twitter and australian political debates
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Twitter and Australian
political debates Tim Highfield
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
t.highfield @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ | http://timhighfield.net/
POLITICAL DEBATE ONLINE
• The potential for online platforms (individually and
collectively) to reshape and/or revitalise political debate
is a long-standing question
• An evolving continuum of online political discussions,
developed through blogs, citizen journalism projects,
social media
• Platforms not used in isolation; people discussing politics
online tweet about it, blog, share links, comment on
statuses…
TWITTER AND POLITICAL DEBATE
• While not used in isolation, Twitter is a particularly
noteworthy platform for political discussion online:
– Public medium (mostly)
– Brevity of messages
– Associated features: retweets, hashtags, @mentions
• Adoption of Twitter as a popular and primary medium for
live commentary accompanying (media) events,
breaking news, activism (and combinations of these
approaches, taking place in same space).
POLITICAL DISCUSSION ON TWITTER
• Potential for political debate to involve wider population
than just journalists and politicians?
• New gatekeepers?
• Follow and respond directly to people creating news/shaping
politics
• To what extent, though, are these different participants in
political discussions interacting – or even contributing to
the same conversations?
METHODS
• Comparative analysis of three Australian political hashtags; data collected between January and December 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
AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
• Federal politics: currently led by centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), Prime Minister Julia Gillard; next election due in September 2013, expected to be won by centre-right (conservative) Liberal/National coalition, led by Tony Abbott. Voting is compulsory (93% turnout in 2010).
• State politics:
– Six states, all bicameral systems except Queensland (unicameral)
– Start of 2012: three states ALP in power, three Liberal. (Liberal-National Party took power in Queensland in March 2012).
AUSTRALIAN POLITICS AND TWITTER
• Twitter more widely taken up – by politicians and general
public – than previous technologies such as blogging.
• Accounts established for sitting politicians
– At Federal level, 146 of 226 members of Lower and Upper
Houses present on Twitter (July 2012)
• 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)
• State-based hashtags less afflicted by this development (in general)?
#AUSPOL
– 1,002,451 tweets (15/01-04/07), 50,622 users
– 19.8 tweets per user, 5,828 tweets per day
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#QLDPOL
– 49,300 tweets (15/01-04/07), 5,668 users
– 8.7 tweets per user, 286.6 tweets per day
State election Civil partnerships bill amended
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Twe
ets
Date
#WAPOL
– 21,261 tweets (15/01-26/12), 2,855 users
– 7.4 tweets per user, 61 tweets per day
Opposition leadership change
Treasurer resigns Cabinet reshuffle
Budget
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Twe
ets
Date
Pre-election
WHO IS TWEETING?
– Highly active group of users within #auspol hashtag:
• Top 1% users contribute 64% of tweets
• 6 users responsible for 87,696 tweets
0
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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
WHO IS TWEETING? #AUSPOL
– Highly active group of users within #auspol hashtag:
• These especially active users not elected parliamentarians or
journalists
• Instead, politically engaged citizens (or automated accounts)
– Fit Coleman’s (2006) description of “political junkies”,
who treat political issues as major topics of interest and
actively seek out relevant news and opinion pieces?
– MPs, journalists, media organisations mentioned often in
tweets
• However, these accounts (especially politicians) do not
contribute many tweets to the #auspol discussion
WHO IS TWEETING? #QLDPOL
– Tweeting patterns also show a core group of users contributing the majority of hashtagged tweets
• Some overlap with the prominent #auspol users.
– The users that are most mentioned are a mixture of these frequent contributors and key state political actors, who do not necessarily participate in these discussions themselves.
• Limits to this analysis due to election in first half of 2012; user names, and affiliations, changed (including @TheQldPremier)
• Further analysis required to establish on-going patterns beyond the election context.
WHO IS TWEETING? #WAPOL
– A lower level of activity, but greater representation
amongst most mentioned and also most active accounts
by journalists and politicians
• A more even spread of – and comparable contributions from
– citizens (including the “political junkies”), journalists, and
politicians alike.
– Changing patterns towards end of year as election
campaigns are readied
• Party strategies regarding social media have some impact on
the developing shape of tweeted political debates
WHO IS TWEETING?
– Politicians in particular often mentioned a lot, but rarely contribute to hashtagged debates
• @mentions as a shorthand for discussing politicians, creating a link to their account, rather than necessarily expecting conversation
– Presence of core group of “political junkies” leading (in volume if not in topic) these discussions
• Framing of politics around personalities (individual politicians) rather than parties?
• Tweeting patterns still follow major news stories, debates around party leaders (particularly in hung parliament situation, in build-up to election).
LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER OUTLOOK
• Caveats: – 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
• Intentions of hashtags, functions of use
• Future directions – Case studies within the different political contexts
– Replies and retweets, information flows, across party affiliation, between different user groups (journalists, politicians), regions, themes
• Ongoing tracking, comparing non-election and election periods (QLD 2012; WA and AUS 2013).
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