Paper presented at the ECREA conference, Istanbul, Turkey, 25 October 2012.

1. Tweeting le Tour:
Connecting the Tour de
France’s global audience
through Twitter
Tim Highfield, Axel Bruns, and Stephen Harrington
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
t.highfield | a.bruns | s.harrington @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield | @snurb_dot_info | @_StephenH
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. OVERVIEW
• The Tour de France as both a sporting contest and
media (televised) event
– Different ways of viewing the race – as a competition, as a
ritualised broadcast
• The global audience and social media
– Does tweeting about the same event connect Twitter users
around the world?
– Common features in tweeting patterns among the Tour’s
Twitter audience
– Different ways of framing the Tour through social media

3. SPORTS AND TWITTER
• Social media increasingly used by sportspeople
– Self-promotion, brand management
– Commentary on competition, training
– Interactions with other athletes, fans
• Twitter offers visible connections between spectators,
sportspeople, and broadcasters as @mentions create links to
other accounts - even if replies not forthcoming
• Sports events also among most popular topics covered
on Twitter (Olympics, FIFA World Cup)
– High volumes of tweets, frequent updates

4. LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS ON TWITTER
• Watching events as they occur crucial for tweeting about them
– Twitter acts as a virtual loungeroom for television audiences
– Broadcasters incorporate tweets into shows, online coverage
– Avoiding spoilers, results from sports broadcast on delay
• 140 character limit, use of hashtags make Twitter a popular
tool for public discussions around television broadcasts
– Automatic creation of links for each hashtag connects tweets to
wider coverage of ongoing events
– Does not require users to be following each other
– Broadcasters promote show-specific (and even broadcaster-
specific) hashtags

5. METHODS
• Part of wider, ongoing research into Twitter activity (Mapping Online
Publics):
– Tracking of keywords / hashtags through Twitter API using
yourTwapperkeeper.
• Data captured include text of tweets, URLs, hashtags,
@mentions/replies
• Collected tweets around several hashtags, keywords, and user
accounts for a more extensive overview of the Tour’s coverage on
Twitter than provided by a single hashtag; including:
– Race-specific hashtags (e.g. #tdf, #letour)
– Keywords (“tour de france”)
– Broadcaster-specific hashtags (#sbstdf)
– Mentions of cyclist Twitter accounts (@bradwiggins, @cadelofficial),
teams (@rsnt, @teamsky), commentators (@philliggett,
@paulsherwen), non-competing riders/figures (@lancearmstrong)

6. TOUR DE FRANCE 2012
30 June – 22 July 2012
198 riders (31 nationalities), 22 teams
21 days of racing (two rest days) over 3,497km
Broadcast in 190 countries
http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/1400/42-b.jpg

7. OVERALL COVERAGE
hashtag/keyword total tweets total users peak activity
22 July
#tdf (29 June - 23 July) 559,569 145,328
(42,548 tweets)
#letour (1 July - 23 July) 11,833 5583 7 July (875 tweets)
“tour de france” 22 July
428,989 224,616
(29 June - 23 July) (37,732 tweets)
18 July
#sbstdf (29 June - 23 July) 39,115 3185
(2851 tweets)

8. 0
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
5000
2012-Jun-29
2012-Jun-30
2012-Jul-01
2012-Jul-02
2012-Jul-03
2012-Jul-04
2012-Jul-05
2012-Jul-06
2012-Jul-07
2012-Jul-08
2012-Jul-09
2012-Jul-10
#TDF AS IT HAPPENED
2012-Jul-11
2012-Jul-12
2012-Jul-13
2012-Jul-14
2012-Jul-15
2012-Jul-16
2012-Jul-17
2012-Jul-18
2012-Jul-19
2012-Jul-20
2012-Jul-21
2012-Jul-22
tweets per day
2012-Jul-23

9. #TDF AS IT HAPPENED
tweets per hour
25000
Stage 21
20000
Stage 14 (tacks)
15000
10000
Stage 7
Prologue
5000
0

10. #TDF, 29 JUNE – 23 JULY 2012
general clustering
(degree 20+)

11. CLUSTERS AND CONNECTIONS
• Distinct national clusters sharing common features:
– Cyclists, teams, commentators from these countries
central to @mention/RT network
• Clusters connected by:
– Prominent cyclists within race itself
– Cyclists from one cluster also having some affiliation (often
team-based) to another
– Users (cycling news sites, blogs, as well as teams and
riders) with an international audience rather than a national
or regional focus

