Mapping a National Twittersphere: A ‘Big Data’ Analysis of Australian Twitter User NetworksAxel Bruns, Darryl Woodford, Troy Sadkowsky, and Tim Highfield

Social Media Research Group

Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, Australia

a.bruns / dp.woodford / t.sadkowsky / t.highfield @ qut.edu.au

@snurb_dot_info / @dpwoodford / @tsadkowsky / @timhighfield

THE AUSTRALIAN TWITTERSPHERE

• Twitter in Australia:– Strong take-up since 2009– Centred around 25-55 age range, urban, educated, affluent users (but gradually broadening)– Significant role in crisis communication, political communication, audience engagement, …

• Mapping the Twittersphere:– Long-term project to identify all Australian Twitter accounts– First iteration: snowball crawl of follower/followee networks

• Starting with key hashtag populations (#auspol, #spill, …)• Map of ~1m accounts in early 2012

– Second iteration: full crawl of global Twitter ID numberspace through to Sep. 2013 (~870m accounts)

• Filtering by description, location, timezone fields• Focus on identifiably Australian cities, states, timezones and other markers• 2.8 million Australian accounts identified (by Sep. 2013)• Retrieval of their follower/followee lists• Best guess of account location based on timezone, location and description settings

MAPPING THE AUSTRALIAN USERBASE

• Mapping the Twittersphere:– Filtered to include only accounts with (followers + followees) >= 1000

• 140k accounts, 22.8m follower/followee connections within this group

– Mapped using Gephi Force Atlas 2 algorithm (LinLog mode, scaling 0.0001, gravity 0.5)– Qualitative interpretation of network clusters based on high-degree nodes in each cluster– Exploration of key profile statistics (join date, number of tweets, tweeting rate)

• Activity Patterns:– Data gathered on selected tweeting activities (hashtag participation, link sharing, …)– Data filtered for participating accounts included in the 140k most connected users– Data superimposed on underlying network map

• Applications:– Combined analysis of network structures and tweeting activities– Evaluation of user engagement across topics– Comparative benchmarking across activities

GROWTH OVER TIME

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

PROTECTED (~3.5%)

VERIFIED (~1.8%)

NUMBER OF TWEETS

ACCOUNT AGE

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2006

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2007

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2008

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2009

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2010

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2011

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2012

ACCOUNTS CREATED IN 2013

LOCATION

USER ENGAGEMENT PATTERNS

• Datasets included:– Q&A: political talkshow, Australian Broadcasting Corporation – #qanda, qanda (3 Sep. to 7 Oct. 2014)– Big Brother: reality TV, Nine Network – #BBAU, #BBAU9, @BBAU9, #bigbrotherau (3 Sep. to 7 Oct. 2014)– AFL Grand Final: Seven Network – #AFLGF, AFL, HAWvSYD … (27 Sep. 2014, tracked since 26 Sep.)

– ABC News: main public broadcaster – abc.net.au (since June 2012)– news.com.au: mainstream news site – news.com.au (since June 2012)– Daily Telegraph: tabloid newspaper – dailytelegraph.com.au (since June 2012)– The Conversation: university-supported opinion site – theconversation.edu.au/.com (since June 2012)

AFL GRAND FINAL

Q&A

BIG BROTHER

ABC NEWS

NEWS.COM.AU

DAILY TELEGRAPH

THE CONVERSATION

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

• Mapping the Australian Twittersphere:– Further analysis of network structures– Identification of key accounts / roles (influencers, opinion leaders, bridging nodes, …)– Exploration of activity patterns across different clusters– Examination of structural changes over time– Exploration of network patterns beyond top users

• The Twittersphere map as background information:– Footprints of specific social media practices / mainstream media entities– Reactions to specific events across different clusters– Viral dissemination of information across the network

• Beyond Australia:– Maps of Norway and Germany currently in progress…

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/@snurb_dot_info

@dpwoodford

@katieprowd

@tsadkowsky

@timhighfield

@jeanburgess

@socialmediaQUT – http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/

This research is funded by the Australian Research Council through Future Fellowship and LIEF grants FT130100703 and LE140100148.