JEAN BURGESS & THERESA SAUTER

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY @JEANBURGESS | @LENA_SAUTER

HASHTAG AS HYBRID FORUM

THE CASE OF #AGCHATOZ

hashtag studies

all the hashtags hashtag typologies

because of reasons hashtags as agents

hashtag studies

all the hashtags hashtag typologies

because of reasons hashtags as agents

hashtag studies

all the hashtags hashtag typologies

because of reasons hashtags as agents

hashtag studies

all the hashtags hashtag typologies

because of reasons hashtags as agents

‘hybrid forums’ (Callon)

Forums because they are open spaces where groups can come together to discuss technical options involving the collective, hybrid because the groups involved and the spokespersons claiming to represent them are heterogeneous, including experts, politicians, technicians, and laypersons who consider themselves involved. They are also hybrid because the questions and problems taken up are addressed at different levels in a variety of domains. (Callon, Lascoumes & Barthe, 2001:18)

#agchatoz dataset

Date range: 16 July 2013-19 Feb 2014

Tweets: 73,218

Unique user IDs: 7,289

Tweets containing “#agchatoz” archived with yourTwapperkeeper (search + streaming API)

Gawk scripts (processing)

Tableau and gephi (analytics and visualisation)

Size: in-degree

Colour: modularity class

Snapshot of follower-followee relationships April 2014

Visible nodes = degree >7

Leftish twittertariat

Media orgs, journos,

MPs

Oz ag orgs, farmers

international ag orgs, farmers

right-wing #auspol

foodies

Size: out-degree

Colour: modularity class

Leftish twittertariat

Media orgs, journos,

MPs

Oz ag orgs, farmers

international ag orgs, farmers

right-wing #auspol

foodies

Size: #agchatoz tweets

Colour: modularity class

Leftish twittertariat

Media orgs, journos,

MPs

Oz ag orgs, farmers

international ag orgs, farmers

right-wing #auspol

foodies

Size: total status count

Colour: modularity class

Leftish twittertariat

Media orgs, journos,

MPs

Oz ag orgs, farmers

international ag orgs, farmers

right-wing #auspol

foodies

Size: total followers

Colour: modularity class

Leftish twittertariat

Media orgs, journos,

MPs

Oz ag orgs, farmers

international ag orgs, farmers

right-wing #auspol

foodies

other hashtags

most prolific contributors

focus on animal welfare: no. of tweets

focus on animal welfare : hashtags

focus on animal welfare: most prolific contributors

next steps

Image credit: agchatoz via Brett Hoskings

ReferencesBruns, A. & Burgess, J. (2011). The use of Twitter hashtags in the formation of ad hoc publics. In 6th European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, 25 - 27 August 2011, University of Iceland, Reykjavik.

Bruns, A. and Moe, H. 2013. “Structural Layers of Communication on Twitter.” In Twitter and Society edited by K. Weller, A. Bruns, J. Burgess, M. Mahrt & C. Puschmann, 15-28. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Callon, M.,  Lascoumes, P.,  Barth, Y. (2001). Acting in an Uncertain World. An Essay on Technical Democracy. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England. (Translated by Graham Burchell).

Halavais, A. 2013. “Structure of Twitter: Social and Technical. ” In Twitter and Society edited by K. Weller, A. Bruns, J. Burgess, M. Mahrt & C. Puschmann, 29-42. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Ruppert, Evelyn, John Law and Mike Savage. 2013. “Reassembling Social Science Methods: The Challenge of Digital Devices.“ Theory, Culture & Society 30(4): 22-46.

Title slide image credit: http://freeaussiestock.com/free/Tasmania/slides/farm_land.htm