http://mappingonlinepublics.net/http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Twitter and the Queensland Floods

Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns, Dr. Jean BurgessARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationQueensland University of TechnologyBrisbane, Australia

a.bruns@qut.edu.au / je.burgess@qut.edu.au http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Crisis Communication Research at QUT

o ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation (national, based at QUT)

o Project: Media Ecologies & Methodological Innovation

o New methods to understand the changing media environment;

o Role of social media, especially Twitter

o Focus on Crisis Communication eg #qldfloods

o Partnerships with government, media orgs

http://cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Twitter and the Queensland Floods: #qldfloods tweets

10 Jan. 2011 11 Jan. 2011 12 Jan. 2011 13 Jan. 2011

14 Jan. 2011 15 Jan. 2011

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Twitter and the Queensland Floods: #qldfloods @mentions

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Message Amplification on Twitter (manual retweets only)

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Most-Shared URLs by Category

The Australian Twittersphere?

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = outdegree, size = indegree

Thematic ClustersPerth

Marketing / PR

DesignWeb

Creative

FarmingAgriculture

HardlineConservatives

ConservativesJournalists

ALPProgressives

Greens

News

OpinionNews

NGOsSocial Policy

ITTech

Social MediaTechPR

Advertising

Real EstateProperty

JobsHR

Business

BusinessProperty

Parenting

Mums CraftArts

FoodWine

Beer

Adelaide

SocialICTs

CreativeDesign

FashionBeauty

UtilitiesServices

Net Culture

BooksLiteraturePublishing

Film

TheatreArts

RadioTV Music

DanceHip Hop

Triple J

TalkbackBreakfast TVCelebritiesCycling

Union

NRL

Football

CricketAFL

SwimmingV8s

Evangelicals

Teachinge-Learning

Schools

ChristiansHillsong

Teens

Jonas Bros.Beliebers

Austra

lian

Bands

@KRuddMP

@JuliaGillard

#qldfloods

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = #qldfloods tweets, size = indegree

abc.net.au URLs

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) colour = tweets with URLs, size = indegree

ABC accounts

Follower/followee network:~120,000 Australian Twitter users(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012) blue: official, red: personal ABC accounts

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

Beyond the Queensland Floods

o Further outlook:o Need to build on #qldfloods experienceo Maintain momentum of @QPSMedia and other lead accountso Review what did/didn’t work, improve communication

strategieso Analyse and work with community communication patterns

o Cultivate potential lead users:o Who (institutions / individuals) was most active / influential?o How can they be identified as crises unfold?o Are they the usual suspects (e.g. community leaders), or not?o How stable are such communication structures?

Will social media use look similar next time around?

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

@snurb_dot_info@jeanburgess@_StephenH@DrTNitins@timhighfield@cdtavijit