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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#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

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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).