Paper presented at the Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space conference, Amsterdam, 18 June 2014.

1. All Politics Is Local? The Twitter
Performance of Local Candidates in
the 2013 Australian Federal Election
Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
a.bruns@qut.edu.au – @snurb_dot_info – http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. BACKGROUND
• Research projects:
– ARC Discovery: New Media and Public Communication (QUT)
– NRC FRISAM: Impact of Social Media on Agenda-Setting in Election
Campaigns (QUT, UiO, UiB, Uppsala, CSU LB)
– ATN-DAAD: Mapping Networked Politics (QUT, LMU)
• Study design:
– Comparative study of Twitter usage during Australian, Norwegian,
German (and US) election
– Tracking tweets from and at Twitter accounts of MPs and candidates
before, during, and after election campaigns
– Additional analysis of follower networks, national Twitterspheres, social
media / mainstream media intersections, etc.

3. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS ON TWITTER
• Twitter in Australia:
– Early adoption, ~2.8m accounts by late 2013
– Significant use for political debate: #auspol, #ausvotes, political accounts
• Politics in Australia:
– Three-year electoral period
– Lower House MPs must win majority in local electorates
– Senate voting considerably more complex; half of Senate replaced every three years
– Considerable media focus on two major parties and their candidates for PM
• Timeline:
– 2007: change of government (Coalition > Labor)
– 2010: Labor PM Kevin Rudd replaced by Deputy PM Julia Gillard
– 2010: Labor PM Gillard narrowly retains power in federal election
– 2012/13: former PM Rudd challenges unpopular PM Gillard
– 2013: Rudd returns as PM in June
– 2013: change of government (Labor > Coalition)

4. AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS ON TWITTER
(data to June 2013)

5. @TONYABBOTTMHR’S FAKE FOLLOWERS
(11/12 Aug. 2013)

6. @MENTIONS OF LEADERS (@REPLIES + RETWEETS)
TV debates
Abbott ‘sex appeal’
comments Labor campaign
‘launch’

7. RETWEETS OF LEADERS

8. @MENTIONS OF LEADERS

9. @MENTIONS OF PARTY CANDIDATES
(@KRUDDMP AND @TONYABBOTTMHR REMOVED)

10. TWEETS BY LEADERS

11. TWEETS BY PARTY CANDIDATES

12. TWEETS BY LOCAL CANDIDATES

13. @MENTIONS OF LOCAL CANDIDATES

14. TWEETS BY SYDNEY CANDIDATES

15. @MENTIONS OF SYDNEY CANDIDATES

16. @MENTIONS (ELECTION DAY)

17. SOME OBSERVATIONS
• Politician activity:
– Considerable tweeting activity by local candidates, though unevenly distributed
– Labor and minor parties (esp. Greens) most active
– Eastern states / urban centres more active
• User attention:
– Overall focus on PM candidates and other frontbenchers
– Some engagement with other local candidates, at lower volume
– Generally more discussion about than engagement with candidates
• Further research:
– Correlations with vote margins in each seat?
– Impact of politicians’ responsiveness on user engagement?

18. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@dpwoodford
@timhighfield
@tsadkowsky
@socialmediaQUT