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

1. The Emergence of Trending Topics:
The Dissemination of Breaking
Stories on Twitter
Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns / Dr. Theresa Sauter
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
a.bruns / t.sauter @ qut.edu.au
@snurb_dot_info / @lena_sauter

2. TRENDING TOPICS ON TWITTER
• Twitter as “ambient news” (Hermida, Burns):
– Often rapid emergence and dissemination of new information
– Formation of ad hoc publics around new events, themes, topics (Bruns & Burgess)
– Emerging themes identified as “trending topics” by Twitter, often associated with hashtags
– Clearly visible as a result of trending – but what happens in the early stages?
– Difficult to retrace trends to their point of origin, due to API access limitations
– Need to understand / evaluate trending against context of:
• existing network structures / typical activity patterns (also largely unknown)
• coverage across wider media ecology
• How to move forward?
– Comprehensive investigation of background networks / activity patterns
– Speculative data gathering in advance of possible trending topics

3. BACKGROUND
• Twitter in Australia:
– Comparatively strong take-up: ~2.8m accounts (population 23m)
– Demographics: 25-55-year-olds, affluent, educated, urban
– Historically strong focus on politics, e.g. #auspol, #ausvotes
• Politics in Australia:
– Westminster system: Australian Labor Party vs. Liberal / National Coalition
– 2010-13: ALP minority government, supported by 3 Independents + 1 Green
– Prime Minister Julia Gillard (ALP), Oposition Leader Tony Abbott (Lib)
– Highly controversial, aggressive atmosphere in parliament
– Deeply personal attacks on Gillard (as unmarried, atheist woman) in parliament
and media

4. MISOGYNY DEBATE
• 9. Oct. 2012: Gillard strongly criticises Abbott in ad hoc 15-minute speech
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-09/julia-gillard-attacks-abbott-of-hypocrisy/4303634
• Trending topic on Twitter, 2.5m views on YouTube (by mid-2014)

5. MEDIA COVERAGE

6. RESEARCH DESIGN
• Australian Twitter News Index:
– Continuous ATNIX data gathering since mid-2012
– All tweets containing links to leading 30+ Australian news sites
– Focus here on Australian Broadcasting Corporation post of the
15-minute video
– I.e.: YouTube and other distribution paths not included
• Analysis:
– Identification and temporal / network analysis of tweets identified in
ATNIX dataset
– Two phases: 0-5 hours / 5-75 hours after first tweet

7. THE FIRST FIVE HOURS (0-18,000s)
• Network visualisation:
– Every node represents one account
• Node size: number of retweets received across entire 75h
timeframe
• Node colour: cluster membership (according to Gephi algorithm)
– Each edge represents one or more retweets
– Each step represents 15 minutes
– Video: http://youtu.be/4V81s5sAiqM

8. ANALYSIS OF MAIN ACTORS (0-5h)
• Geography:
– 29 Australians, 1 New Zealander, 1
British
• Background:
– 10 journalists
– 8 feminists
– 5 private accounts
– 4 activists
– 3 comedians
– 1 cartoonist
• Gradual transition from journalists to
feminists
• Final addition: commentator for
Guardian (UK)

9. NEXT 70 HOURS (18,000-270,000s)
• Network visualisation:
– As previous
– Each step represents one hour
– Video: http://youtu.be/-IhAdHOIa08

10. ANALYSIS OF MAIN ACTORS (5-75h)
• Geography:
– 7 British, 7 Australians, 2 US accounts,
1 Canadian
• Background:
– 6 feminists
– 4 journalists
– 3 musicians
– 2 comedians
– 1 private account
– 1 politician
• Feminists, (Australian) celebrities,
(British) journalists

11. DYNAMICS OF THE RETWEET CHAIN
• From parliamentary procedure to media event:
– First attention from journalists and “political junkies”
– Commentators and comedians broaden the base
– Feminists become active
• From Australia to the world:
– First tweets from UK delayed by timezone differences
– Understandable interest:
• Historical connections, Australian expat community in UK
• Similar political systems, interlinkages between media organisations
• Guardian Australia as Australian offshoot of Guardian (UK)

12. THE AUSTRALIAN TWITTERSPHERE
Follower/followee network:
~120,000 Australian Twitter users
(of ~950,000 known accounts by early 2012)
colour = outdegree, size = indegree

13. THEMATIC CLUSTERS
Perth
Marketing / PR
Design
Web
Creative
Farming
Agriculture
Hardline
Conservatives
Conservatives
Journalists
ALP
Progressives
Greens
News
Opinion
News
NGOs
Social Policy
IT
Tech
Social Media
Tech
PR
Advertising
Real Estate
Property
Jobs
HR
Business
Business
Property
Parenting
Mums Craft
Arts
Food
Wine
Beer
Adelaide
Social
ICTs
Creative
Design
Fashion
Beauty
Utilities
Services
Net Culture
Books
Literature
Publishing
Film
Theatre
Arts
Radio
TV Music
Dance
Hip Hop
Triple J
Talkback
Breakfast TV
CelebritiesCycling
Union
NRL
Football
Cricket
AFL
Swimming
V8s
Evangelicals
Teaching
e-Learning
Schools
Christians
Hillsong
Teens
Jonas Bros.
Beliebers
@KRuddMP
@JuliaGillard

14. 7.5 mins. elapsed
@abcnews

15. 15 mins. elapsed

16. 30 mins. elapsed
Journalists

17. 1 hour elapsed
Feminists

18. 1 ½ hours elapsed

19. 2 hours elapsed

20. 2 ½ hours elapsed

21. 3 hours elapsed

22. 3 ½ hours elapsed

23. 4 hours elapsed

24. 4 ½ hours elapsed

25. 5 hours elapsed

26. complete network

27. RESULTS
• Dissemination dynamics:
– Long tail early on, fat head towards the end:
• starts with many individual shares by a diverse range of participants,
• ends mainly with retweets of best-known / most influential accounts
• Event dynamics:
– From breaking news to longer-term media / political issue
– From political spectacle to feminist rallying cry
• Network dynamics:
– Flat at first, then increasingly structured
– Single acocunts (e.g. @dawnhfoster) as bridging points to new networks
– Influencers most persistently retweeted

28. FUTURE AIMS
• Further research:
– Continued improvement of analytical methods
• Other approaches to analysing / visualising retweet chains?
– Repeat for other cases
• How to gather data (beyond ATNIX)?
– Comparisons across other themes, and national contexts
• Different forms of breaking news, different Twitterspheres
– Importance of background data
• E.g. follower networks, Twitter careers of participating accounts
– Impact of coverage in other media?
• Fewer retweets for themes already prominent in other media?

29. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@lena_sauter
@jeanburgess
@dpwoodford
@timhighfield
http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/