ACSPRI 2024

Beyond Interaction Networks: An Introduction to Practice Mapping

Axel Bruns

• 29 Nov. 2024 – Keynote presented at the ACSPRI 2024 conference, Sydney

Presentation Slides

Abstract

Social network analysis has become a key tool in digital communication research, and has flourished especially in social media studies using Twitter data. However, it struggles in analysing activity patterns on platforms that provide fewer data points on interactions between accounts (e.g. Facebook or Instagram), and in exploring the interconnections between multiple activity practices that are interwoven with each other. This keynote introduces the new approach of practice mapping, which advances beyond the network analysis and visualisation of direct interactions between accounts and instead uses vector embeddings of networked actions and interactions to map the commonalities and disjunctures in the practices of social media users. In particular, this innovative methodological framework has the potential to incorporate multiple distinct modes of activity and interactivity into a single practice map, can be further enriched with account-level attributes such as information gleaned from textual analysis, profile information, available demographic details, and other features, and can be applied even to a cross-platform analysis of communicative patterns and practices. Drawing on a case study of public posting activity on Facebook during the Voice to Parliament referendum campaign, this keynote outlines the practice mapping approach and demonstrates the insights it can produce.