Social Media Use in the Queensland Floods

Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns / Dr. Jean BurgessQueensland University of Technology

Assoc. Prof. Kate Crawford / Frances ShawUniversity of New South Wales

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation

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Crisis Communication research in the CCI

• ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation (national, based at QUT)

• Project: Media Ecologies & Methodological Innovation

• Aims to implement new methods to understand the changing media environment;

• Focusing on the relationship between social media and traditional media and communication platforms;

• Combining large-scale computer-assisted techniques with qualitative social research and close textual analysis

• Focus on Crisis Communication

• Natural disasters

• Other ‘acute events’

Crisis Communication research in the CCI

Jan-April 2011

• Focus on uses of social media during the Qld Floods

• Archive of tweets using #qldfloods hashtag

• Analysis

• Volume of tweets over time

• @replies and retweets: key actors and their networks

• URLs: key media resources, user-uploaded images and videos

• Emergence and uptake of hashtags and other user conventions

• Content analysis: themes and purposes over time

Case study: @QPSMedia

Next steps

• More forensics: successes and failures, especially rumours and misinformation

• Further comparison with other recent natural disasters

• Comparing mainstream and social media coverage

• Social context: in-depth interviews with residents

• Direct engagement with emergency services, government and media

Twitter and the Queensland Floods: #qldfloods tweets

10 Jan 2011 11 Jan 2011 12 Jan 2011 13 Jan 2011 14 Jan 2011 15 Jan 2011

Local Focus: #qldfloods from Toowoomba to Brisbane

• Toowoomba vs. Lockyer/Grantham vs. Ipswich vs. Brisbane slide

10 Jan 2011 11 Jan 2011 12 Jan 2011 13 Jan 2011 14 Jan 2011 15 Jan 2011

Twitter and the Queensland Floods: #qldfloods posters

retweet feeds

mainstream media

Qld Police

Twitter and the Queensland Floods: #qldfloods @replies

mainstream media

authorities

Twitter and the Christchurch Earthquake: #eqnz @replies

mainstream media

authorities

utilities

Key Accounts over Time

@QPSmedia as Central #qldfloods Information Source

#qldfloods Network Map – Most Active Accounts Only(Degree >= 15 / Node size: indegree / node colour: outdegree)

Twitter Events in Perspective: Comparing the Main 24h

Twitter and the Japanese Tsunami: Beyond the #Hashtag

Twitter and the Queensland Floods

• First lessons:

• #qldfloods as coordinating tool – one central hashtag

• Go where the users are – and help establish hashtag

• Plus inventive additions – e.g. @QPSmedia #Mythbuster tweets

• Most activity by individuals – but key official accounts cut through

• Enable easy retweeting and sharing of messages

• Respond and engage

• Mainstream media are important in social media environments, too

• Twitter as an amplifier of key messages

• Twitter vs. Facebook – which works when?

http://mappingonlinepublics.net/ @snurb_dot_info |

a.bruns@qut.edu.au @jeanburgess | je.burgess@qut.edu.au @katecrawford | k.crawford@unsw.edu.au

Image by campoalto