University of Canterbury researcher interpreting nearly one million post-quake tweets

February 4, 2015

A University of Canterbury postgraduate researcher is trawling through nearly a million tweets posted following the Christchurch earthquakes to gauge the role social media played in gathering and distributing information.

Media and Communication PhD student Martina Wengenmeir is analysing 963,795 relevant tweets collected with the help of an Arts Research Challenge grant, in cooperation with researchers from Media and Communication, Digital Humanities and the University of Canterbury CEISMIC Digital Archive, which was designed to preserve people’s earthquake memories and experiences.

Wengenmeir’s study, supervised by Dr Zita Joyce, is investigating the characteristics of online earthquake communications, examining contents, moods and feelings after each major jolt. She will compare Twitter data with Facebook pages and will produce her findings next year.

“Twitter played an important role after the quakes as a tool to gather and distribute information. It has a different platform structure to Facebook and is more open so even people who aren’t Twitter users could follow the #eqnz hashtag or search the stream for other relevant information about the earthquakes,’’ Wengenmeir says.

“Twitter is also highly reactive and information is spread a lot quicker than on traditional media channels and takes a different form, as single private users as well as organisations and media affiliated accounts write tweets. This is why people turned to the platform for the latest information whenever there was an aftershock.

“I interviewed people from organisations such as Rebuild Christchurch, Gap Filler, the Restart Mall, Avon River Park and Rise Up Christchurch about their use of Facebook and Twitter. Everyone I spoke to was driven by the motivation to help Christchurch people after the earthquakes.

“They were passionate about what they were doing and so most of the Facebook pages and the organisations behind have grown into something bigger. They became attached to their online communities.

“Even though there are different opinions on how the rebuild should take place and what the city should look like in the future, people mostly communicated and discussed things through social media on a constructive basis.

“They were able to share their story and say what was going on in Christchurch from their point of view. This positive interaction gave them hope about the rebuild and Christchurch’s future.”

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