Paper presented at IR14: Association of Internet Researchers conference, Denver, October 2013.

1. Cumulative and Comparative
Social Media Analytics for
Crisis Communication
Jean Burgess, Axel Bruns and Avijit Paul
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
a.bruns / je.burgess / a1.paul @ qut.edu.au
@snurb_dot_info / @jeanburgess / @cdtavijit
http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. EMERGENCE OF QUASI-STANDARD
ANALYTICS
• Twitter data (#hashtag) + Twitter API + a variety of
analytical tools:
1. Patterns of activity volume within the temporal space of
an acute event;
2. Key actors and their levels of individual activity, as well as
the extent to which they are referred to and retweeted;
3. Key themes, topics and inferred purposes (informed by
qualitative analysis).

3. TOWARDS COMPARATIVE & CUMULATIVE
APPROACHES
• Comparative work
–
–
–
–
Across different kinds of crisis events
Across different political, material, cultural contexts
Over time
e.g. #qldfloods and #eqnz, 2011-2013
• Cumulative analyses of similar events over time (how
does the system evolve and learn?)

4. #QLDFLOOD(S) 2013: TWEETS PER DAY

5. #QLDFLOOD 2011: MOST ACTIVE USERS

6. #QLDFLOOD(S) 2013: MOST ACTIVE USERS

7. #QLDFLOODS 2011: MOST VISIBLE USERS

8. #QLDFLOOD(S) 2013: MOST VISIBLE USERS

9. #QLDFLOODS 2011: ACTIVITY PATTERN

10. #QLDFLOOD(S) 2013: ACTIVITY PATTERN

11. #EQNZ 2013: TWEETS PER DAY

12. #EQNZ 2011: MOST ACTIVE USERS

13. #EQNZ 2013: MOST ACTIVE USERS

14. #EQNZ 2011: MOST VISIBLE USERS

15. #EQNZ 2013: MOST VISIBLE USERS

16. #EQNZ 2011: USER ACTIVITY PATTERN

17. #EQNZ 2013: USER ACTIVITY PATTERN

18. CRISIS EVENT COMPARISON
#qldfloods 2011
#qldfloods 2013
#eqnz 2011
#eqnz 2013

19. #QLDFLOOD 2011: TOP CATEGORIES URLS
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Image/video
sharing
Media
Facebook
Government
Unofficial
Unofficial
info resource fundraising

20. #QLDFLOOD 2013: TOP CATEGORIES URLS
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

21. #QLDFLOOD COMPARISON: 2011 & 2013
1200
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2011
2013

22. #QLDFLOOD 2011 MEDIA SHARE BY DAY
1800
1600
1400
1200
Facebook
1000
800
600
Government
Image/videosharing
Media
Unofficial fundraising
400
200
0
Unofficial info resource

23. #QLDFLOOD 2013 MEDIA SHARE BY DAY
400
350
300
Facebook
250
200
Government
Image/video sharing
Media
150
100
NGO
Twitter
Unofficial info resource
50
0
Utilities

24. #eqnz 2011: TOP CATEGORIES URLS
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0

25. #eqnz 2011: GOOGLE PERSON FINDER

26. #eqnz 2013: TOP CATEGORIES URLS
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

27. #eqnz 2013: GEONET

28. #eqnz 2011: MEDIA SHARE BY DAY
8000
7000
6000
Blog/personal website
Facebook
5000
Google
Government
4000
Image/video sharing
Media
3000
NGO
Unofficial fundraising
2000
Unofficial info resource
URL shortening
1000
0
2011 Feb
22
2011 Feb
23
2011 Feb
24
2011 Feb
25
2011 Feb
26
2011 Feb
27
2011 Feb
28
2011 Mar
01
2011 Mar
02
2011 Mar
03

29. #eqnz 2013: MEDIA SHARE BY DAY
2500
2000
Facebook
1500
Google
Government
Image/video sharing
Media
1000
Other
Twitter
500
0
2013-Jul-17 2013-Jul-18 2013-Jul-19 2013-Jul-20 2013-Jul-21 2013-Jul-22 2013-Jul-23 2013-Jul-24 2013-Jul-25 2013-Jul-26