Paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference, Salford, UK, 21 October 2012.

1. #auspol, #qldpol, and #wapol:
Twitter and the new
Australian political
commentariat
Tim Highfield, Axel Bruns, and Stephen Harrington
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
t.highfield | a.bruns | s.harrington @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield | @snurb_dot_info | @_StephenH
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS ONLINE
• 2007 election campaign – Kevin 07, psephology blogs
• Political blogs
– Not widely taken up by politicians, confrontational
relationship at times between bloggers and mainstream
media
– Similar relationship at times developed on Twitter
• GrogsGate
• Social media
• Larger Australian userbase on Twitter than within
blogosphere
• Twitter for breaking politicial news (#spill)

3. DISCUSSIONS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
• Australian political blogosphere organised less along
party lines than around topics of interest
– Economics, polling data, feminist issues
– ‘Niche’ bloggers adding to debate by examining topics
from the context of their own speciality subjects
– Promoted and responded to by ‘A-list’ bloggers (including
group blogs) covering politics in general (Highfield, 2011)

4. POLITICAL DISCUSSION ON TWITTER
• New gatekeepers on Twitter?
– News and opinion circulated, critiqued, challenged on
social media
• Extension of gatewatching (Bruns, 2005)
• Follow and respond directly to people creating news/shaping
politics
– 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

5. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS AND TWITTER
• Accounts established for sitting politicians
– At Federal level, 146 of 226 members of Lower and Upper
Houses present on Twitter (July 2012)
– Accounts also for government departments, political
parties, media releases
• Hashtags for different political events/broadcasts:
– #ausvotes, #ausdecides, #qldvotes – election campaigns
– #qt, #waqt – Parliamentary Question Time
– #qanda, #insiders – Q & A, Insiders political panel shows

6. #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)

7. TWITTER AND AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
• Tracking three general political hashtags since January
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

8. 10000
12000
14000
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
2012-Jan-15
2012-Jan-19
2012-Jan-23
2012-Jan-27
2012-Jan-31
2012-Feb-04
#AUSPOL
2012-Feb-08
2012-Feb-12
2012-Feb-16
2012-Feb-20
2012-Feb-24 ALP leadershiip spill
2012-Feb-28
2012-Mar-03
2012-Mar-07
2012-Mar-11
2012-Mar-15
2012-Mar-19
2012-Mar-23
2012-Mar-27
2012-Mar-31
2012-Apr-04
2012-Apr-08
2012-Apr-12
2012-Apr-16
2012-Apr-20
2012-Apr-24
2012-Apr-28
2012-May-02
Craig Thomson
2012-May-06
2012-May-10 Budget
2012-May-14
2012-May-18
2012-May-22
2012-May-26
Craig Thomson
2012-May-30
– 1,002,451 tweets (15/01-04/07), 50,622 users
2012-Jun-03
2012-Jun-07
2012-Jun-11
2012-Jun-15
2012-Jun-19
2012-Jun-23
2012-Jun-27 Asylum seeker debate
2012-Jul-01 Carbon tax

9. #AUSPOL
– Highly active group of users within hashtag:
• Top 1% users contribute 64% of tweets
• 6 users responsible for 87,696 tweets
1200000
1000000
800000
600000 Sum of original tweets
Sum of genuine @replies
400000 Sum of retweets
200000
0
all 50662 users users > 0% (>= 0 users > 90% (>= 14 users > 99% (>= 297
tweets; 45514 of tweets; 4639 of 50662 tweets; 510 of 50662
50662 users) users) users)

10. REPRESENTATIVE LIMITS OF #AUSPOL
• 13 April 2012: Sen. Bob Brown resigns as Greens leader
– 11am 13 April 2012-midnight 14 April 2012:
• Mentions of “Bob Brown”, “Christine Milne” #bobbrown,
@SenatorBobBrown, @SenatorMilne: 13,028 tweets, 7311
users
• Mentions of these keywords + #auspol: 1547 tweets, 924
users
• Mentions of #auspol (all contexts): 6989 tweets, 2092 users
– Bob Brown – 22.1% of #auspol tweets
– #auspol – 11.9% of Bob Brown tweets
– 8065 users – 1338 both Bob Brown + #auspol (16.6%)

