This document discusses new methodologies for researching news discussion on Twitter. It begins by explaining why Twitter is significant for researching news, as it has hundreds of millions of users who use it to report on and discuss breaking news stories and ongoing events through hashtags. It then describes some tools that can be used to gather Twitter data through its API, process and analyze the data using programs like Gawk and text analysis tools, and visualize networks using Gephi. Finally, it provides some examples of hashtags that have been researched and discusses how this type of research on Twitter discussions can provide insights beyond journalism.

1. New Methodologies for Researching News Discussion on TwitterAxel Bruns and Jean BurgessARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationQueensland University of TechnologyBrisbane, Australiaa.bruns / je.burgess@qut.edu.au@snurb_dot_info / @jeanburgesshttp://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. Why Twitter?Researching news discussion on Twitter:Significant world-wide social network~200 million users (but how many active?)Varied range of uses: from phatic communication to emergency coordinationFlat and open network structure: non-reciprocal following, public profiles by defaultCommonly used in the coverage and discussion of breaking news events and ongoing storiesGood API for data journalism

3. Twitter and the NewsKey news-related uses of Twitter:First-hand news reports:Emergency landing in the Hudson; Abbottabad raid; storms, earthquakes, tsunamisContinuing news discussion:Information sharing (gatewatching); commentary; story curation through hashtags‘Ambient’ news coverage (Hermida; Burns):Early indicator of breaking stories; trending topics, themes, URLs, etc. Tool for sourcing, tracking, finding stories

4. #hashtags on TwitterHashtag =‘#’ + alphanumeric characters: Automatic tracking & aggregation of a topic, represented with a hyperlinkOriginally a (lead) user innovation, later integrated into platformSimple, adaptive and generativeCan coordinate, render visible, and constitute publics

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

6. Data GatheringyourTwapperkeeper: API-based data captureData ProcessingGawk – open source, multiplatform, programmable command-line tool for processing CSV documentsTextual AnalysisLeximancer – commercial (University of Queensland), multiplatform: extracts key concepts from large corpora of text, examines and visualises concept co-occurrenceWordStat – commercial, PC-only text analysis tool; generates concept co-occurrence data that can be exported for visualisationVisualisationGephi – open source, multiplatform network visualisation toolTools for Researching Twitter

7. #ausvotes (July-Aug. 2010)

8. #royalwedding (29 Apr. 2011)

9. #eqnz (Feb./Mar. 2011)

10. #qldfloods: @QPSmedia (Jan. 2011)

11. #ausvotes: Leaders

12. #ausvotes: Themes

13. #spill (23 June 2010)

14. #GoBackSBS (June/July 2011)

15. Comparative Metrics

16. #hashtags in Context?Follower/followee network:~150,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~550,000 known accounts so far) colour = outdegree, size = indegree

17. Data Journalism (Research) beyond TwitterData journalism is a growing fieldData journalism research necessary to inform both journalism theory and practiceTwitter is a key news space now, and needs to be further researchedOther social media may come to replace it, but many methods will remain similarPotential to generate new insights well beyond journalism itself: popular sentiment and interests, communication, culture, …Many tools available, but more methods work necessary!

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