Kim Osman
Research Associate at QUT and member of the Digital Media Research Centre. Kim's research explores participation and informal learning in digital communities.
Location Brisbane, Australia
Activity
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Kim Osman replied to Scott Turner
Great to hear, Scott :). He really is ace.
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Absolutely, Ali! Doing analyses such as these we can look at larger trends and find things that we may not have even thought were important to the community we are engaging with. We might identify back channels and smaller communities or conversations that we can then use qualitative methods to study.
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The level of trust between political institutions and commerce on digital media is *always* an interesting question - who indeed do we trust more with our information? This is US focused: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/25/18022956/amazon-trust-survey-american-institutions-ranked-georgetown and this is another US resource, but is interesting in light of...
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Linking back to Jean's thoughts about sociality, this is a different map generated by Axel and our colleague Brenda Moon about Australian Twitter activity on any given day: https://theconversation.com/twitter-isnt-just-for-political-hashtag-warriors-many-still-use-the-social-network-to-just-hang-out-120505
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Thanks Ali and Stephanie below for the thoughtful responses. Social media spaces are increasingly crowded and contested, but many of us also step back as you note, as life changes, or we alter how we engage in these communities and on different platforms. So these spaces are also emergent and dynamic. And as *other* media emerges, we make choices about how we...
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That is quite a random use of #MeToo, Shelley! Spam accounts will co-opt popular hashtags (as do some businesses with sometimes disastrous results), but these tweets are usually easily identified.
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Kim Osman made a comment
Thanks all for the positive feedback :). And a reminder to those who are just starting, you can always catch up Weeks 1 & 2 (and we'll be around) in the next week or so.
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Hi Glenn, this is Chris Messina's blog post from 2007. Messina is credited with bringing the hashtag into popular use on social media platforms: https://factoryjoe.com/2007/10/22/twitter-hashtags-for-emergency-coordination-and-disaster-relief/
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Kim Osman replied to José Abdón Palma Durán
Thanks for this José - the evolution of the app is really fascinating, and speaks to the issues raised through the entanglement of activism and technology.
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Thanks for the contributions both. Tana, why do you think these changes appeal more to individuals than business?
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We had some similar issues of gaining informed consent for an online focus group. After some false starts and people falling out of the recruitment pipeline (by having to return forms via email), we ended up with a clunky - but online! - method that is outlined in a user guide here:...
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The rise and fall of Google Plus is a really interesting story, Ron. You many find this a good read - https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/2/18290637/google-plus-shutdown-consumer-personal-account-delete.
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Kim Osman replied to José Abdón Palma Durán
Hi José, this is very interesting - do you have any resources you can share with us about this?
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Kim Osman replied to Anastasia Picton-Vraka
Hi Anastasia, you may be interested in some of Axel's work in this area - Bruns, Axel. (2017) Echo chamber? What echo chamber? Reviewing the evidence. In 6th Biennial Future of Journalism Conference (FOJ17), 14-15 September 2017, Cardiff, UK. Available at https://eprints.qut.edu.au/113937/ and also 'Are Filter Bubbles Real?' available from Polity...
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Check out #ecrchat for some good discussions about academia on Twitter, Yin.
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Hi Yasemin - this is a great point, how are hashtags used across different platforms, and by different user groups? We'll look at this in the next step - did you find anything of note?
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Hi Tawheed, hopefully this course will help you out and point you in the direction of other tools that you can use for analysing social media data, too.
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Kim Osman replied to Glenn Malcolm
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Glenn. We look at the commercialisation of Twitter and its changing business model here, but the issues you highlight around the institutionalisation and governance of online platforms are emergent and important.
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Twitter has definitely evolved over time caecilia - do you use other social media now to participate in online communities?
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Kim Osman replied to Shelley Lawson
This sounds like a good plan Shelley, you will be able to identify secondary hashtags to investigate associated conversations next week.
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Kim Osman replied to Theo Landey
That's an interesting question Theo and it will be interesting next week to see how user interactions (among users who share a lot of visual material) in a lighter topic play out.
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You have raised an excellent point in regard to an ongoing debate, Ali. How much do social media contribute to social change? We look at this in terms of activism in this course, but it's good to also think about the smaller actions. And of course these debates are continued from early media studies - does watching broadcast media on the TV let us let off...
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That's a good point about hashtags kumuda, that although you didn't participate, you still consider #selfiewithdaughter important. Hashtags are a way of organising discussions and gatehring people to a conversation, but also have a role in promoting issues.
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Kim Osman replied to Souleymane Coulibaly
Hi Souleymane - I suggest looking at news sources around this date to look for events that may contribute to the peaks. Or it may be that one tweet gets traction and therefore a lot of retweets. But for this event, when the protest moved to the airport, that was big news here in Australia, so it may be that it's a particular event within the larger issue.
