Lessons from content analysis component of my thesis

1. Interactive behaviours in constituency level online
campaigns in the 2010 UK General Election
Benjamin Lee
Institute for social change
benjamin.lee@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
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2. BACKGROUND
 Part of a PhD looking at the use of Web
campaigns
 Previous work had looked at adoption of
online campaign tools, but how were they
used?
 Web 2.0 services built on interactivity,
creates the possibility for innovation?
 Specifically wanted to measure the level of
interactive behaviour campaigns were
engaging in
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3. REQUIREMENTS
 Had to measure different levels of interactivity
 Public dialogue
 Potential dialogue
 Site based interactivity
 Had to cover the entirety of a web presence
across three platforms
 Website
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Had to be relatively simple, 300+ campaigns in
a week
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4. 4

5. RESULTS – PUBLIC DIALOGUE
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6. RESULTS – POTENTIAL DIALOGUE
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7. RESULTS – SITE BASED INTERACTIVITY
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8. LESSON 1 – IDENTIFYING WEBSITES
 How can we identify websites?
 Web 2.0 has shifted analysis away from
individual sites to collections of sites, we need
to consider web presences
 How can these be identified, especially when we
don’t know the context
 Practical difficulties in tracking down websites
 Google
 Tweetminster
 Facebook search
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10. LESSON 2 – WEB 2.0 IS DIFFERENT
 Difficult to identify equivalent behaviours
across platforms
 Common interactive behaviours on websites are
very uncommon on social networks e.g.
downloading material
 Social networks also very structured, difficult for
campaigns to do new things
 Interactivity is inbuilt into Web 2.0 platforms
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11. LESSON 3 – KNOW YOUR MEASUREMENTS
 What is content analysis actually measuring?
 Consider an aggregate interactivity index
either additive or based on PCA
 Can we really combine public dialogue,
potential dialogue and site-based
interactivity?
 Is a Facebook message as interactive or
more interactive than a Twitter message?
 Are we measuring behaviours or design
decisions and organisational choices?
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12. LESSON 4 – THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN
 Future developments mean more complications
 Google +
 Diaspora
 Mobile applications/html 5
 Proprietary social networks LibDemACT, MembersNet, MyConservatives
 ?
 ‘I think Google Plus will change all that… Because you can
search on issues, you link it up with Twitter and it’s designed
to interact with other social networks, it’s somewhere between
Live Journal, Facebook and Twitter all rolled into one’
 Lib-Dem Campaign Manager
 Innovation within current platforms e.g. Facebook pages
 Also, changes in user behaviour and attitudes e.g.
Privacy on Facebook
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