Using Gawk to Prepare TCAT Data for Tableau, Part 2

In my previous post, I introduced a new set of Gawk scripts to extract a range of additional information from standard TCAT datafiles, in order to enable their use for data exploration, analysis, and visualisation in Tableau. After running the TCAT-Process scripts, we now have the following datafiles: datafile.csv – the original TCAT dataset (a …

Using Gawk to Prepare TCAT Data for Tableau, Part 1

Much of the research we’ve presented on this site over the years has built on yourTwapperkeeper, our trusty old tool for gathering Twitter data. But yTK isn’t the most modern of platforms any more, provides only a very limited user interface, and gathers only a fraction of the full metadata payload which the Twitter API …

ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, January 2015

Ordinarily, January is a relatively slow news month in Australia. That’s far from true for January 2015, however: first, the Queensland premier Campbell Newman surprised journalists, the opposition, and quite a few of his own colleagues by calling an almost unprecedentedly early state election. Then, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “captain’s call” of awarding a knighthood …

#libspill: A Helpful Social Media Overview

You might have been forgiven for thinking that the time between the Queensland state election in January and the New South Wales state election in March would be a little quiet, politically speaking – with the incumbent Queensland government on an overwhelming majority and the NSW government facing no serious challenge to date. As we …

#qldvotes: A Final Social Media Round-Up

By any measure, it’s been an extraordinary weekend here in Queensland. The same electoral tsunami that brought the LNP to power in March 2012 has washed the government away again in January 2015. Premier Campbell Newman has lost his own seat of Ashgrove, and Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk looks poised to form government – although …

#qldvotes: Final-Week Update on Social Media Activities

This year’s Queensland state election campaign may be very brief, but it’s certainly been action-packed. In my previous post I provided an overview of what were roughly the first two weeks of the campaign; mid-way through the final week, here’s a further update of how the social media campaign has unfolded. As a reminder about …

Twitter in the Queensland State Election, Two Weeks In

Somewhat earlier than expected, Queensland finds itself in the throes of a very tightly contested state election campaign, which was called on 6 January and concludes with election day on 31 January. Just like candidates and the media, we in the QUT Social Media Research Group too have been scrambling to put in place the …

ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, December 2014

The final ATNIX for 2014 arrives with a slight delay due to the summer holidays, but covers an unexpectedly dramatic few weeks in Australian public life, due especially to the deadly siege in the Lindt Café in Sydney’s Martin Place in mid-December. This major breaking news story and its tragic aftermath are clearly reflected in …

ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, November 2014

With the drama and excitements of the Melbourne Cup and G20 summit receding into memory, and the current trials and tribulations of the federal government taking centre-stage once again, it’s time to update our Australian Twitter News Index (ATNIX) for the month of November. Sadly, scheduled server maintenance has meant that we’ve missed out on …

ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, September/October 2014

In my previous post, I introduced the revamped and rebooted Australian Twitter News Index, which now covers both link sharing patterns on Twitter for Australian news and opinion sites and general online popularity trends for those sites. Having covered the long-term trends since 2012 in that post, it’s now time for the first monthly update …