easy data, hard data: the politics and pragmatics of twitter research after the computational turn
TRANSCRIPT
Easy Data, Hard Data: The politics and pragmatics of Twitter research after the computational turnJean Burgess & Axel BrunsDigital Media Research CentreQueensland University of TechnologyBrisbane, Australia
a.bruns | je.burgess @ qut.edu.au @snurb_dot_info | @jeanburgesshttp://mappingonlinepublics.net/
THE COMPUTATIONAL TURN
1. Berry (2013) - a historical conjuncture in the humanities; not only instrumental but also transformational
THE COMPUTATIONAL TURN
1. Berry (2013) - a historical conjuncture in the humanities; not only instrumental but also transformational
2. Practical dimension
THE COMPUTATIONAL TURN
1. Berry (2013) - a historical conjuncture in the humanities; not only instrumental but also transformational
2. Practical dimension3. Political dimension
PLATFORM POLITICS: REGIMES OF ACCESS
1. Platform politics: multiple, changing, co-constitution of business models, technologies, cultures of use
2. Specific focus on scientific data-driven Twitter research and scholarship:1. Particular sets of relations among actors2. Particular configurations of competing desires, strategies and
tactics3. Change over time
3. Changing business models, technical arrangements and public understandings of what Twitter is – Twitter APIs as particularly acute site of contestation
4. Scholarship is entangled with these politics
BEYOND HASHTAGS
• Key needs in Twitter research:– Understand how hashtags are situated in a wider communicative ecology on Twitter– Document the day-to-day uses of Twitter, beyond and outside hashtags– Trace the dynamics of Twitter as a platform for everyday quasi-private, interpersonal,
and/or public communication– Track the impact of social and technological changes on these uses
• 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)
DAILY GROWTH (GLOBAL)
Education
Agriculture
Literature
Adelaide / SA
FoodWine
Beer
Parenting
Mums PR
Netizens
Marketing
InvestingReal Estate
Home BusinessSole Traders
Self-Help
HR / Support
Followback
Urban MediaUtilities
Advertising
Business
Fashion
Beauty
ArtsCinema
Journalists
Politics
Hard RightLeftists
News
CyclingTalkback
Music
TVV8s UFC
NRL
AFL
Football
Horse Racing
CricketNRU
Celebrities
Hillsong
Perth
PopMedia
Teen Idols
Cody Simpson
THE AUSTRALIAN TWITTERSPHERE
AUSTRALIAN TWEETS PER DAY
LEADING HASHTAGS IN AUSTRALIA
CONCLUSIONS & OUTLOOK
• Current situation replicates and amplifies inequality of access to research resources
• Solutions? Data grants, data philanthropy (“data for good”)
• Was Twitter a historical blip? (open-ish API + scale + significance)
@qutdmrc @jeanburgess @snurb_dot_info