This document summarizes research into the role of parody and satire accounts on Twitter in discussing news and popular topics. It finds that such accounts take original perspectives that attract shares and engagement. While they comment on breaking news, their commentary is usually brief and they do not strongly engage with other accounts. Topical tweets performed better than non-topical tweets in attracting attention. The research is exploratory but suggests parody accounts provide humorous meta-commentary on events and extend the audience for discussing news on Twitter.

1. News via Voldemort:
The role of parody and satire in
topical discussions on Twitter
Tim Highfield
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology | Curtin University
Brisbane, Australia | Perth, Australia
t.highfield @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ | http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au

2. GUIDING QUESTIONS
• What is the role of parody/gimmick/humour accounts in
discussion of news?
• Do they act as bridges or form separated, disconnected
takes on news?
• Are the same roles carried out across multiple topics?
• How does topical content relate to these accounts‟
„usual‟ tweets?

3. #OVERLYHONESTMETHODS
• This research is a by-product of accumulated studies
into discussions on Twitter about politics, popular
culture, live broadcasts, sport, crises…
– An accidental paper, with impetus provided by serendipity
– Also a very exploratory paper, providing some initial
comments on some of the questions raised and ideas for
further exploration…

4. #OVERLYHONESTMETHODS

5. OVERVIEW
• Parody accounts and their ilk are “part of the fabric” of
Twitter (Vis, 2013)
– Three of 25 most-mentioned accounts discussing 2011 UK
riots on Twitter were fake/spoof accounts
• Neither new nor Twitter-specific, though
– Creation of MySpace accounts „as‟ fictional
characters, mixing the personal and the original text
(Booth, 2010)
– Gimmick accounts prevalent on message
boards, fora, comments sections

6. OVERVIEW
• Cultural context
– Creation of fake/parody accounts as a memetic practice on
Twitter
• Memetic: “extensive user engagement by way of creative
derivatives” (Shifman, 2012)
– Breaking news, cultural phenomena, gaffes, quickly
followed by accounts spoofing events
• Meta-meme/trope of Twitter?
• Not limited to any one field
– Political parodies well-established, but not the only fake
contributors to discussions on Twitter

7. (INITIAL) TYPOLOGY
• Character-specific
– e.g. Lord_Voldemort7
• Public figure-specific
– Queen_UK, YourMateColin
• Parodying an idea/stereotype of a type of person
– NotTildaSwinton, MatureAge
• Organisation/non-human
– DeathStarPR, SarcasticRover, https://twitter.com/Exciting_Perth
• Topic-specific (including character/figure/thing) – more short-lived?
– Subiaco_Cat, Hoyts_Mouse, PerthMillipede, numerous Obama
chair accounts…
• Hoax – deliberately malicious
• Role-playing
• …

8. METHODS
• Exploratory study, for further development
• A mixture of manual and automated data collection and
analysis, covering multiple datasets since 2011
• For automated collection and analysis:
– yourTwapperKeeper
– Gawk scripts, Gephi (see Mapping Online Publics)
• Augmented by manual capture

9. GENERAL AND TOPICAL

10. GENERAL AND TOPICAL
• Eurovision – the reach of @queen_uk: red nodes are those directly
linked to @queen_uk; blue: @planet_jedward; green:
@bbceurovision; yellow: @loreen_talhaoui; pink: @eurovision

11. GENERAL AND TOPICAL
• Armstrong (keyword dataset) (25-26 August) – some Lance
Armstrong, death of Neil Armstrong:
– red (@lord_voldemort7)
– green (@nbcnightly)

12. GENERAL AND TOPICAL
• Tour de France
– Presence of parody accounts for (Australian) presenters
– Fostered by familiarity with broadcast
– Tropes of the coverage, captive audience (three weeks
of racing)
– Topic-specific; limited non-cycling/sport coverage?

13. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
• Five months of tweets (May-October 2013) from
@queen_uk, @lord_voldemort7, @deathstarpr

14. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
Lord_Voldemort7
Queen_UK
DeathStarPR
Original tweets
165
605
146
RTs of others
2
2
9
Replies
0
1
43
Total
167
608
198
Tweets per day
1.07
3.90
1.27

15. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
lord_voldemort7
queen_uk
Topical
HP
Character-specific
Trending
Topical
Self-promotion
(web content)
Sponsored
Other
self-promotion
(shop)
RT
sponsored
Promo
deathstarpr
RT
StarWars
reply
Topical
Self-promotion (web content)
RT
Trending
MT
Self-promotion (purchase)

16. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
Lord_Voldemort7
Queen_UK
DeathStarPR
n
RTs (mean)
Faves (mean)
n
RTs (mean)
Faves (mean)
n
Topical
35
3982.71
1864.14
392
794.05
220.93
41
949.88
248.98
RT
2
2315.50
1611.50
2
139.00
53.50
9
733.67
128.00
Character-specific
66
2907.68
1595.73
143
554.74
168.45
88
609.00
234.61
Trending
41
2164.93
1114.71
2
335.50
140.50
1
95.00
55.00
MT
Self-promo (web)
1
76.00
155.00
RTs (mean) Faves (mean)
109.45
42.37
13
27.31
34.46
17
97.71
50.41
1
14.00
13.00
17.00
Self-promo (shop)
49
23.00
43
5.28
10.09
703.20
168.20
Reply
Sponsored
16
93.19
103.19
Other
6
2251.67
924.50
5

17. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
• Cross-over:
– Celebrity and gossip:
• Kim Kardashian and Kanye West named their child "North
West". It's like you WANT us to destroy your planet. [1541 |
377]
• One can confirm that the new Royal baby will not be called
North West. This is mainly because William and Catherine
are not morons. [4036 | 1061]
• So I'm assuming that North West won't be a One
Direction fan? [28424 | 11276]
• If Prince William and Kate Middleton have a daughter and
DON'T call her Princess Leia, they're wasting everybody's
time. #RoyalBaby [1626 | 380]

18. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
• Cross-over:
– Breaking news:
• Text from Ed Miliband: "Delighted Catherine has joined labour.
Together we will rebuild Britain" Absolute idiot. [8135 | 2057]
• The half-blood prince has been born as the seventh month dies.
#RoyalBaby [6464 | 2909]
• Due to our govt shutdown, the following non-essential depts are
closed: education, health, welfare. Planet exploding to continue
as normal. [893 | 257]
• American Government started to shut down. Not sure what the
fuss is. Italian Government shut down about 40 years ago and
no one's noticed. [2406 | 714]
• Clearly this whole "shut down" is just the US government's way
of hiding the dementor attacks. [5133 | 2089]

19. TOPICALITY OF PARODY ACCOUNTS
• Cross-over:
– Geek and tech culture:
• Just upgraded to #iOS7 and now our exhaust port force field is
on the fritz. Oh well, what are the chances of Rebels attacking
us n [636 | 222]
• Dear most of the world, there will be a short break in leadership
whilst one downloads iOS 7. This will take approximate seven
years. EIIR [1610 | 503]
• George R. R. Martin is avada kedavraing more people? He's
about three deaths away from being called a Dark Lord. [2524 |
1102]
• George R. R. Martin kills more people than the Death Star.
#GameofThrones [1174 | 323]
• One is not the next Dr Who. [1099 | 299]
• Ben Affleck as Batman will be the opposite of "movie magic."
That is "movie muggles.“ [1485 | 595]

20. INITIAL POINTS/FURTHER DIRECTIONS
• Topical coverage attracts more RTs/favourites than other
comments
– Extends audience? Appeals to more users than account‟s
usual comments?
• Thematic framing around subject of interest provides original
take on news – encourages RTing in addition to/in place of
news organisations?
• Importance of humour to news coverage – type of event
important, although an audience for humour/satire/black
humour – see also comedians, for instance
• Types of event vs. types of account – celebrity news
(and trending topics) more common fodder than politics?

21. INITIAL POINTS/FURTHER DIRECTIONS
• Limited engagement with other accounts?
– DeathStarPR the exception here, with 40+ @replies over
the five months
– This applies too to other parody accounts – despite there
being accounts for other royals/HP characters, the Queen
and Voldemort do not engage with them
• DeathStarPR mentions/RTs @JerkSuperman, but this
account is by the same people?
– Parody operates in a bubble?
• Participating in social discussions (e.g. #eurovision) and
attracting/encouraging RTs, but not responding to audience
or surroundings?

22. INITIAL POINTS/FURTHER DIRECTIONS
• Parody as meta-commentary
– Established parody accounts dismissing the inevitable
influx of new parody accounts in response to breaking
news (staying in character as the „real‟ (fake) subject?)
• Impact of reporting on Twitter activity by news outlets
– Drives spikes in RTing/favouriting?
– Aggregating humorous tweets in response to news stories
may lead to increased audience for these tweets/accounts
• Getting more coverage and reaction in this way may
encourage further topical commentary? (albeit brief
engagement with topics)

23. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@_StephenH
@DrTNitins
@timhighfield
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