{"id":1812,"date":"2012-10-05T09:35:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T23:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2012-10-05T02:08:33","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T16:08:33","slug":"atnix-australian-twitter-news-index-week-392012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/dev\/2012\/10\/05\/atnix-australian-twitter-news-index-week-392012\/","title":{"rendered":"ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, Week 39\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of us who follow the Australian media don\u2019t need ATNIX to tell us that it\u2019s been an eventful week, driven towards the end especially by the coverage of Alan Jones\u2019s indefensible comments about the Prime Minister\u2019s late father. But what our Australian Twitter<\/em> News Index can do is to provide us with quantitative evidence of how that story compares with other recent controversies, and to document which news and opinion Websites have gained the most from covering these events.<\/p>\n

Standard background information:<\/strong> this analysis is based on tracking all tweets which contain links pointing to the URLs of a large selection of leading Australian news and opinion sites. For technical reasons, it does not contain \u2018button\u2019 retweets, but manual retweets (\u201cRT @user \u2026\u201d) are included. Datasets for those sites which cover more than just news and opinion (abc.net.au, sbs.com.au, ninemsn.com.au) are filtered to exclude irrelevant sections of those sites (e.g. abc.net.au\/tv, catchup.ninemsn.com.au). For our analysis of \u2018opinion\u2019 link sharing, we include only those sub-sections of mainstream sites which contain opinion and commentary (e.g. abc.net.au\/unleashed, articles on theaustralian.com.au which include \u2018\/opinion\u2019 in the URL), and compare them with dedicated opinion and commentary sites.<\/p>\n

See the posts tagged \u2018ATNIX\u2019 on this site for a full collection of previous results.<\/a><\/p>\n

ATNIX Week 39: 24-30 Sep. 2012<\/h1>\n

Given the substantial amount of dismay and anger expressed in response to Jones\u2019s comments \u2013 not least on Twitter<\/em> \u2013 and the extensive media debate which followed, the distribution of links to the major news sites this week looks almost unexpectedly normal. The top-ranked sites are in their usual positions, though the ABC is putting in a particularly good showing this week \u2013 its 19% share of tweeted links is up from 16% last week. It\u2019s not until place nine that we see any change to the status quo, in fact: here, the Australian Financial Review<\/em> is in an unusually strong position, with nearly 3,400 tweets referencing its articles; that\u2019s over 50% more links to the site than last week. What is notable overall, though, is a significant increase in the total number of links to Australian news sites which were tweeted this week \u2013 with about 125,000 tweets, we\u2019re still a fair way from the levels we recorded earlier in the year, but we\u2019re clearly up from the lacklustre levels of the past fortnight.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As is so often the case, though, it\u2019s the tweeting of links to opinion and commentary sites and sections where the most significant changes are evident. Week 39\/2012 marks an all-time record for the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> opinion section, which clearly cements its position as the go-to section for political commentary in Australia; a stunning 36% of the 19,000 links to opinion and commentary sites and sections which were tweeted this past week pointed to material on the SMH<\/em>. For the most part, this result does not reflect a weakening of the other sites, though: The Conversation<\/em> also increased its total number of incoming links, for example, and the ABC\u2019s The Drum<\/em> (or the articles at abc.net.au\/unleashed<\/em>) manages to reverse its slow decline, moving back into fifth place from tenth position in week 38. Rather, then, the fact is that the total number of opinion links has increased this week, and the SMH<\/em> opinion section has captured a disproportionate share of those additional links.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The daily patterns bear this out. For the news sites, we see that the week started out much like previous ones did \u2013 but then there\u2019s a sharp spike on Thursday 27 Sep. Notably, all the major news sites shown in the graph below benefit from this increase in activity at least to some extent \u2013 but proportional to their long-term prominence as news sources for the Australian Twittersphere, it is the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, ABC News<\/em>, and The Age<\/em> which spike most strongly.<\/p>\n

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But wait: news about Jones\u2019s remarks about the PM\u2019s father broke later in the week \u2013 so something else must be driving the Thursday spike. Indeed, it\u2019s Julian Assange, not Alan Jones, who is responsible for the substantial spike in Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> links: a National Times<\/em>-cobranded report on declassified US documents which describe Assange as an \u201cenemy of the state\u201d<\/a> received some 3,000 tweets. Once again, it\u2019s the distribution of a domestic story to a global audience, with the help of the well-organised international network of WikiLeaks<\/em> supporters, which takes SMH<\/em> links to a higher plane.<\/p>\n