12. LIGGETT AND SHERWEN
SBS (Australia)
https://twitter.com/ThePeddler3
NBC (US)
ITV (UK)

13. 0
10000
12000
14000
2000
4000
6000
8000
2012-Jul-01
2012-Jul-02
2012-Jul-03
2012-Jul-04
2012-Jul-05
2012-Jul-06
2012-Jul-07
tweets per day, 1 July-23 July
2012-Jul-08
2012-Jul-09
2012-Jul-10
2012-Jul-11
TWEETING AT RIDERS:
2012-Jul-12
2012-Jul-13
2012-Jul-14
2012-Jul-15
2012-Jul-16
BRAD WIGGINS (@bradwiggins)
http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/1900/56-b.jpg
2012-Jul-17
2012-Jul-18
2012-Jul-19
2012-Jul-20
2012-Jul-21
2012-Jul-22
2012-Jul-23

14. 0
1000
1200
200
400
600
800
2012-Jul-01
2012-Jul-02
2012-Jul-03
2012-Jul-04
2012-Jul-05
2012-Jul-06
2012-Jul-07
tweets per day, 1 July-23 July
2012-Jul-08
2012-Jul-09
2012-Jul-10
http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/300/59-b.jpg
2012-Jul-11
TWEETING AT RIDERS:
2012-Jul-12
2012-Jul-13
2012-Jul-14
2012-Jul-15
CADEL EVANS (@cadelofficial)
2012-Jul-16
2012-Jul-17
2012-Jul-18
2012-Jul-19
2012-Jul-20
2012-Jul-21
2012-Jul-22
2012-Jul-23

15. 0
1000
1200
1400
1600
200
400
600
800
2012-Jul-01
2012-Jul-02
2012-Jul-03
2012-Jul-04
2012-Jul-05
2012-Jul-06
2012-Jul-07
tweets per day, 1 July-23 July
2012-Jul-08
2012-Jul-09
2012-Jul-10
2012-Jul-11
TWEETING AT RIDERS:
2012-Jul-12
2012-Jul-13
2012-Jul-14
2012-Jul-15
2012-Jul-16
2012-Jul-17
2012-Jul-18
2012-Jul-19
FABIAN CANCELLARA (@f_cancellara)
2012-Jul-20
2012-Jul-21
2012-Jul-22
http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/200/79-b.jpg
2012-Jul-23

16. STYLES OF TWEETS: #SBSTDF
• Australian broadcaster-specific hashtag
– Set up for multicultural public service broadcaster SBS and
its integrated coverage of the Tour
• Social hub on website combining Twitter feeds, Facebook
comments, blog posts, photos, and video of the race
• #sbstdf often used alongside #tdf and other related hashtags
• SBS’s long-running coverage of the Tour, featuring
recognisable presenters and commentators for regular
audience makes each broadcast a familiar event
– Viewing late at night (10pm-12am/2am local time)
– Common format across stages (pre-race coverage)

17. #SBSTDF AND TROPES OF THE TOUR
• Familiarisation with the SBS broadcast also leads to the
identification of recurring tropes within coverage
– Regularly-used phrases, stock images (chateaux, cows,
sunflowers), awareness of the different presenters and quirks
– #sbstdf discussion can be as much fandom for the SBS
broadcast as for cycling itself
–
http://www.lesvachesdutour.com/2012/07/17/stage-15-round-up http://t.co/DnokMMhX

18. #SBSTDF AND TROPES OF THE TOUR
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/ask-the-chef
• Humour a central part of #sbstdf activity
– Many of the most retweeted comments light-hearted
– Fake and satirical accounts set up for SBS presenters
(including pre-race chef - @fakegabrielgate)
– Tropes mix and lead to additional droll content
• Fake accounts promote ‘bingo’ card during one stage, based
on common phrases used by commentators Liggett and
Sherwen
http://t.co/tbyZIe2x

19. JENS VOIGT AS CHUCK NORRIS
JensVoigtFacts.com
@JensVoigtFacts
Voigt’s official account:
@thejensie
@thejensie has a polar bear stretched out on the floor of his den. It's not
dead, it's just too scared to move. #sbstdf
Welcome to viewers in WA. You just missed Jens Voigt riding so hard that a
chopper got knocked off course by his wake turbulence. #sbstdf

20. FURTHER OUTLOOK
• Twitter users commenting on the Tour connected through large (nation-
based) clusters
– Different groups bridged by shared linking to accounts of key cyclists, teams,
analysts
• Volume of tweets directed at riders’ accounts seems to follow fortunes during
race
– Global audience still appears to be subdivided, though not completely
separated
• Importance of broadcasters to this distribution – the Tour as a media event as
well as a sporting contest
– Overlapping views of race – fan-athlete communication, sports commentary,
television backchannel
• Tweeting styles beyond Australian context – how do different national
groups (and the Tour’s Twitter audience overall) cover the Tour?
– What do cyclists, teams, commentators tweet about during the race (and
beyond)? What patterns of interactions are there between the audience, the
competitors, and the broadcasters?

21. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@_StephenH
@DrTNitins
@timhighfield
@cdtavijit