?) structures emerge?


                                                    http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
#qldfloods @replies
        authorities




                      mainstream
                        media
#ausvotes: Leaders




                     http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
#royalwedding
Hashtag Publics, Hashtag Metrics
o How big is the central core of users?
   o Long tail distribution: most active users responsible for
     the majority of content
   o 90/9/1 rule: how much does the top 1% of users
     contribute?
        o #royalwedding: ~10% of all tweets
        o #qldfloods: ~17% of all tweets
        o #auspol: ~65% of all tweets
o What do they do: inform, share, chat?
   o   How many links do they share?
   o   How much retweeting do they do (edited/unedited)?
   o   How many @replies do they send / receive?
   o   … etc.


                                                   http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Towards Comparative Metrics




                      http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Towards a Typology of Twitter Uses
o How are hashtags used (during acute events)?
   o Gatewatching:
        o Finding and sharing information about breaking news (before
          the mainstream media do?)
        o Ad hoc publics: many URLs, many retweets (even unedited)
   o Audiencing:
        o Shared experience of major (foreseen) events
        o Imagined community of fellow participants: few URLs, limited
          retweeting
o What other uses are there?
   o   Continuing discussions (#auspol, #bundesliga, …)
   o   Memes (#ghettohurricanenames, …)
   o   Emotive hashtags (#fail, #win, #headdesk, …)
   o   What about keywords?

                                                         http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Beyond Hashtags
o Publics on Twitter:
   o Micro:   @reply and retweet conversations
   o Meso:    hashtag ‘communities’
   o Macro:   follower/followee networks

 Multiple overlapping publics / networks

o What drives their formation and dissipation?
o How do they interact and interweave?
o How are they interleaved with the wider
  media ecology?
o Twitter doesn’t contain publics: publics transcend Twitter




                                                  http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Twitter and/in the Media Ecology
Twitter and/in the Media Ecology




                          http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
Understanding Australian Twitter Use

o What is the Australian Twitter userbase?
   o Large-scale snowballing project
   o Starting from selected hashtag communities
     (e.g. #ausvotes, #qldfloods, #masterchef)
   o Identifying participating users, testing for ‘Australianness’:
       o Timezone setting, location information, profile information
   o Retrieving follower/followee information for each account
     (very slow)


o Progress update:
   o ~950,000 Australian users identified so far, ~21m connections
    ~2 million Australian users in total?


                                                            http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
The Australian Twittersphere?




                    Follower/followee network:
                    ~150,000 Australian Twitter users
                    (of ~550,000 known accounts by mid-2011)
                    colour = outdegree, size = indegree
                                http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
The Australian Twittersphere?




                    Follower/followee network:
                    ~120,000 Australian Twitter users
                    (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
                    colour = outdegree, size = indegree
Real Estate
                                                      Jobs
                                         Property
                                                       HR
                                                    Business
                                                                          Parenting

              Thematic Clusters
                      Design
                                                        Business
                                                        Property
                                                                      Mums      Craft
                                                                                Arts
                       Web            Social Media
                     Creative            Tech                                             Food
       Perth                               PR                                                             Wine
   Marketing / PR                     Advertising
                              IT
                                                                                                   Beer
                             Tech
                                                               Creative
                                       Social
                                                                Design
                                        ICTs
                        NGOs                                                   Fashion
                                                  Utilities
        Farming      Social Policy                                             Beauty
                                                  Services
       Agriculture                               Net Culture
                                                                                           Adelaide
                                 Opinion            Books       Theatre
                  Greens          News            Literature Film Arts
                                                  Publishing
                ALP
  Hardline  Progressives
                        News           @KRuddMP
Conservatives
                                  @JuliaGillard        Radio
          Conservatives                                 TV                  Music
           Journalists                                           Triple J
                                                         Talkback
                                                                               Dance
                                                       Breakfast TV
                                                                              Hip Hop
                                                Cycling Celebrities
                                Union
   Evangelicals                      Swimming
                                 NRL        V8s

                           Football                                                            Teens
                                                                 Christians
                               Cricket                  Teaching Hillsong
                                          AFL          e-Learning
                                                         Schools                 Jonas Bros.
                                                                                  Beliebers
#auspol




          Follower/followee network:
          ~120,000 Australian Twitter users
          (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
          colour = #auspol tweets, size = indegree
#ausvotes




