{"id":2644,"date":"2013-09-06T09:15:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T23:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/?p=2644"},"modified":"2013-09-05T18:27:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T08:27:17","slug":"ausvotes-twitter-activity-by-electorate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/dev\/2013\/09\/06\/ausvotes-twitter-activity-by-electorate\/","title":{"rendered":"#ausvotes: Twitter Activity by Electorate"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my last post about the Twitter activity around Australian politicians before tomorrow\u2019s election, I\u2019m once again looking at the distribution of Twitter<\/em> activity across Australia\u2019s 150 electorates (this is excluding Senate candidates by default, therefore). We\u2019ve done this once before during this campaign, a few weeks back<\/a> \u2013 this post covers the period from 4 August to 1 September (i.e. the full campaign except for the final week, which hasn\u2019t finished yet).<\/p>\n

Once again, a reminder about our approach here: we are tracking all tweets by and @mentions of sitting members and candidates in the 2013 federal election. As more (especially minor party) candidates have become known, we\u2019ve progressively extended our list as far as possible.<\/p>\n

This post covers the two sides of the equation: first, I\u2019ll provide an overview of which local candidates are receiving especially much attention on Twitter<\/em>; further down, I\u2019ll explore which candidates are particularly active in their own use of Twitter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

@mentions of Candidates<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ll begin with the @mentions of local candidates. Just to make this absolutely clear: those @mentions may be coming from anywhere in Australia, and even in the world, not just from the electorate itself. So, if an electorate flares up in red in the maps below, it\u2019s because its local candidate or candidates are @mentioned especially frequently on Twitter<\/em> \u2013 not<\/em> (necessarily) because Twitter<\/em> users who are based in the electorate are highly active. (And as always, zoom in to enlarge.)<\/p>\n

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

The national map points to some of the rural and regional electorates whose candidates have been especially frequently @mentioned on Twitter<\/em>. In northert Queensland, Bob Katter\u2019s seat of Kennedy gets considerable attention; in northern NSW, retiring Independent Tony Windsor remains a point of focus in New England; and in northeastern Victoria, Sophie Mirabella\u2019s struggles to hang on to Indi have been a focal point for some time.<\/p>\n

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

In and around Brisbane, Kevin Rudd\u2019s seat of Griffith is featured strongly for obvious reasons. High profile draftee Peter Beattie lights up Forde, while former Treasurer Wayne Swan may be in trouble in Lilley. On the Sunshine Coast, neighbouring electorates Fairfax (where United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer is running) and Fisher (where the bitter feud between former Speaker Peter Slipper and LNP candidate Mal Brough continues) are also highly active.<\/p>\n

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

In Sydney, Tony Abbott\u2019s Warringah, Malcolm Turnbull\u2019s Wentworth, and Joe Hockey\u2019s North Sydney are featured even more prominently than Anthony Albanese\u2019s Grayndler, Tanya Plibersek\u2019s Sydney, Scott Morrison\u2019s Cook, Chris Bowen\u2019s McMahon, David Bradbury\u2019s Lindsay, or Tony Burke\u2019s Watson. Here, the high level of activity serves in the first place as a reminder of how much the frontbenches of both sides of politics are populated by politicians from a single city.<\/p>\n

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

By comparison, Melbourne gets a much smaller share of the action. Sole Greens MP Adam Bandt\u2019s seat of Melbourne leads the way, followed by Lalor (where retiring member and former PM Julia Gillard still receives her fair share of @mentions, even though she has been virtually absent from the campaign itself), and Bill Shorten\u2019s Maribyrnong isn\u2019t far behind. Flinders (where opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt is standing) is somewhat less active, while Corangamite may be prominent mainly for the disendorsement<\/a> of its Palmer\u2019s United Australia Party candidate Buddy Rojek. Up in the northeast, rural Indi (at close to 6,000 tweets) leaves many a suburban seat behind.<\/p>\n

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

In Adelaide, things are quieter still. Only Kate Ellis in the seat of Adelaide, and Mark Butler in Port Adelaide, have generate any real activity over the course of the campaign to date.<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, the obvious star candidate in Perth \u2013 and perhaps the only Western Australian politician on Twitter<\/em> who has a truly national profile \u2013 is Coalition foreign policy spokeswoman Julie Bishop.<\/p>\n

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

In Tasmania, it looks like Twitter<\/em> activity also reflects population density \u2013 and here, too, the only politician with a national profile, Independent Andrew Wilkie, is the main reason that Denison (taking in Hobart) is the state\u2019s most prominent electorate.<\/p>\n

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

The ACT is surrounded by interesting electorates \u2013 Indi, and the \u201cbellwether\u201d seat Eden-Monaro \u2013 but itself remains more subdued. Canberra itself is quiet, while Fraser (with its coastal exclave Jervis Bay), where Andrew Leigh is standing, is slightly more prominent.<\/p>\n

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

And finally, nothing much to see in either of the two federal electorates covering the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

