Digital Methods and Social Media AnalyticsJean Burgess, Axel Bruns, and Darryl Woodford

Media Ecologies Project, CCIQueensland University of Technology@jeanburgess | @snurb_dot_info | @dpwoodford

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

DIGITAL METHODS…?

• Datagathering• Processing• Analysis• Re-presentation• Materiality and ‘nature’ of the digital

‘BIG DATA’ & DIGITAL METHODS

• Big Data as currency across the sciences and social sciences• Business intelligence & ‘data markets’ (including social media & online

behavioral data).• Computational social science – e.g. MSR NYC; epidemiology; election &

stock market prediction• ‘Computational turn’ in new humanities research: shift from computational

tools to a new computational paradigm, changing the ontologies and epistemologies of humanities research (Berry, 2012).

• Eg shift from ‘close’ to ‘distant’ reading (Moretti); ‘software studies’ (eg Fuller, 2008) and ANT approaches to new media platforms;

• From ‘virtual’/trad social research methods to ‘natively’ digital methods to diagnose patterns of social change (Rogers, 2009).

The map is not the territory (Korzybski)

…and certainly not the destination

UNDERSTANDING TWITTER PUBLICS

• #hashtags:– Useful coordinating mechanism for core discussion– Relatively easy to capture and analyse– Fails to capture non-hashtagged tweets about the topic– Good case studies, but very little comparative work to date

• National / global Twittersphere maps:– Crucial contextual baseline for #hashtag case studies– Slow and laborious data gathering process, never complete– Very long-term perspective, beyond most funded projects– Indispensable for study of Twitter as a public space

#ROYALWEDDING (29 APR. 2011)

#AUSVOTES (JULY-AUG. 2010): THEMES

#EQNZ: MOST VISIBLE ACCOUNTS, 22 FEB.-7 MAR. 2011 (RETWEETS + @REPLIES RECEIVED)

#EQNZ: VISIBILITY ACROSS EARTHQUAKES (2010-2011)

(Bruns & Burgess, 2012)

HA

SH

TA

G M

ET

RIC

S

(Bruns & Stieglitz, 2012)

BEYOND HASHTAGS

Overlapping publics / networks– What determines their formation and dissolution?– How do they interact and interweave?– How are they interleaved with the wider media ecology?– How do they represent the Twitter component of wider societal publics?

• ad hoc publics, often rapidly forming

and dissolving

macro: #hashtags

• personal publics, accumulating slowly and relatively stable

meso: follower networks

• interpersonalcommunication,

ephemeral

micro:@replies

(Bruns & Moe, 2013)

THE AUSTRALIAN TWITTERSPHERE?

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = outdegree, size = indegree

THEMATIC CLUSTERS

PerthMarketing / PR

DesignWeb

Creative

FarmingAgriculture

HardlineConservatives

ConservativesJournalists

ALPProgressives

Greens

News

OpinionNews

NGOsSocial Policy

ITTech

Social MediaTechPR

Advertising

Real EstateProperty

JobsHR

Business

BusinessProperty

Parenting

Mums CraftArts

FoodWine

Beer

Adelaide

SocialICTs

CreativeDesign

FashionBeauty

UtilitiesServices

Net Culture

BooksLiteraturePublishing

Film

TheatreArts

RadioTV Music

DanceHip Hop

Triple J

TalkbackBreakfast TVCelebritiesCycling

Union

NRL

Football

CricketAFL

SwimmingV8s

Evangelicals

Teachinge-Learning

Schools

ChristiansHillsong

Teens

Jonas Bros.Beliebers

Australian Bands

@KRuddMP

@JuliaGillard

#AUSPOL

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #auspol tweets, size = indegree

#AUSVOTES

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #ausvotes tweets, size = indegree

#ROYALWEDDING

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #royalwedding tweets, size = indeg.

#MASTERCHEF

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #masterchef tweets, size = indeg.

THEAUSTRALIAN.COM.AU URLS

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = tweets with URLs, size = indegree

ABC.NET.AU URLS

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = tweets with URLs, size = indegree

AUSTRALIAN TWITTER NEWS INDEX

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/tag/atnix/

AUSTRALIAN TWITTER NEWS INDEX

BIG BIG DATA: THE FIRST MILLION TWITTER IDS

Twitter IDs 1-1,000,000 (48,000 accounts still in existence)

(see http://mappingonlinepublics.net/2013/04/08/the-first-million-ids-on-twitter/)

THE FIRST MILLION: TWEETS SENT

THE FIRST MILLION: TIME ZONES

A NEW MILLION

• 1 million new account IDs (~ 422.000 existing accounts) • Newly registered on 18/19 Mar. 2013, 16:00-01:00 UTC ( 1-1.5m new users/day)

TWITTER AS A PROXY

• Tweets, and Twitter Users, are actually informative about other platforms.

• While not an alternative to application specific APIs, it can provide an approximation.

• Overall pattern / content of uploaded Vine videos (that are shared via Twitter: ~50%).

• Mirrors YouTubers fairly well (similar start date, ‘Pro’ YouTubers use Twitter/FB to reduce reliance on YT)

TWITTER AS A PROXY

• While not an alternative to application specific APIs, it can provide an approximation of growth rates and user profiles.

• Overall pattern / content of uploaded Vine videos (that are shared via Twitter: ~50%).

• Mirrors YouTubers fairly well (similar start date, ‘Pro’ YouTubers use Twitter/FB to reduce reliance on YT)

TWITTER AS A PROXY: MONTH OF VINES

TWITTER AS A PROXY: DAILY PATTERNS

TWITTER AS A PROXY: HASHTAGS AS DESCRIPTORS

TWITTER AS A PROXY: YOUTUBERS: @CHARLESTRIPPY (ID VS. ACCESSION #)

This set of IDs were apparently never allocated.

Prank vs Prank

TWITTER AS A PROXY: YOUTUBERS -- @CHARLESTRIPPY (ACC # VS DATE)

PrankvsPrank

?

CTFxC Wedding

TWITTER AS A PROXY: YOUTUBERS -- @COREYVIDAL (ACC # VS DATE)

CTFxC Wedding

I’m Vlogging Here Indiegogo & Filming

?

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES

• Data access, platform volatility• Research ethics

– textual research or ‘human subjects’ research? – Consequences of public/personal convergence, data

markets/open data movement, and ‘context collapse’ (boyd)– Cross-national and cross-disciplinary differences, need for public

discussion

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES

• Better integration with existing social and cultural theory & empirical work– Mixed methods, especially integration of qualitative and

ethnographic approaches

• Propagation and regularisation of methods (and consequences for research training)– ‘Code literacy’ sufficient to engage with the material

consequences of software platforms

‘BIG DATA’ AND RESEARCH SKILLS

• Researchers need interdisciplinary skill sets:– Media & communication to understand the media environment– Maths and statistics to deal with ‘big data’– Computer science to develop tools to process social media data– Communication design to develop effective visualisations– Writing and communication skills to communicate the results– …

– Where do we find them?(few people have such a diverse range of skills)

– How do we support their work? (we’re only just developing our methods and tools)

– What is our strategy for dealing with precarity?(sudden API changes, changing fortunes of platforms, …)

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/@snurb_dot_info

@jeanburgess

@dpwoodford

@tsadkowsky

@lena_sauter

@timhighfield

@cdtavijit

@socialmediaQUT