Presented at the Workshop on Advanced Research Methods (WARM) at the University of Urbino, 30 September 2010. For further information on the research project see: http://mappingonlinepublics.net

1. Jean Burgess
Senior Research Fellow,
Mapping Online
Creative Industries Faculty, QUT
Twitter: @jeanburgess
Project blog:
Publics http://mappingonlinepublics.net

2. the research
project
New Media and Public Communication: Mapping Australian User-
Created Content in Online Social Networks
Australian Research Council (ARC): Discovery Project (2010-12) – A$410.000
Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess (QUT), Brisbane
Lars Kirchhoff, Thomas Nicolai (PIs) – Sociomantic Labs, Berlin
Addressing the problem of scale (‘Big Data’) and the need for disciplinary
renewal in media, cultural and communication studies.
Computer-assisted cultural analysis: tracking, mapping, analysing blogs,
twitter, flickr, youtube as ‘networked publics’
Project blog: http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

4. theoretical framework

5. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication

6. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.

7. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.

8. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.
baseline empirical questions

9. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.
baseline empirical questions
levels of activity? topics of interest? changes over time? relations with broader media
ecology?

10. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.
baseline empirical questions
levels of activity? topics of interest? changes over time? relations with broader media
ecology?
advanced questions: cultural implications

11. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.
baseline empirical questions
levels of activity? topics of interest? changes over time? relations with broader media
ecology?
advanced questions: cultural implications
do matters of shared concern activate new connections among different
communities/networks?

12. theoretical framework
“social media”: the convergence of user-created (or shared)
content, online social networks, and communication
personal communicative ecologies constitute public
communication.
baseline empirical questions
levels of activity? topics of interest? changes over time? relations with broader media
ecology?
advanced questions: cultural implications
do matters of shared concern activate new connections among different
communities/networks?
How do acute media ‘events’ transform the media ecology?

18. Tools
Data Gathering
Blogs: In-house crawler & database + export tools
Twitter: Twapperkeeper - in-house crawler in development
Data Processing
Gawk – open source, multiplatform, programmable command-line tool for processing CSV documents
Textual Analysis
Leximancer – commercial (University of Queensland), multiplatform: extracts key concepts from large corpora of text, examines and visualises
concept co-occurrence
WordStat – commercial, PC-only textual analysis tool; generates concept co-occurrence data that can be exported for visualisation
Visualisation
Gephi – open source, multiplatform network visualisation tool

19. Analysis – Blogs

20. Blog Data Structure

21. Methods – Blogs

22. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al

23. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al
New Sites Added

24. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al
Bushfires
New Sites Added

25. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al
Bushfires
Qld Election
New Sites Added

26. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al
Bushfires
Budget
Qld Election
New Sites Added

27. Overall Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)
From previous work by Bruns et al
Artefact
Bushfires
Budget
Qld Election
New Sites Added

28. Top Posters (Blogs and Opinion Columns)
From previous work by Bruns et al

29. Key Themes in the (political) Blogosphere
From previous work by Bruns et al
4-5 August 2009

30. Key Themes in the (political) Blogosphere
From previous work by Bruns et al
4-5 August 2009

31. Key Themes in the (political) Blogosphere
From previous work by Bruns et al
4-5 August 2009

32. Blog Network (between known blogs only)
(17 July to 27 August 2010 | 3.4 million links | Node size: Indegree | See: http://mappingonlinepublics.net/2010/09/22/mapping-the-australian-
blogosphere-some-more/)
parenting
politics
food
arts & crafts
design and style

33. Methods – Twapperkeeper

34. Twapperkeeper Data Structure

35. Analysis – Twapperkeeper

36. #ausvotes: pa@erns of acBvity over Bme
17

37. #ausvotes elecBon themes
18

38. #masterchef @reply network
size: indegree
colour:
outdegree
19

39. #ausvotes @reply network
size: indegree
colour:
betweenness
centrality
20

40. #ausvotes keyword co‐occurrence
21

42. #thanks!