Paper presented at Political Imperatives: Media and the 2013 Election Campaign, Brisbane, 27 Sep. 2013.

1. Twitter and the 2013
Australian Election
Assoc. Prof. Axel Bruns
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
a.bruns@qut.edu.au – @snurb_dot_info – http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

2. BACKGROUND
• Research projects:
– ARC Discovery: New Media and Public Communication (QUT)
– NRC FRISAM: Impact of Social Media on Agenda-Setting in Election
Campaigns (QUT, UiO, UiB, Uppsala, CSU LB)
– ATN-DAAD: Mapping Networked Politics (QUT, LMU)
• Study design:
– Comparative study of Twitter usage during Australian, Norwegian,
German (and US) election
– Tracking tweets from and at Twitter accounts of MPs and candidates
before, during, and after election campaigns
– Additional analysis of follower networks, national Twitterspheres, social
media / mainstream media intersections, etc.

3. AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS ON TWITTER
(data to June 2013)

4. @TONYABBOTTMHR’S FAKE FOLLOWERS
(11/12 Aug. 2013)

5. @MENTIONS OF LEADERS (@REPLIES + RETWEETS)

6. RETWEETS OF LEADERS

7. @MENTIONS OF LEADERS

8. @MENTIONS OF PARTY CANDIDATES
(@KRUDDMP AND @TONYABBOTTMHR REMOVED)

9. @MENTIONS

10. RETWEETS

11. @MENTIONS BETWEEN POLITICIANS

12. RETWEETS BETWEEN POLITICIANS

13. TWEETS BY LEADERS

14. TWEETS BY PARTY CANDIDATES

15. TWEETS BY LOCAL CANDIDATES

16. @MENTIONS OF LOCAL CANDIDATES

17. @MENTIONS (ELECTION DAY)

18. GERMANY

19. @MENTIONS OF LEADERS
(@KRuddMP:
172,000 @mentions)

20. @MENTIONS OF PARTY CANDIDATES
(ALP: 321,000
@mentions)

21. TWEETS BY PARTY CANDIDATES
(ALP: 16,600
tweets)

22. http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
@snurb_dot_info
@jeanburgess
@dpwoodford
@lena_sauter
@timhighfield
@_StephenH
@quods
@socialmediaQUT