Twitter and Australian
political debates
Tim Highfield
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
t.highfield @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ | http://timhighfield.net/

POLITICAL DEBATE ONLINE
• The potential for online platforms (individually and
collectively) to reshape and/or revitalise political debate
is a long-standing question
• An evolving continuum of online political discussions,
developed through blogs, citizen journalism projects,
social media
• Platforms not used in isolation; people discussing politics
online tweet about it, blog, share links, comment on
statuses…

TWITTER AND POLITICAL DEBATE
• While not used in isolation, Twitter is a particularly
noteworthy platform for political discussion online:
– Public medium (mostly)
– Brevity of messages
– Associated features: retweets, hashtags, @mentions
• Adoption of Twitter as a popular and primary medium for
live commentary accompanying (media) events,
breaking news, activism (and combinations of these
approaches, taking place in same space).

POLITICAL DISCUSSION ON TWITTER
• Potential for political debate to involve wider population
than just journalists and politicians?
• New gatekeepers?
• Follow and respond directly to people creating news/shaping
politics
• To what extent, though, are these different participants in
political discussions interacting – or even contributing to
the same conversations?

METHODS
• Comparative analysis of three
Australian political hashtags; data
collected between January and
December 2012
– #auspol – Federal
– #qldpol – Queensland
– #wapol – Western Australia
• Methods
– yourTwapperkeeper captures
tweets with specified hashtags from
Twitter API
– Gawk scripts for processing large
datasets (Bruns & Burgess, 2011),
Gephi for network visualisation

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
• Federal politics: currently led by centre-left Australian
Labor Party (ALP), Prime Minister Julia Gillard; next
election due in September 2013, expected to be won by
centre-right (conservative) Liberal/National coalition, led
by Tony Abbott. Voting is compulsory (93% turnout in
2010).
• State politics:
– Six states, all bicameral systems except Queensland
(unicameral)
– Start of 2012: three states ALP in power, three Liberal.
(Liberal-National Party took power in Queensland in March
2012).

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS AND TWITTER
• Twitter more widely taken up – by politicians and general
public – than previous technologies such as blogging.
• Accounts established for sitting politicians
– At Federal level, 146 of 226 members of Lower and Upper
Houses present on Twitter (July 2012)
• Hashtags for different political events/broadcasts:
– #ausvotes, #ausdecides, #qldvotes – election campaigns
– #qt, #waqt – Parliamentary Question Time
– #qanda, #insiders – Q & A, Insiders political panel shows

#AUSPOL
• Popularised around 2010 Federal election (alongside election-
specific hashtags such as #ausvotes) as overarching label for
Australian political topics
• Endured post-election; however, rather than a space for
political debate, seen as increasingly polarised and
frequented by trolls:
Viewing and participating in 'discussions' on the Twitter stream of
#auspol is to immerse yourself in a political cesspit. It is the dark
alley in Twitter you walk down when you wonder if you have told
anyone where you were going that night.
(Jericho, 2012)
• State-based hashtags less afflicted by this development (in
general)?

#AUSPOL
– 1,002,451 tweets (15/01-04/07), 50,622 users
– 19.8 tweets per user, 5,828 tweets per day
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
2012-Jan-15
2012-Jan-19
2012-Jan-23
2012-Jan-27
2012-Jan-31
2012-Feb-04
2012-Feb-08
2012-Feb-12
2012-Feb-16
2012-Feb-20
2012-Feb-24
2012-Feb-28
2012-Mar-03
2012-Mar-07
2012-Mar-11
2012-Mar-15
2012-Mar-19
2012-Mar-23
2012-Mar-27
2012-Mar-31
2012-Apr-04
2012-Apr-08
2012-Apr-12
2012-Apr-16
2012-Apr-20
2012-Apr-24
2012-Apr-28
2012-May-02
2012-May-06
2012-May-10
2012-May-14
2012-May-18
2012-May-22
2012-May-26
2012-May-30
2012-Jun-03
2012-Jun-07
2012-Jun-11
2012-Jun-15
2012-Jun-19
2012-Jun-23
2012-Jun-27
2012-Jul-01Carbontax
Asylumseekerdebate
ALPleadershipspill
Budget
CraigThomson
CraigThomson

