Presentation for ANZCA conference, Fremantle, July 2013.

1. #wavotes:
Tracking candidates’ use of
social media in the 2013
Western Australian state
election
Tim Highfield and Axel Bruns
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
t.highfield | a.bruns @ qut.edu.au
@timhighfield | @snurb_dot_info
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. TWITTER AND ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
• Social media now established components of political
campaigning, commentary, reporting
• Part of Australian political landscape for several years:
– 2010: ALP leadership spill covered via Twitter; Federal
election accompanied by #ausvotes tweets
– Subsequent state elections followed this approach (2012
Queensland state election and #qldvotes)
– MPs, candidates, parties, journalists, voters tweet news,
opinions, links (as part of wider online activity and
campaign strategy)

3. PREVIOUS (AND FUTURE) STUDIES
• Bruns & Burgess (2011) - #ausvotes (2010)
• Bruns & Highfield (2013) - #qldvotes (2012)
• Bruns, Highfield, & Sauter (upcoming) - #ausvotes II
(2013)
• These later studies (and this paper) also act as pilot
studies and first cases for international collaborative
research into social media and election campaigns

4. STATE AND FEDERAL POLITICS AND
TWITTER
• Australian (federal) politics a prominent topic of
discussion on Twitter
– In 2012, #auspol regularly attracted thousands of tweets
per day; live tweeting of panel shows such as Q & A
• State politics has a smaller audience on Twitter, though
– #wapol averaged 61 tweets per day in 2012 – a year’s
worth of #wapol tweets is equivalent to less than four days
of #auspol
– State politicians and journalists somewhat active on Twitter
– Expected heightened activity for election campaigns

5. TWITTER AND WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
POLITICS
Mr M. McGOWAN: […] It is a bit like Twitter; the Premier has
forbidden all his ministers from using Twitter, yet I see a Twitter
account with the Premier’s name on it. […]
Mr C.J. Barnett: It is another untruth.
Mr P. Papalia: You know you told ministers not to use Twitter;
that is true.
Mr C.J. Barnett: People can use Twitter. That is not true. People
have not been banned.
Mr M. McGOWAN: I do not think the Premier knows what Twitter
is.
Legislative Assembly Hansard, 20 September 2012, pp. 6344-5

6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How was Twitter utilised during the election campaign?
– Which parties and candidates used Twitter (extensively)
during the campaign?
– How active were these candidates’ Twitter accounts?
– To what extent did these accounts interact, along both
intra- and lines?
• How do these approaches support – or differ from –
findings in similar studies of election campaigns and
social media?

7. METHODS
• Tracking tweets containing specified hashtags, keywords, and
user names (including tweets from these users)
• Data collected between January and March 2013
– #wapol, #wavotes, #wa2013vote
– barnett; mcgowan; buswell; metronet
– @MarkMcGowanMP [initial list of 83 MP, party, candidate
accounts, expanded to 119 accounts by election day]
• Methods
– yourTwapperkeeper captures tweets with specified hashtags
from Twitter API
– Gawk scripts for processing large datasets (Bruns & Burgess,
2011), Gephi for network visualisation

8. THE 2013 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
ELECTION
• First state election with a fixed date: 9 March 2013
• Parliament adjourned December 2012, but writs not issued for
election until February 2013
– A ‘phoney’ campaign in December and January, and for declared
candidates even before then
• Main players:
– Liberal Party (in government) – led by Premier Colin Barnett [15
accounts tracked here]
– Australian Labor Party (ALP) – led by Mark McGowan [47]
– National Party (in coalition with Liberal Party [17]
– Australian Greens [24]
– Independents and minor parties [16]

9. THE CAMPAIGN ON TWITTER
• ALP and Greens candidates generated the greatest
numbers of tweets during the election campaign
– Established ALP MP Twitter accounts maintained regular
rates of tweeting, supported by new candidate accounts
• New candidates – with accounts set up for the election
campaign – saw election period tweets forming the
highest percentage of their total tweets
– Independents, Greens, ALP candidates
– Some (pre-existing) Liberal Party accounts suddenly
increased tweeting rate once election called

10. CANDIDATES’ TWEETING
Account Party Status # Tweets (Feb-Mar 2013) % of total tweets (to March 2013)
KenTraversMLC ALP MP 740 11.84
CameronPoustie Greens Candidate 483 13.56
TheGreensWA Greens Party 456 53.52
DrGCrisp Greens Candidate 399 17.72
GregWRoss Independent Candidate 397 53.36
papsMLA ALP MP 284 14.77
JohnHydeMLA ALP MP 272 7.05
JandakotJoe Liberal MP 179 41.82
LiberalsWA Liberal Party 159 36.89
darlingrange ALP Candidate 131 37.54
walabor ALP Party 127 35.67
lisabakercom ALP MP 123 13.16
KlaraAndric ALP Candidate 113 50.90
JSheltonALP ALP Candidate 109 39.78
Sullivan4Freo Greens Candidate 108 38.03
ian_radisich ALP Candidate 93 17.65
QuirkyMLA ALP MP 72 16.22
lynnmaclaren Greens MP 63 14.13
MiaDaviesMLC Nationals MP 62 4.16
RogerCookMLA ALP MP 60 4.89

