Some Publications Updates (Mostly about Twitter)

OK, so to save this blog from turning completely into a conference blog (watch out for the Australia/New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference, starting next week), here’s a round-up of my most recent publications. Most of these build on our Twitter research – and you can find more detailed updates about those projects over at Mapping Online Publics.

I’ve had three co-authored journal articles published over the past few weeks. Of these, the most recent one is in First Monday, and was co-authored with Eugene Liang Yuxiang from the National Cheng Chi University in Taipei, following on from a workshop on Twitter and crisis communication research which took place there last October. In the paper, Eugene and I compare our approaches to tracking disaster-related communication on Twitter – I discuss our work with yourTwapperkeeper and Eugene outlines the infrastructure the Taiwanese team have built. For more, see:

Axel Bruns and Eugene Liang Yuxian. “Tools and Methods for Capturing Twitter Data during Natural Disasters.” First Monday 17.4 (2012).

Two other publications are co-authored with my QUT colleague Jean Burgess, and appeared in Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice within two days of each other. The first of these is another methodology article, and outlines how our methods for Twitter research may be used by journalists and journalism researchers; it’s based on the paper we presented at the Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff in September 2011. More details are here:

Axel Bruns and Jean Burgess. “Researching News Discussion on Twitter: New Methodologies.” Journalism Studies 22 Mar. 2012.

The other paper goes back a little further, and presents our analysis of the use of Twitter during the 2010 Australian federal election. It appears in a special issue of Journalism Practice, guest-edited by Einar Thorsen, on the online reporting of elections – many thanks to Einar for the invitation to submit a paper. Here’s the article:

Jean Burgess and Axel Bruns. “(Not) the Twitter Election: The Dynamics of the #ausvotes Conversation in Relation to the Australian Media Ecology.” Journalism Practice 20 Mar. 2012.

(Neither of those two issues have been formally released as issues yet, but articles are already available online through the journals’ forthcoming articles listings.)

With Jean and other co-authors, I have a few other publications in the pipeline as well – more on those when they appear!

Beyond this, I’ve also been busy with a bunch of opinion articles – mainly on the use of Twitter for promotion and communication by brands and politicians, and in emergency situations. Here’s a round-up of selected recent articles and interviews – first, our crisis communication research got a good run, especially around the first anniversary of the 2011 Queensland floods:

Axel Bruns. “How Twitter Played a Vital Role in the Queensland Floods.” The Conversation, 11 Jan. 2012.

Matthew Liddy. “How Twitter Covered the Queensland Floods.” ABC News Online, 11 Jan. 2012.

And of course, our CCI report on Twitter and the Queensland floods also remains available:

Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Kate Crawford, and Frances Shaw. "#qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods." Brisbane: ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, 2012.

I’ve also been doing some running commentary on the use of Twitter in the 2012 Queensland state elections (including my weekly updates at Mapping Online Publics), with a piece in The Conversation and a range of interviews:

Axel Bruns. “Queensland Election on Twitter: A Scorecard for Bligh and Newman.” The Conversation (22 Mar. 2012).

Jessica van Vonderen. “Qld Politicians Embrace Twitter.” ABC TV News Queensland, 16 Mar. 2012.

Jessica van Vonderen. “Tweets Sing to Election Tune for Growing Audience.” ABC 7.30 Queensland, 16 Mar. 2012.

Finally, my piece in The Conversation on the #qantasluxury promotion debacle also caused a bit of a stir, with a number of republications from Mumbrella to the Technology Spectator, and some related articles and other coverage as well:

Axel Bruns. “How Not to Use Twitter: Lessons from Qantas and Westpac.” The Conversation, 15 Feb. 2012.

Ali Benton. “When Corporate Social Media Goes Wrong.” ABC Radio National, 29 Feb. 2012.

Axel Bruns. “King Canute Is Alive and Tweeting ... and He Works at Sky News.” The Conversation (9 Feb. 2012).

Phew. What’s next?