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