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So timely Nick - you'll need to let TAGS run for a while, but this should be a rich and contested discussion.
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That is key @Nkomo - remembering the different uses of platforms for different groups of people. And the approaches we take here will not be the right approach or method for everyone's questions. Being aware of these differences from the outset is a great start.
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Do you use social media to access news stories at all Olaf? Or do you go straight to the website of a news organisation? You might find this article interesting, "What’s newsworthy about ‘social news’? Characteristics and potential of an emerging genre", it's paywalled here but you can request a copy through eprints: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918793933
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Kim Osman replied to Julian Jacobs
Along with the chapter in the course textbook on sports fandom (pp263-280), if you're interested, this is an excellent thesis on football and digital media: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91056/
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Kim Osman replied to Julian Jacobs
Excellent points, Julian! Twitter is great for following sporting matches that may not be streamed or televised live, and also bring a certain sociality to the match. As an Australian cricket fan I've been following #TheAshes, (although the tweets on that last day of the last test were hard to read).
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Hi @JulianJacobs maybe just wait a bit as it seems the whole QUT eprints repository is down. I've just tried accessing eprints internally from QUT, I'm sure they're on to it and hopefully it will be up and running soon.
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This is a really interesting finding Martina - that health organisations are having traction in this space on Twitter. People are sharing educated messages from professionals in relation to a food-related health issue, and this is good to know as these types of conversations can become very contested and crowded on social media as I'm sure you're well aware!
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It would be interesting to compare across platforms Lynn - and remember also to think about the methods you use, if it's only a small discussion you are interested in, it may be that you can use qualitative methods instead. The possibilities abound, and I'm glad it's sparked your interest.
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Kim Osman replied to Diana Valero
Some great observations @DianaValero - if you're interested there's a report on inclusivity (commissioned by Facebook...) and you can download datasets from the Inclusive Internet Index here: https://theinclusiveinternet.eiu.com/
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Kim Osman replied to Pier Andrea Pirani
That is an interesting finding about #km4dev. When we talk about public conversations (and of datasets around 50,000-100,000 tweets) I guess there is an assumption that the 'publicness' includes everyday Twitter users talking about the things that matter to them. #km4dev seems to have organisations tweeting - you're right @PierAndreaPirani it would be great to...
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Kim Osman replied to Kelechi Udeogu
That's really interesting, Kelechi as a lot of the posts on Twitter are very visual and it's such an active hashtag. I would think the visuals would work well on those other platforms. Perhaps the ease of sharing the messages, reposting and gathering the conversation on Twitter works. When you see all the #EndSARS tweets in a collection it is quite powerful.
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What's your response rate like with this method Rachael?
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Kim Osman replied to Bothinah Al-Jar Allah
Hi Bothinah - just a reminder we're using English in this course to keep the conversation going. Look forward to your contributions.
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Kim Osman replied to Myra Kinalwa
Great findings, Myra! Your observation of the shout outs made me think of the hat tip (/ht), and then this old discussion from 2009 that is a fantastic record of the evolution of user innovation in Twitter: http://www.unthinkingly.com/2009/11/09/slashtags-for-citizen-editors/
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What were some of the the hashtags used during the campaign Alice?
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Great Lynn, there is an education community emerging (see @Zainab's comment below) so hopefully you will all be able to share insights.
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Great point, Thomas. Media literacy at all stages and ages, and for different contexts and cultures is so very important.
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Yes - this so important. We can't forget the agency we have as users.
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Kim Osman replied to Rosemary A
Thanks for the Nigerian perspective, Rosemary - it's really valuable. Is there another platform that journalists or the media use for breaking news in Nigeria?
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Kim Osman replied to Naomi Barnes
And another one you may all find useful:
Hodson, J., Gosse, C., Veletsianos, G., & Houlden, S. (2018). I get by with a little help from my friends: The ecological model and support for women scholars experiencing online harassment. First Monday, 23(8). doi: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i8.9136 -
Hi Myra, we have tested the link and it is a direct download as a pdf. Were you searching the reference or using the link?
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Hashtags as identity performance is a great point, Alexandra! I notice this on Facebook too - it's less about brand conversations/promotions or linking into a community (as say on Insta or Twitter).
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And going one step further than spammy, this is one of the more memorable (and awful) social media fails when using trending hashtags: https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/clothing-retailers-insensitive-aurora-tweet-enrages-internet-899485
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Thanks Myra, the paper should have been a direct download. We'll look into this and get back to you.
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Thanks for sharing, @eWilson-Tagoe!
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You raise a great point, Olaf about thinking through how we use hashtags to connect to conversations. Something like #health will be just too big to follow as a conversation, however as smaller communities (ad hoc publics) fork off the original hashtag you'll find more focused discussion. You may also find this in your own data as we go through the week and...