11. 0
1500
2000
2500
500
1000
15/01/2012
21/01/2012
27/01/2012
2/02/2012
8/02/2012
14/02/2012
20/02/2012
26/02/2012
• #qldpol
3/03/2012
9/03/2012
15/03/2012
State election
21/03/2012
27/03/2012
2/04/2012
8/04/2012
14/04/2012
20/04/2012
26/04/2012
2/05/2012
8/05/2012
14/05/2012
20/05/2012
26/05/2012
1/06/2012
7/06/2012
13/06/2012
19/06/2012
Civil partnerships bill amended
25/06/2012
1/07/2012
7/07/2012
13/07/2012
19/07/2012
25/07/2012
Government funding
– 116,873 tweets (15/01-15/10), 9531 users
31/07/2012
6/08/2012
THE STATE LEVEL: QUEENSLAND
12/08/2012
18/08/2012
24/08/2012
30/08/2012
5/09/2012
11/09/2012
17/09/2012
23/09/2012
29/09/2012
Budget
5/10/2012
11/10/2012

12. 0
100
200
300
400
600
500
15/01/2012
21/01/2012
27/01/2012
2/02/2012
8/02/2012
14/02/2012
20/02/2012
• #wapol
26/02/2012
3/03/2012
9/03/2012
15/03/2012
21/03/2012
27/03/2012
2/04/2012
Opposition leadership change
8/04/2012
14/04/2012
20/04/2012
26/04/2012
2/05/2012
8/05/2012
14/05/2012
20/05/2012
26/05/2012
Budget
1/06/2012
7/06/2012
13/06/2012
19/06/2012
25/06/2012
1/07/2012
7/07/2012
13/07/2012
19/07/2012
Treasurer resigns
25/07/2012
– 16,001 tweets (15/01-15/10), 2373 users
31/07/2012
6/08/2012
Cabinet reshuffle
12/08/2012
18/08/2012
24/08/2012
30/08/2012
5/09/2012
11/09/2012
17/09/2012
23/09/2012
29/09/2012
5/10/2012
11/10/2012
THE STATE LEVEL: WESTERN AUSTRALIA

13. #AUSPOL AND FEDERAL POLITICIANS
@mentions/RTs by active
Federal politicians in
#auspol tweets
Black – journalist/MSM
Red – ALP
Blue – Liberal
Orange – Nationals
Green – Greens
Pink - Independent

14. #AUSPOL AND FEDERAL POLITICIANS
degree 2+
@mentions/RTs by active
Federal politicians in
#auspol tweets
Black – journalist/MSM
Red – ALP
Blue – Liberal
Orange – Nationals
Green – Greens
Pink - Independent

15. #WAPOL
degree 5+
Black – journalist/MSM
Red – ALP
Blue – Liberal
Orange – Nationals
Green - Greens

16. #WAPOL AND WA POLITICIANS
degree 2+,
@mentions/RTs by active
WA state politicians in
#wapol tweets
Black – journalist/MSM
Red – ALP
Blue – Liberal
Orange – Nationals
Green - Greens

17. SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY
• 9 October: Julia Gillard’s misogyny and sexism speech
– 1.9mil views on YouTube
– International attention, heightened #auspol activity:
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
7/10/2012
8/10/2012
9/10/2012
10/10/2012
11/10/2012
12/10/2012
13/10/2012
14/10/2012

18. SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY
• Australian mainstream media interpretation of speech
(and coverage of the story) at odds with international
views, criticised by social media users:
As anyone who has a Twitter account or a Facebook page has
noticed, the media's interpretation of the Alan Jones' affair, or
more especially, their interpretation of the Prime Minister's
speech in Parliament about Mr Abbott's sexism, is rejected
outright by many people. Social media has been full of people
interpreting these events in ways that are at odds with the
media's view. People are simply tired of any professional view
that pretends to be authoritative, let alone definitive.
(Dunlop, 2012)

19. SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTARY

20. FURTHER OUTLOOK
• Event/issue-specific
– Case studies within the different political contexts
– Link-sharing, common resources
• Overlap with tracking Australian news and opinion sites
• Do #auspol users link to some sites more than others? News
or opinion? Reflected in connections to journalist accounts?
• Replies and retweets, information flows
– Across party affiliation, between different user groups
(journalists, politicians), regions, themes
• Ongoing activity around political hashtags

21. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@_StephenH
@DrTNitins
@timhighfield
@cdtavijit