            Follower/followee network:
            ~120,000 Australian Twitter users
            (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
            colour = #ausvotes tweets, size = indegree
#royalwedding




           Follower/followee network:
           ~120,000 Australian Twitter users
           (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
           colour = #royalwedding tweets, size = indeg.
abc.net.au URLs




             Follower/followee network:
             ~120,000 Australian Twitter users
             (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
             colour = tweets with URLs, size = indegree
Understanding Twitter Publics
o #hashtags:
   o   Useful coordinating mechanism for core discussion
   o   Relatively easy to capture and analyse
   o   Fails to capture non-hashtagged tweets about the topic
   o   Good case studies, but very little comparative work to date


o National / global Twittersphere maps
   o   Crucial contextual baseline for #hashtag case studies
   o   Slow and laborious data gathering process, never complete
   o   Very long-term perspective, beyond most funded projects
   o   Indispensable for study of Twitter as a public space



                                                        http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
‘Big Data’ and the Digital Humanities
o Emerging needs in Twitter research:
   o Unified, compatible methods and metrics for Twitter analysis
        Tools and approaches shared at http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
   o Powerful infrastructure for long-term, high-volume tracking of
     Australian public communication on Twitter
        Data access requires substantial funding stream
   o Facilities for long-term data storage and preservation
        Key roles for National Library, National Archives
   o Integration with related datasets (e.g. MSM content)
        Need to address data interoperability questions

o Twitter as a test case for digital humanities research
   o Widespread, open, public platform for everyday communication
   o Tool for observing society at scale through Internet research


                                                             http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@_StephenH
@DrTNitins
@timhighfield
@cdtavijit




                               http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

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Understanding the Role of Twitter in Public Communication and Mapping Australian User-Created Content