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Kim Osman replied to Ömer Arslan
What terms were you collecting Adaobi? If you can let us know what steps you got up to, we can help you from there.
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You can still follow along, John and join in on the issues that are raised throughout.
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Kim Osman replied to Ray Robinson
This is very topical, Ray (and also made headlines here in Australia). Perhaps it might be helpful to hypothesise about retweeting and the circulation of specific tweets?
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Kim Osman replied to Jessica Young
There is debate about the value of clicktivism and slacktivism, but you're right Jessica, it does feel better than doing nothing and we shouldn't underestimate the power of sharing: this is one of my favourite examples: https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/facebook-cartoon-profile-pic-campaign-raises--100-000-for-nspcc.html
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Kim Osman replied to Sook Jhee Yoon
That's a great discovery, Sook! One of the great joys of research is setting out to find out about one thing and finding other thing out along the way. Hopefully this will help you with your data collection later on also.
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Kim Osman replied to Ömer Arslan
What a great observation, Omer!
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Kim Osman replied to Myra Kinalwa
Hi Myra, did you notice any of the same visual media on Twitter as Instagram? Also, thanks for introducing me to the #knifeangel, what a striking sculpture and statement.
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Kim Osman made a comment
What a fantastic range of topics so far! I can't wait to see the discussions about the data we're collecting. Don't forget to follow other learners who are investigating similar topics to you also, I can see some great research themes emerging.
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We'll talk more about this later when we think about research questions, but you may need to think about how you connect with larger conversations, Kylie - perhaps think about issues that your potential clients will be interested in in relation to your business.
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Kim Osman replied to RaZz Chaudhary
Great to have you on board!
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Great point about fact-checking, Alice. This is a comment piece you may be interested in about the rise of fact-checking, and calls from some organisations that tweeting out fact-checks is not enough, there needs to be a call to action: https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/06/first-generation-fact-checking-is-no-longer-good-enough-heres-what-comes-next/
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Hi Souleymane - great to see you here :). And you make a good point about the importance of engagement. Without sociality and interaction, user accounts become more like traditional broadcast media and run the risk of alienating followers as they don't understand the norms of Twitter.
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You are very active Moseax! Would you retweet as much if you had to manually copy and paste and hat tip by writing RT@... every time?
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Great point RaZz! There are many Twitters, and commercial Twitter is one. It can give customers/clients more direct contact and power with companies. But it can also open companies up to more risk as we'll see in later steps.
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Kim Osman replied to Anand Badola
Thanks for sharing Anand - Tik-Tok is on my radar as a parent after musical.ly (a predecessor of the app), and Tik-Tok seems to be perpetuating these problems. I had no idea of the extent of the problems in India though - so thanks so much for this information. As we move among different platforms, it's a good reminder that content moderation can be hard for...
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Thanks for the thoughtful response, Daniel. Influencers are also big business in Australia. Instagram has recently started hiding metrics (like counts) for a number of reasons, I wonder if the issues are similar and/or this will be rolled out to Nigeria too?...
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Kim Osman replied to Anand Badola
The Indian context is interesting Anand - what are the main social media platforms used in India?
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Kim Osman replied to Naomi Barnes
It is difficult Naomi, perhaps you could approach the users whose quotes you want to use individually (this has worked for me in the past, although it was a long process). Lead users are often relatively public, but as you have pointed out in previous steps, there are so many different cultures on social media that a one-size fits all approach to ethics will...
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Kim Osman replied to Renee Barnes
+1 for the ABC article. Thanks Renee!
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You should have plenty of data for climate change, Ahmad. You and @Renee could follow each other also and share topic insights as you progress through the course. And it looks like we may have a community of health researchers you can engage with too.
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Ease of use is a great point, Shelly. We often forget about the materiality and form of sites and what they encourage. FutureLearn for example encourages discussion by having comments on every learning step and having a 'reply' function, making it easy to start a conversation. Do you mean the infrastructure of Twitter - the platform - is harder to use than...
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Kim Osman replied to tashriek hendricks
Thanks tashriek, we'll take that on board.
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Kim Osman replied to Jose Guerrero
Hi Jose, I'm interested to see the secondary hashtags that emerge from your data. Especially as you note the community is often sidelined, I'm interested to see how disability rights activists hook into larger conversations on Twitter.
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Kim Osman replied to Kate Bentick
Hi Kate, this will be a really interesting exploration - these are topics quite well covered elsewhere on the internet on sites like Facebook, blogs and dedicated forums, so I'm super interested to see how these topics and conversations play out on Twitter!
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Kim Osman replied to Cajo Musinghi
That's really interesting, Cajo. Twitter is often framed as a platform with a long history, but as you point out it is still emergent in different places around the world. What is your country out of interest?
