This document discusses the #MilkedDry campaign, which aimed to raise awareness of issues facing Australian dairy farmers. It analyzes the campaign through the lens of "connective action" and social media data. The analysis found some evidence of the campaign spreading awareness but little active engagement on Twitter specifically. While not a clear example of "connective action", the segment may have still raised public awareness through other means. Overall, the document examines the role and impact of infotainment and social media in facilitating political discussion and action.

1. Infotainment and the Impact of ‘Connective Action’:
The Case of #MilkedDry
Stephen Harrington, Axel Bruns, and Tim Highfield
Digital Media Research Centre
Queensland University of Technology
s.harrington / a.bruns / t.highfield @ qut.edu.au

2. http://www2.qut.edu.au/jobs/cbpcif/ https://tinyurl.com/qut-soc-lecturer

3. The Project (2009 - Present)

4. The Impact of Infotainment
• Typically seen as ‘fluffy’ and apolitical
• Lack of objectivity norm (often) grants a license to be
more strident in political statements
• Debates over its role in stimulating political action,
versus nihilism, apathy, and disconnection from the
political system (E.g. Hart and Hartelius, 2007)

5. #milkeddry Campaign

6. ‘Connective Action’
Bennett and Segerberg, 2012
“The more familiar action logic is the logic of collective
action, which emphasizes the problems of getting
individuals to contribute to the collective endeavor that
typically involves seeking some sort of public good (e.g.
democratic reforms) that may be better attained
through forging a common cause… (p. 749)

7. ‘Connective Action’
“In this view, formal organizations with resources are
essential to harnessing and coordinating individuals in
common action.” (p.750, emphasis added)

8. ‘Connective Action’
“When people who seek more personalized paths to
concerted action are familiar with practices of social
networking in everyday life, and when they have access
to technologies from mobile phones to computers, they
are already familiar with a different logic of
organization: the logic of connective action….

9. ‘Connective Action’
“At the core of this logic is the recognition of digital
media as organizing agents… participation becomes
self-motivating as personally expressive content is
shared with, and recognized by, others who, in turn,
repeat these networked sharing activities…. In this
connective logic, taking public action or contributing to
a common good becomes an act of personal expression
and recognition or self-validation achieved by sharing
ideas and actions in trusted relationships.” (p. 752-753)

10. #milkeddry Dataset
• Data gathering:
– TrISMA: comprehensive, continuous tracking of
public tweets by ~3.7m Australian accounts
– Filtered for milkeddry / theprojecttv / agchatoz
 ~14,390 tweets identified
– Identification of accounts posting, accounts
@mentioned/retweeted, hashtags used, URLs
shared

11. Tweets per Hour

12. Hashtags and Keywords

13. Images

14. theprojecttv
agchatozindiblu
barnaby_joyce
gorgicoghlan
pjhelliar
bickmorecarrie
terryaustralis
twhittyer
abcrural
milkmaidmarian
greghunt
Tweeting and @mentioned accounts in dataset
Accounts with degree <2 removed
Visualisation via Gephi: Force Atlas 2, LinLog mode
Node sizes: indegree; node colour: weighted degree

15. #milkeddry: a failure?
• Not an awful lot of evidence that the #milkeddry
hashtag was used extensively
• Conversation died down within a few days of the
initial segment airing
• More ‘collective action’ logic than ‘connective action’
• But, other evidence that the segment helped put the
issue on the public radar…

18. Conclusion
• Evidence of meaningful ‘action’ remains elusive
• Perhaps a social media success, but not necessarily
on Twitter
• Questions around the role of a central organising
agent in the campaign, and potential for ‘connective
action’
• But, other evidence suggests the campaign had
considerable impact.

19. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@_StephenH
@snurb_dot_info
@timhighfield
@socialmediaQUT – http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/
@qutdmrc – https://www.qut.edu.au/research/dmrc
This research is funded by the Australian Research Council through Future Fellowship and LIEF grants FT130100703 and
LE140100148.