11. CANDIDATES’ TWEETING
Account Party Status # Tweets (Feb-Mar 2013) % of total tweets (to March 2013)
KMCottesloe Independent Candidate 33 64.71
TheGreensWA Greens Party 456 53.52
GregWRoss Independent Candidate 397 53.36
KlaraAndric ALP Candidate 113 50.90
GreensWanneroo Greens Candidate 31 42.47
JandakotJoe Liberal MP 179 41.82
JSheltonALP ALP Candidate 109 39.78
Sullivan4Freo Greens Candidate 108 38.03
darlingrange ALP Candidate 131 37.54
LiberalsWA Liberal Party 159 36.89
walabor ALP Party 127 35.67
JillSounnessRfR Nationals Candidate 28 35.00
MichelleMidland ALP MP 50 30.30
maxhipkins Independent Candidate 35 29.91
LizBehjatMLC Liberal MP 23 27.06
nollamaramp ALP MP 19 24.05
FredRiebeling ALP Candidate 45 23.81
TonyOGorman3 ALP MP 10 20.00

12. CAMPAIGN TWEETING
• Initial 83 accounts tweeted 10,118 times between 9
January and 10 March 2013
• Tweeting about election in general increased as election
day approached, peaking on election day (spike for
leaders’ debate – not shown here)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
#wavotes
#wapol
#wa2013vote

13. CANDIDATES’ INTERACTIONS
• Size: degree
• Colour: affiliation
– Red: ALP
– Blue: Liberal
– Green: Greens
– Orange: Nationals
– Pink: Independents
(11 Feb – 10 March)

14. PRESENCE AND ABSENCE
• Greens, Nationals on Twitter form partisan clusters in
their interactions – strategy of linking to focal party
accounts, who interact more (or are mentioned by
others) across party lines?
• ALP follows similar approach, but sheer volume of
accounts in comparison means this appears as the main
component rather than a separate cluster, of the
@mention network
• The absence of many Liberal MPs and candidates on
Twitter means that the few Liberals who were active are
less of a cluster, more of a bridge between different
groups

15. PRESENCE AND ABSENCE
• Twitter users still sought out the ‘absent’ accounts,
though
– Unofficial Barnett accounts continued to attract followers at
higher rates than other candidates during election period,
despite being branded as unofficial and/or not tweeting at
all during campaign:
Account New followers (Jan-Mar 2013)
LiberalsWA 647
MarkMcGowanMP 541
walabor 403
TheGreensWA 395
premierbarnett 365

16. TWITTER AND THE WA ELECTION
• WA case study demonstrates patterns similar to those
found in 2012 Queensland election, such as partisan
clustering
– Conspicuous absence of Liberal accounts from Twitter,
though, means that interactions take different shape
– Electorate-specific ‘battles’ through @mentions less
apparent, again as candidates not on Twitter
– Strategy (or result) of a few prominent accounts
@mentioned by other party members and bridging
partisan lines – tweeting strategies of leaders? Reflective
of election issues?

17. TWITTER AND THE WA ELECTION
• Election results reflect (or exceed) the predicted
outcome – overwhelming victory for Liberal Party,
several seemingly-safe ALP seats lost, no independents
in Legislative Assembly
• Absence of Liberal Party candidates from Twitter as
campaign strategy minimised gaffes and spreadable
errors, especially when predicted results meant
engagement online not necessarily important for
obtaining support
• Election night: Liberal Party account most active,
tweeting results and congratulating candidates (other
accounts silent)

18. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER OUTLOOK
• Twitter users are not representative of the electorate at
large; datasets here do not contain all tweets concerning
election or related issues; Twitter is just one platform
used during the campaign
• Preliminary analysis of tweeting patterns featured here
– Further examination required, such as the content of
tweets (including rationale for @mentions, hashtag use)
– Additional analysis to draw on further datasets (keywords,
hashtags), from a wider group of users, to provide more
rounded view of election from Twitter
• Application of methods, comparison of (extended)
findings with upcoming elections

19. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@_StephenH
@DrTNitins
@timhighfield
@cdtavijit
@lena_sauter
@dpwoodford
@tsadkowsky
@socialmediaQUT