#auspol, #qldpol, and #wapol:

Twitter and the new

Australian political

commentariat Tim Highfield, Axel Bruns, and Stephen Harrington

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, Australia

t.highfield | a.bruns | s.harrington @ qut.edu.au

@timhighfield | @snurb_dot_info | @_StephenH

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS ONLINE

• 2007 election campaign – Kevin 07, psephology blogs

• Political blogs

– Not widely taken up by politicians, confrontational

relationship at times between bloggers and mainstream

media

– Similar relationship at times developed on Twitter

• GrogsGate

• Social media

• Larger Australian userbase on Twitter than within

blogosphere

• Twitter for breaking politicial news (#spill)

DISCUSSIONS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

• Australian political blogosphere organised less along

party lines than around topics of interest

– Economics, polling data, feminist issues

– ‘Niche’ bloggers adding to debate by examining topics

from the context of their own speciality subjects

– Promoted and responded to by ‘A-list’ bloggers (including

group blogs) covering politics in general (Highfield, 2011)

POLITICAL DISCUSSION ON TWITTER

• New gatekeepers on Twitter?

– News and opinion circulated, critiqued, challenged on social media

• Extension of gatewatching (Bruns, 2005)

• Follow and respond directly to people creating news/shaping politics

– 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

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS AND TWITTER

• Accounts established for sitting politicians

– At Federal level, 146 of 226 members of Lower and Upper

Houses present on Twitter (July 2012)

– Accounts also for government departments, political

parties, media releases

• 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)

TWITTER AND AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

• Tracking three general political hashtags since January

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

#AUSPOL

– 1,002,451 tweets (15/01-04/07), 50,622 users

0

2000

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12

-Jan

-15

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-23

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-Jan

-27

20

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-Jan

-31

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-Feb

-04

20

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-08

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-12

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-16

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-20

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-Feb

-24

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-28

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-Mar

-03

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-07

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-Mar

-11

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-Mar

-15

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-23

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-Mar

-27

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-31

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-Ap

r-0

42

01

2-A

pr-

08

20

12

-Ap

r-1

22

01

2-A

pr-

16

20

12

-Ap

r-2

02

01

2-A

pr-

24

20

12

-Ap

r-2

82

01

2-M

ay-0

22

01

2-M

ay-0

62

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2-M

ay-1

02

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2-M

ay-1

42

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2-M

ay-1

82

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2-M

ay-2

22

01

2-M

ay-2

62

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2-M

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12

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#AUSPOL

– Highly active group of users within 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% (>= 0tweets; 45514 of

50662 users)

users > 90% (>= 14tweets; 4639 of 50662

users)

users > 99% (>= 297tweets; 510 of 50662

users)

Sum of original tweets

Sum of genuine @replies

Sum of retweets

REPRESENTATIVE LIMITS OF #AUSPOL

• 13 April 2012: Sen. Bob Brown resigns as Greens leader

– 11am 13 April 2012-midnight 14 April 2012:

• Mentions of “Bob Brown”, “Christine Milne” #bobbrown, @SenatorBobBrown, @SenatorMilne: 13,028 tweets, 7311 users

• Mentions of these keywords + #auspol: 1547 tweets, 924 users

• Mentions of #auspol (all contexts): 6989 tweets, 2092 users

– Bob Brown – 22.1% of #auspol tweets

– #auspol – 11.9% of Bob Brown tweets

– 8065 users – 1338 both Bob Brown + #auspol (16.6%)

THE STATE LEVEL: QUEENSLAND

• #qldpol

– 116,873 tweets (15/01-15/10), 9531 users

0

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/01

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/02

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26

/02

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27

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2/0

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26

/04

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2/0

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29

/09

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5/1

0/2

01

2

11

/10

/20

12

State election Civil partnerships bill amended

Budget Government funding

THE STATE LEVEL: WESTERN AUSTRALIA

• #wapol

– 16,001 tweets (15/01-15/10), 2373 users

0

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/09

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5/1

0/2

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/10

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12

Opposition leadership change

Treasurer resigns

Cabinet reshuffle

Budget

#AUSPOL AND FEDERAL POLITICIANS

@mentions/RTs by active Federal politicians in #auspol tweets Black – journalist/MSM Red – ALP Blue – Liberal Orange – Nationals Green – Greens Pink - Independent

#AUSPOL AND FEDERAL POLITICIANS

degree 2+ @mentions/RTs by active Federal politicians in #auspol tweets Black – journalist/MSM Red – ALP Blue – Liberal Orange – Nationals Green – Greens Pink - Independent

#WAPOL

degree 5+ Black – journalist/MSM Red – ALP Blue – Liberal Orange – Nationals Green - Greens

degree 2+, @mentions/RTs by active WA state politicians in #wapol tweets Black – journalist/MSM Red – ALP Blue – Liberal Orange – Nationals Green - Greens

#WAPOL AND WA POLITICIANS

• 9 October: Julia Gillard’s misogyny and sexism speech

– 1.9mil views on YouTube

– International attention, heightened #auspol activity:

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SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY

• Australian mainstream media interpretation of speech

(and coverage of the story) at odds with international

views, criticised by social media users:

As anyone who has a Twitter account or a Facebook page has

noticed, the media's interpretation of the Alan Jones' affair, or

more especially, their interpretation of the Prime Minister's

speech in Parliament about Mr Abbott's sexism, is rejected

outright by many people. Social media has been full of people

interpreting these events in ways that are at odds with the

media's view. People are simply tired of any professional view

that pretends to be authoritative, let alone definitive.

(Dunlop, 2012)

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY

FURTHER OUTLOOK

• Event/issue-specific

– Case studies within the different political contexts

– Link-sharing, common resources

• Overlap with tracking Australian news and opinion sites

• Do #auspol users link to some sites more than others? News

or opinion? Reflected in connections to journalist accounts?

• Replies and retweets, information flows

– Across party affiliation, between different user groups

(journalists, politicians), regions, themes

• Ongoing activity around political hashtags

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ @snurb_dot_info

@jeanburgess

@_StephenH

@DrTNitins

@timhighfield

@cdtavijit