tweetchina workshop explores big data & social media

TweetChina! Min Jiang (Ph.D. Communication Studies)

August 6, 2013 | UNCC

Agenda

•  Impetus • Media Forms: Text, Picture, Map, Event • Define “China” on Twitter • Prototype • Ethical Concerns •  Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Impetus – Personal Experience

Impetus – Questions

• Who are talking about “China” on Twitter?

• Where are they located geographically?

• Who are opinion leaders in this space?

• What are the issues of the day?

• What are the most retweeted tweets & photos?

• …

Media Forms: Text

Media Forms: Picture

Media Forms: Map

Define “China” on Twitter

•  Geography: geo-location

•  Language: in Chinese (simplified or traditional)

•  Keywords: profiles or tweets mention “China” or “Chinese”

•  Issue/event: China-centered issue/event “Senkaku Island”

•  Opinion leaders: followers, retweets, positive feedback

•  Interaction: follow, retweet, comments

Define “China” on Twitter

• Chinese Twitterverse

•  Geography, Language

• Chinese Twitter Crowds

•  Keywords, Events/Issues

• Chinese Twitter Communities

•  Opinion leaders, Interactions

Prototype

Prototype: Issues

•  Source •  Can users choose different sub-datasets (e.g. language)?

•  View •  Can users control how they view the data (e.g. picture only)?

•  Search •  Can users search the TweetChina database?

•  Export •  Can data (such as tweets, pictures) be exported?

Ethical Concerns

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

• Communication – Social Science

• Computer Visualization – Computer Science

• Design – Arts + Architecture

•  Library – Information Science

•  Law – Copyright, Trademark