#QLDPOL
– 49,300 tweets (15/01-04/07), 5,668 users
– 8.7 tweets per user, 286.6 tweets per day
State election Civil partnerships bill amended
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2012-Jan-15
2012-Jan-19
2012-Jan-23
2012-Jan-27
2012-Jan-31
2012-Feb-04
2012-Feb-08
2012-Feb-12
2012-Feb-16
2012-Feb-20
2012-Feb-24
2012-Feb-28
2012-Mar-03
2012-Mar-07
2012-Mar-11
2012-Mar-15
2012-Mar-19
2012-Mar-23
2012-Mar-27
2012-Mar-31
2012-Apr-04
2012-Apr-08
2012-Apr-12
2012-Apr-16
2012-Apr-20
2012-Apr-24
2012-Apr-28
2012-May-02
2012-May-06
2012-May-10
2012-May-14
2012-May-18
2012-May-22
2012-May-26
2012-May-30
2012-Jun-03
2012-Jun-07
2012-Jun-11
2012-Jun-15
2012-Jun-19
2012-Jun-23
2012-Jun-27
2012-Jul-01
Tweets
Date

#WAPOL
– 21,261 tweets (15/01-26/12), 2,855 users
– 7.4 tweets per user, 61 tweets per day
Opposition leadership change
Treasurer resigns
Cabinet reshuffle
Budget
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
2012/01/15
2012/01/22
2012/01/29
2012/02/05
2012/02/12
2012/02/19
2012/02/26
2012/03/04
2012/03/11
2012/03/18
2012/03/25
2012/04/01
2012/04/08
2012/04/15
2012/04/22
2012/04/29
2012/05/06
2012/05/13
2012/05/20
2012/05/27
2012/06/03
2012/06/10
2012/06/17
2012/06/24
2012/07/01
2012/07/08
2012/07/15
2012/07/22
2012/07/29
2012/08/05
2012/08/12
2012/08/19
2012/08/26
2012/09/02
2012/09/09
2012/09/16
2012/09/23
2012/09/30
2012/10/07
2012/10/14
2012/10/21
2012/10/28
2012/11/04
2012/11/11
2012/11/18
2012/11/25
2012/12/02
2012/12/09
2012/12/16
2012/12/23
Tweets
Date
Pre-election

WHO IS TWEETING?
– Highly active group of users within #auspol hashtag:
• Top 1% users contribute 64% of tweets
• 6 users responsible for 87,696 tweets
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
all 50662 users users > 0% (>= 0
tweets; 45514 of
50662 users)
users > 90% (>= 14
tweets; 4639 of 50662
users)
users > 99% (>= 297
tweets; 510 of 50662
users)
Sum of original tweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of retweets

WHO IS TWEETING? #AUSPOL
– Highly active group of users within #auspol hashtag:
• These especially active users not elected parliamentarians or
journalists
• Instead, politically engaged citizens (or automated accounts)
– Fit Coleman’s (2006) description of “political junkies”,
who treat political issues as major topics of interest and
actively seek out relevant news and opinion pieces?
– MPs, journalists, media organisations mentioned often in
tweets
• However, these accounts (especially politicians) do not
contribute many tweets to the #auspol discussion

WHO IS TWEETING? #QLDPOL
– Tweeting patterns also show a core group of users
contributing the majority of hashtagged tweets
• Some overlap with the prominent #auspol users.
– The users that are most mentioned are a mixture of these
frequent contributors and key state political actors, who do
not necessarily participate in these discussions
themselves.
• Limits to this analysis due to election in first half of 2012; user
names, and affiliations, changed (including
@TheQldPremier)
• Further analysis required to establish on-going patterns
beyond the election context.

WHO IS TWEETING? #WAPOL
– A lower level of activity, but greater representation
amongst most mentioned and also most active accounts
by journalists and politicians
• A more even spread of – and comparable contributions from
– citizens (including the “political junkies”), journalists, and
politicians alike.
– Changing patterns towards end of year as election
campaigns are readied
• Party strategies regarding social media have some impact on
the developing shape of tweeted political debates

WHO IS TWEETING?
– Politicians in particular often mentioned a lot, but rarely
contribute to hashtagged debates
• @mentions as a shorthand for discussing politicians, creating
a link to their account, rather than necessarily expecting
conversation
– Presence of core group of “political junkies” leading (in
volume if not in topic) these discussions
• Framing of politics around personalities (individual
politicians) rather than parties?
• Tweeting patterns still follow major news stories, debates
around party leaders (particularly in hung parliament
situation, in build-up to election).

LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER OUTLOOK
• Caveats:
– Not all voters on Twitter - not representative of entire electorate
– No requirement to use hashtag/engage with others using it
• Active choice by user to connect to wider discussion
• Users replying to hashtagged comments might not include it in their
tweets
• Intentions of hashtags, functions of use
• Future directions
– Case studies within the different political contexts
– Replies and retweets, information flows, across party affiliation,
between different user groups (journalists, politicians), regions,
themes
• Ongoing tracking, comparing non-election and election periods
(QLD 2012; WA and AUS 2013).