The simultaneous spike in activity around ABC News<\/em> is less clearly driven by any one story. Three articles relating to the disappearance<\/a> and murder<\/a> of Jill Meagher account for some 500 tweets; stories about the mistreatment of sheep<\/a> exported from Australia to Pakistan, and to the dramatic disappearance of Arctic sea ice<\/a>, add another 300 tweets. In turn, the sharing of stories on Jill Meagher<\/a> (650 tweets) and Julian Assange<\/a> (300 tweets) also explains the spike at The Age<\/em>. Spikes in the minor Australian news sites are also likely to relate especially to news of an arrest in the Meagher case.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Australian Financial Review<\/em> (not pictured here) follows a different pattern, with spikes on 25 and 27 September. The first of these relates mainly to a (non-paywalled) story about Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak<\/a>, who has declared that he likes the NBN so much that he wishes to become an Australian citizen (some 430 tweets that day, with more on following days); the second relates largely to a piece by former Labor leader Mark Latham<\/a> which criticises The Australian<\/em>\u2019s double standards as it reports on Gillard and Abbott (some 250 tweets). Small numbers by comparison, perhaps \u2013 but significant for a niche publication which normally fails to generate much excitement on Twitter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But what of Alan Jones, then \u2013 did the major controversy over his remarks, which clearly also resulted in a substantial level of debate and anger in Australian social media spaces (witness the successful campaigns on Twitter<\/em> and Facebook<\/em> to encourage companies to pull their advertising from Jones\u2019s show), find no echo in the volume of links shared? In short: yes, it did \u2013 but less so than the other major stories of the week.<\/p>\n

The timing of the Jones controversy must also be considered here. The story broke late on Saturday 29 September \u2013 and we already know from our longer-term observations that weekends are traditionally slow days for news sharing on Twitter<\/em>; we may expect to see more activity on this story in next week\u2019s ATNIX, therefore. The gradual build-up of outrage over Jones\u2019s comments is already evident on the Sunday of week 39, however, and becomes most visible if we single out links to opinion and commentary sites and sections in Australia:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> opinion spike on 27 Sep. is entirely the result of the 3,000 tweets to a National Times<\/em>-cobadged article about Julian Assange (and marks by far the most significant case of a story going viral which we\u2019ve observed since ATNIX started in mid-year), there\u2019s another unusual rise in tweeting activity for the SMH<\/em> and The Age<\/em> on the final day of the week.<\/p>\n

Of the SMH<\/em> tweets, some 600 link to a piece by sports columnist Peter FitzSimons which draws the connection between Alan Jones and Tony Abbott<\/a>, while another 200 share a National Times<\/em>-cobadged article which reports the details of Jones\u2019s speech<\/a>. The same articles also account for the lion\u2019s share of links to the opinion section of The<\/em>\u00a0Age<\/em>, but here a third article by political editor Michelle Grattan, suggesting that Jones\u2019s statements are \u201clow-rent comments a decent man would not make<\/a>\u201d, adds another 70-odd links.<\/p>\n

Remember that this is only Sunday, though. As the graph above shows, the spike in opinion links to the SMH<\/em> that day already surpasses the number of tweets which we\u2019ve recorded for almost any other controversy since ATNIX started, except for global issues such as Assange and WikiLeaks<\/em>. I\u2019d be willing to bet that the following Monday will see yet greater levels of Twitter<\/em> activity and outrage surrounding this story \u2013 especially as discussion of Jones\u2019s belligerent apology and calls for an advertiser boycott of his show and station build up. But for that, we\u2019ll have to wait another week, until ATNIX 40\/2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of us who follow the Australian media don\u2019t need ATNIX to tell us that it\u2019s been an eventful week, driven towards the end especially by the coverage of Alan Jones\u2019s indefensible comments about the Prime Minister\u2019s late father. But what our Australian Twitter News Index can do is to provide us with quantitative evidence … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, Week 39\/2012”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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