  • 1. Mapping Online Publics: Understanding the Role of Twitter in Public Communication Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia a.bruns@qut.edu.au – http://snurb.info/ – @snurb_dot_info http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 2. Why Twitter? o Researching Twitter: o Significant world-wide social network o ~200 million users (but how many active?) o Varied range of uses: from phatic communication to emergency coordination o Healthy third-party ecosystem (for now) o Strong history of user innovation: @replies, #hashtags o Flat and open network structure: non-reciprocal following, public profiles by default o Good API for gathering data for research http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 3. New Media and Public Communication: Mapping Australian User-Created Content in Online Social Networks o Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project (2010-13) – $410,000 o QUT (Brisbane), Sociomantic Labs (Berlin) o First comprehensive study of Australian social media use o Computer-assisted cultural analysis: tracking, mapping, analysing blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube as ‘networked publics’ o Addressing the problem of scale (‘Big Data’) and disciplinary change in media, cultural and communication studies – natively digital methods o Studying society with the Internet (Richard Rogers)  http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 4. #hashtag Publics o #hashtags o ‘#’ + keyword makes tweets easily discoverable and marks themes o E.g. #ausvotes, #qldfloods, #londonriots, #royalwedding, #euro2012, … o Publics o Attend to matters of shared concern with some level of co-awareness o Varied in intensity and temporality o Emergent, constituted via discourse & affect o #hashtag publics o Not all hashtags constitute publics; Twitter doesn’t ‘contain’ publics o What are the patterns in the dynamics of different hashtag-based publics? o What might account for these differences? http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 5. Tools o Data Gathering o yourTwapperkeeper + in-house crawler o Data Processing o Gawk – open source, multiplatform, programmable command-line tool for processing CSV documents o Textual Analysis o Leximancer – commercial, multiplatform: extracts key concepts from large corpora of text, examines and visualises concept co-occurrence o WordStat – commercial, PC-only text analysis tool; generates concept co-occurrence data that can be exported for visualisation o Visualisation o Gephi – open source, multiplatform network visualisation tool http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 6. But Why? o Possible research questions: o Ad hoc events and publics: o How do online publics form and dissolve? How do they interact, what structures do they form? o Where do they draw information from? What do they share? o Do they simply consist of the usual suspects? How insular and disconnected are online publics? o Hashtags in context: o How do different hashtag events compare? Are there common types of hashtags/publics? o How ‘big’ are they? What topics attract attention on Twitter? o What community (?) structures emerge? http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 7. #qldfloods @replies authorities mainstream media
  • 8. #ausvotes: Leaders http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 10. Hashtag Publics, Hashtag Metrics o How big is the central core of users? o Long tail distribution: most active users responsible for the majority of content o 90/9/1 rule: how much does the top 1% of users contribute? o #royalwedding: ~10% of all tweets o #qldfloods: ~17% of all tweets o #auspol: ~65% of all tweets o What do they do: inform, share, chat? o How many links do they share? o How much retweeting do they do (edited/unedited)? o How many @replies do they send / receive? o … etc. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 11. Towards Comparative Metrics http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 12. Towards a Typology of Twitter Uses o How are hashtags used (during acute events)? o Gatewatching: o Finding and sharing information about breaking news (before the mainstream media do?) o Ad hoc publics: many URLs, many retweets (even unedited) o Audiencing: o Shared experience of major (foreseen) events o Imagined community of fellow participants: few URLs, limited retweeting o What other uses are there? o Continuing discussions (#auspol, #bundesliga, …) o Memes (#ghettohurricanenames, …) o Emotive hashtags (#fail, #win, #headdesk, …) o What about keywords? http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 13. Beyond Hashtags o Publics on Twitter: o Micro: @reply and retweet conversations o Meso: hashtag ‘communities’ o Macro: follower/followee networks  Multiple overlapping publics / networks o What drives their formation and dissipation? o How do they interact and interweave? o How are they interleaved with the wider media ecology? o Twitter doesn’t contain publics: publics transcend Twitter http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 14. Twitter and/in the Media Ecology
  • 15. Twitter and/in the Media Ecology http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 16. Understanding Australian Twitter Use o What is the Australian Twitter userbase? o Large-scale snowballing project o Starting from selected hashtag communities (e.g. #ausvotes, #qldfloods, #masterchef) o Identifying participating users, testing for ‘Australianness’: o Timezone setting, location information, profile information o Retrieving follower/followee information for each account (very slow) o Progress update: o ~950,000 Australian users identified so far, ~21m connections  ~2 million Australian users in total? http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 17. The Australian Twittersphere? Follower/followee network: ~150,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~550,000 known accounts by mid-2011) colour = outdegree, size = indegree http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 18. The Australian Twittersphere? Follower/followee network: ~120,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = outdegree, size = indegree
  • 19. Real Estate Jobs Property HR Business Parenting Thematic Clusters Design Business Property Mums Craft Arts Web Social Media Creative Tech Food Perth PR Wine Marketing / PR Advertising IT Beer Tech Creative Social Design ICTs NGOs Fashion Utilities Farming Social Policy Beauty Services Agriculture Net Culture Adelaide Opinion Books Theatre Greens News Literature Film Arts Publishing ALP Hardline Progressives News @KRuddMP Conservatives @JuliaGillard Radio Conservatives TV Music Journalists Triple J Talkback Dance Breakfast TV Hip Hop Cycling Celebrities Union Evangelicals Swimming NRL V8s Football Teens Christians Cricket Teaching Hillsong AFL e-Learning Schools Jonas Bros. Beliebers
  • 20. #auspol Follower/followee network: ~120,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #auspol tweets, size = indegree
  • 21. #ausvotes Follower/followee network: ~120,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #ausvotes tweets, size = indegree
  • 22. #royalwedding Follower/followee network: ~120,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #royalwedding tweets, size = indeg.
  • 23. abc.net.au URLs Follower/followee network: ~120,000 Australian Twitter users (of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = tweets with URLs, size = indegree
  • 24. Understanding Twitter Publics o #hashtags: o Useful coordinating mechanism for core discussion o Relatively easy to capture and analyse o Fails to capture non-hashtagged tweets about the topic o Good case studies, but very little comparative work to date o National / global Twittersphere maps o Crucial contextual baseline for #hashtag case studies o Slow and laborious data gathering process, never complete o Very long-term perspective, beyond most funded projects o Indispensable for study of Twitter as a public space http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
  • 25. ‘Big Data’ and the Digital Humanities o Emerging needs in Twitter research: o Unified, compatible methods and metrics for Twitter analysis  Tools and approaches shared at http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ o Powerful infrastructure for long-term, high-volume tracking of Australian public communication on Twitter  Data access requires substantial funding stream o Facilities for long-term data storage and preservation  Key roles for National Library, National Archives o Integration with related datasets (e.g. MSM content)  Need to address data interoperability questions o Twitter as a test case for digital humanities research o Widespread, open, public platform for everyday communication o Tool for observing society at scale through Internet research http://mappingonlinepublics.net/