Big Data + Twitter

BIG DATA +

TWITTER

WHAT WE LEARN FROM TWEETS,

HASHTAG USE, @MENTIONS, RETWEETS,

AND RESOURCE-SHARING ON TWITTER

DR TIM HIGHFIELD (CCI; QUT+CURTIN)

WHY TWITTER?

POPULAR

PUBLIC

SHORT

IMMEDIATE

SPREADABLE

TRACEABLE

PERFORMATIVE

INTERACTIVE

REACTIVE

MOBILE

MULTI-CONTEXT

HOW

OPEN-SOURCE DATA CAPTURE

(YOURTWAPPERKEEPER)

IN-HOUSE PROCESSING SCRIPTS

(GAWK)

NETWORK VISUALISATION

(GEPHI)

THE AUSTRALIAN

TWITTERSPHERE

Source:

Bruns, Burgess, and

Highfield (under

review), ‘A ‘Big Data’

Approach to Mapping

the Australian

Twittersphere’.

#AUSPOL +

#AUSVOTES

Source:

Bruns, Burgess, and

Highfield (under

review), ‘A ‘Big Data’

Approach to Mapping

the Australian

Twittersphere’.

Distribution of users whose tweets

contain #auspol or #ausvotes on

the overall Twittersphere map

@sunriseon7

@couriermail

@612brisbane

@QPSmedia

@abcnews

QUEENSLAND FLOODS

(2011)

Source:

Bruns, Burgess, Crawford, and Shaw

(2012), #qldfloods and @QPSMedia:

Crisis Communication on Twitter in

the 2011 South East Queensland

Floods [report]:

http://cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf

Connections through #qldfloods tweets (coloured

for retweets/@mentions of major media and

emergency accounts)

Types of tweet per day

ARAB SPRING:

#EGYPT (2011)

Source:

Bruns, Highfield, and

Burgess (forthcoming),

‘The Arab Spring and

Social Media

Audiences: English

and Arabic Twitter

Users and Their

Networks’. American

Behavioral Scientist.

Connections through tweets

containing #egypt, based on

language script

Left: 1-28 February

Right: 15 June-15 September

Albania

Malta

Serbia

Ireland

Jedward

Spain

Human Rights

France

Italy

Greece

Turkey

Sweden

UK

EUROVISION 2012

(GLOBAL)

Source:

Highfield, Harrington, and Bruns (2013).

‘Twitter as a Technology for Audiencing

and Fandom: The #Eurovision

phenomenon’. Information,

Communication & Society, 16(3), 315-

339.

@mentions and retweets from

#eurovision tweets

May 2012

TOUR DE FRANCE

2012 (GLOBAL)

Source:

Highfield (forthcoming). ‘Following the

yellow jersey: Tweeting the Tour de

France’. Twitter and Society (edited

collection)

@mentions and

retweets from #tdf

tweets

July 2012

WA ELECTION

(2013)


mentioning /from WA election

candidates, politicians, political

parties

Connections only

between

candidate/politician/

party accounts

OCCUPY OAKLAND

(2012)

Source:

Croeser and Highfield (2012). ‘#oo

activism: Uses of Twitter within the

Occupy Oakland movement’

[conference paper]


containing #oo

10-13 February 2012


containing #oo and #ows

10-13 February 2012

BIG TWITTER DATA

LIMITS OF ACCESS, TERMS OF USE

LIMITED USE OF FEATURES,

PRACTICES NOT UNIVERSAL

TOO MUCH DATA? NOT ENOUGH DATA?

IMPORTANT INFORMATION INTO

WIDER SOCIAL MEDIA USES

SUPPORTED BY FURTHER ANALYSIS,

ADDITIONAL METHODS