Working paper 153: social media analysis, Twitter and the London Olympics 2012 [working paper]
2012
During the course of this paper we examine publically available social media data
that relates to the London 2012 Olympic Games that has been harvested and
analysed using the Cardiff Online Social Media ObServatory (COSMOS). Social media
has matured sufficiently in terms of user uptake and incorporation into traditional
media platforms and outlets that the recent London Olympics has been described as
the first social media games. For example, the BBC used the Twitter stream to
incorporate and mobilise audience participation into its Olympic coverage. With this
in mind, this paper will explore the analysis of social media data in relation to
sporting events and social media use. In doing so we identify the ways in which
COSMOS can be used to identify hashtag popularity over a specific time period to
identify real world events, in this case ‘Super Saturday’. The paper reports on
indicative evidence that links real-world sporting events to spikes in real time
populations’ reaction through self-reported social media updates. In turn, the paper
provides an analysis of frequency and sentiment of tweets containing the most
popular UK hashtag connected to the London 2012 Olympics over a specified time
period. This has consequences for conceptualising the relationship between social
actors, events and social media and methodological strategies for understanding the
dynamic (locomotive) reactions of populations.
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