Twitter – There have been several academic research projects in the past based on Eurovision, but the latest shows some interesting facts about Eurovision and the use of the social networking site Twitter in last year’s contest in Baku. The annual Internet Research conference, which is being held in the UK today, saw a paper presented on this subject. Can you guess who the acts were that were most tweeted about?
The paper, by Axel Bruns, Tim Highfield and Stephen Harrington, highlights the fact that there is often increased twitter activity around key televised live events. For those that do not use twitter, the short 140 character ‘tweets’ that people post are a way to publish instant thoughts and news on such events. These can instantly be seen by millions. ‘Trending topics’ – things that are being tweeted about – are often highlighted with hashtags. The #Eurovision or #esc hashtags were used regularly by Eurovision fans that were tweeting about Baku. It means tweeters can easily search for these tags and see what everyone else is saying on that topic.
So what has the research shown for Baku2012 tweets? Between May 22nd and May 28th 2012 there were 688,000 tweets with the hashtag #Eurovision and 167,000 tweets with the hashtag #esc. 1.2m tweets included the word ‘Eurovision’.
The authors of the paper are based at the Queensland University of Technology, so also have a particular interest in Australia’s love of Eurovision. The hashtag #SBSEurovision was tweeted 112,000 times between May 25th and May 28th 2012.
In semi-final 1, the peak times for tweets tagged with #Eurovision were during Russia’s and Ireland’s performances respectively, and also when both Russia and Ireland progressed to the final. The #SBSEurovision tweets (remembering their show was not live but broadcast the next day) also had Russia and Ireland’s performances as the most tweeted about.
Tweets per minute during the show showed the following acts being the most talked about with the #Eurovision tag: Albania/Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Greece, Spain, Ireland and the Ukraine. An interesting lack of Sweden being tweeted about? The Australians were easily talking about Ireland the most as they watched it, as well as Russia, France, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, Malta and the Ukraine. On both events Mr Lordi’s appearance during the results also caused a small spike in tweets.
The paper suggests that there is ‘a strong focus on (quasi) comedy acts (Russia, Ireland)’ and ‘evidence of ironic viewer detachment’ (‘The Terry Wogan legacy’), with many comedians commenting or comic tweets being made.
It’s interesting to see that some of the acts most tweeted about, didn’t necessarily do well, with Jedward finishing 19th (although they came 2nd in the Australian voting). As Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Source: Twitter.com/snurb_dot_info & slides
The Eurovision Times 
Although I have a Twitter account, I have hardly ever ventured into this world (I did when Eurovision did the draw a few years back) and find the whole 140 character thing tedious. I do find some of the facts above interesting though but I will still be holding back from hitting the trend of tweeting that seems so popular these days. Sometime I am completely at a loss as to explain why some topics are even trending. Still, each to their own and never say never. I shall continue with my Facebook account though as it does seem easier to manage in these days of social media.