Tweets by Candidates<\/h2>\n

As we\u2019ve seen in previous analyses, the volume of @mentions received by the candidates usually doesn\u2019t correlate much at all with their own tweeting efforts; this is the case especially for the most prominent leaders, who\u2019ll be @mentioned at significant volume even if they don\u2019t tweet at all. So, it\u2019s worth examining which local candidates have actively taken to Twitter<\/em> across the nation.<\/p>\n

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

The national map of tweeting candidates shows a few new hotspots. In Queensland, the highly active @MaranoaGreens account of Grant Newson lights up the southwest Queensland electorate of Maranoa, and his party colleague Jonathon Dykyj is similarly active in Dawson, half-way up the Queensland coast. Eden-Monaro and Indi again appear prominently in NSW and Victoria, while Tony Windsor\u2019s would-be successors in New England (in northeastern NSW) haven\u2019t generated a great deal of activity of their own. Corangamite southwest of Melbourne also flares up, due to the high volume of tweets from ex-Palmer candidate Buddy Rojek.<\/p>\n

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

In Queensland, Kevin Rudd in Griffith and Wayne Swan in Lilley aren\u2019t actually especially active, despite their high profiles. They\u2019re outdone by their party colleagues Gayle Hislop in McPherson and Graham Perrett in Moreton (where the LNP\u2019s Malcolm Cole and the Greens\u2019 Elissa Jenkins are also fairly active). To the west, by the way, we see the eastern edge of Maranoa, which stretches from here to the state border.<\/p>\n

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

In Sydney, the difference between the @mentions and tweets maps is even starker. Coalition and Labor leaders are<\/em> active on Twitter<\/em>, but not all that much; in Wentworth and Grayndler, sitting members Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese are also facing Twitter<\/em> competition from Labor\u2019s Di Smith and the Greens\u2019 Hall Greenland, respectively. Further out west, Lindsay Labor MP David Bradbury is well outdone on Twitter<\/em> by Palmer candidate Andrew Wilcox.<\/p>\n

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

In Melbourne, by comparison, the inner city shows some more signs of life \u2013 perhaps precisely because the local candidates don\u2019t also hold prominent frontbench positions. Greens MP Adam Bandt is being outdone by Labor\u2019s Cath Bowtell in the set of Melbourne, while significant local Twitter <\/em>battles also rage in Batman, Scullin, Gellibrand, and Calwell, to name but a few. In Corangamite, as I\u2019ve noted before, disendorsed Palmer candidate Buddy Rojek is tweeting up a storm in spite of his newly found status as an Independent.<\/p>\n

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

There\u2019s less to say about Adelaide. Here, the sitting members in the outer electorates of Wakefield and Mayo \u2013 Labor\u2019s Nick Champion and the Liberals\u2019 Jamie Briggs, respectively \u2013 generate only some limited action, more or less unopposed.<\/p>\n

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

In Perth, Julie Bishop isn\u2019t only the recipient of a substantial number of @mentions, but also tweets out relatively frequently. She\u2019s outdone, however, by the Greens\u2019 Dawn Jecks in the southern electorate of Brand, who claims the crown as Western Australia\u2019s most active tweeting candidate.<\/p>\n

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

In Tasmania, tweets sent mirrors @mentions received remarkably closely. Once again, Andrew Wilkie\u2019s Hobart-area seat of Denison leads the way, but Twitter<\/em> by candidates in the seat is fairly evenly split between Palmer candidate Debra Thurley, Wilkie himself, the ALP\u2019s Jane Austin, and the Greens\u2019 Anna Reyno. Liberal candidate Tanya Denison\u2019s fabulously-named @Denison4Denison account has not tweeted since 17 July.<\/p>\n

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

The same goes for the ACT \u2013 as with the @mentions, we see limited activity from Canberra candidates Gai Brodtmann (Labor) and Julie Melrose (Greens), while in Fraser, active Twitter<\/em> user Andrew Leigh (Labor) is some way ahead of the Greens\u2019 Adam Verwey. Other parties\u2019 candidates don\u2019t seem to figure much here. Next door in Eden-Monaro, by the way, Labor\u2019s Mike Kelly has taken to Twitter<\/em> with some aplomb, while Palmer candidate Dean Lynch also puts in a strong showing.<\/p>\n

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

Finally, Northern Territory candidates have s far failed to set Twitter<\/em> alight. Perhaps there\u2019s a chicken-and-egg situation here: seeing as they receive very few mentions, they may see little reason to tweet themselves; on the other hand, since they don\u2019t tweet much, they don\u2019t receive many @mentions. At any rate, it\u2019s very quiet in the Top End.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For my last post about the Twitter activity around Australian politicians before tomorrow\u2019s election, I\u2019m once again looking at the distribution of Twitter activity across Australia\u2019s 150 electorates (this is excluding Senate candidates by default, therefore). We\u2019ve done this once before during this campaign, a few weeks back \u2013 this post covers the period from … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “#ausvotes: Twitter Activity by Electorate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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