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Kim Osman replied to Mike Kruger
Hi Mike, this is a rate limiting error when too many requests are made to the API in a given timeframe. You are correct in just waiting and then trying again later. Let us know how you get on.
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Kim Osman replied to Amy Johnson
No...and yes. No for this course, because we will not be publishing anything, the data we do use will be presented in aggregate and de-identified, and Twitter posts are public and can be considered "published" and in the public domain. However, if you were going to use direct tweets from ordinary users - and by ordinary, I mean users who are not verified, or...
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Kim Osman replied to Pete Jeans
Hi Pete, have you managed to upgrade yet? We've passed your issue on, but as this is a technical problem with the platform, it will be quickest for you to contact FL directly at feedback@futurelearn.com.
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Maria is correct. This is an ideal number. You can do it with less, but as we are talking about methods to understand large conversations, it is easier to work with a large dataset. Remember the tools and methods we use in this course are not a "one size fits all" approach to research. We have many different methods to approach research into many different and...
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That's interesting Bryan as there is quite an active conversation around climate change on Twitter - can I ask what hashtag you used to tap into the conversation?
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You're obviously in quite a niche literary community Meredith, is this community only on Twitter, or does it exist elsewhere?
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Kim Osman replied to Rozlon Bradley
Hi Rozlon - it's great to hear you are enjoying the course. We love when the course prompts someone to think about social media in new ways. Even as a digital media researcher, I am constantly challenged to think about social media and my research in new ways, as it's such a dynamic field. See you in Week 2 this week!
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Kim Osman replied to Daniel Avila
That's fascinating Daniel! I know in Brazil also during the World Cup many Brazilians used sports conversations and hashtags to highlight larger political issues. How these conversations crossover and play out is super interesting. Also just FYI:
https://theconversation.com/view-from-brazil-twitter-as-a-tool-for-protest-and-procrastination-27708 -
Ok - I have just wasted far too much time looking at this hashtag on Instagram and Twitter :) (after many Christmases spent in Baildon and walks around the moors I'll admit an ulterior motive)! I also found Instagram bring up a lot more dogs (yorkies) than Twitter. I was surprised however at the amount of posts on Twitter by ordinary users (i.e. not tourism...
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Kim Osman made a comment
We're about to start the livestream over at Facebook - if you're around come and join us on the DMRC Facebook page!
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Could you maybe think about your audience in terms of topics Amy? Are there any tangentially related topics you could explore on Twitter?
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Amit, this is very intersting. What role do you think social media has in cultural change in India?
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Kim Osman made a comment
There seems to be a majority here who find indeed Twitter has changed and become less sociable. I'm looking forward to all your thoughts as we progress through the weeks, as Twitter is changing quite significantly at the moment!
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Kim Osman replied to mira calix
Hi mira, for this course we are looking at large public conversations, so you'll need a fairly large dataset (ideally in the tens of thousands of tweets, but you can do it with less). It may help to do a quick TAGS run (I noticed you're all up and running which is great!) on both to see what the volume of tweets will be. Keep in mind TAGS won't pick up...
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Is #loveyorkshire a publicised hashtag Amit? What made you choose this?
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Kim Osman replied to Jeanette Todd
Is there much discussion about the current events going on Jeanette?
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Do you notice any differences in how the hashtags and the associated content play out across Facebook as compared to Twitter?
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Kim Osman replied to Daniel Avila
What strategic timing Daniel :/. Do any of the tweets related to the National Prosecutor also reference the football? Or vice versa?
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That is such an interesting comparison Rozlon and one that we definitely need to think about. How does our research differ from the collection and use of data by businesses? And how readily do we give it up as users ourselves? For the first question, one of the main differences is in social research we simply can't afford the data. This is why we use Twitter...
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Kim Osman replied to Amy Johnson
Yes, this is a good point Amy, you can see from Ehsan's responses below that ethics in internet research is far from black and white. In the debate you are referring to, one can claim that once you have written and "published" a post on social media, it is just that - "published." However like debates about privacy, do you have an expectation of privacy in...
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Thanks for letting us know Jez, we'll fix that up!
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Thanks so much for this link Fereshteh - I think you will have many tweets to analyse as people come together on Twitter in a time of crisis like this. It will be an interesting analysis of an unfolding crisis.
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And then I use it afterwards to tap into a community, a shared sense of shock/loss/grief/disbelief at the latest character to exit the show, and associated gifs.
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You make such a fantastic point Felicity - many people use the same platforms in different ways. This is key to many of the discussions we will have, social media are not one thing, but many complex platforms, used in many complex ways.
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You raise a good point, David. Twitter is often seen as a broadcast service, and in its early days there were debates about what exactly 'Twitter" was - was it a new way of broadcasting news to a mass audience, or was it a tool for staying in touch with friends and social groups? I think you're right that networks have grown, although it is still about sharing...
