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Hashtagability : a study of the potential of hashtags to do things on Twitter
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Piatek, Szymon Jerzy (2020) Hashtagability : a study of the potential of hashtags to do things on Twitter. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3517902~S15
Abstract
This interdisciplinary thesis explores hashtagability - the structural possibility of Twitter hashtags to do things or carry out functions - a new concept that helps to understand the ‘becoming’ of hashtags and provides the framework to study them. It is guided by the question of how hashtagability, realised as the potential of hashtags to become trends, can be analysed and explains why it should be. More specifically it develops new methods to analyse the realisation of hashtagability as the performance of gatekeeping and agenda-setting by users and the platform on the Twitter platform. It also develops a concept of algorithmic ownership which introduces a new dimension to the study of hashtags, which historically have never had an owner.
Conceptually the thesis is positioned in the context of the digital age and the digital economy. Twitter is explored as a platform that organises its members in a network society which is increasingly informed by algorithms. The thesis argues that the algorithmic ability to set the agenda of the platform by acting as the gatekeepers of Twitter Trends is exploited by some users who have developed techniques to manipulate algorithms by a form of orchestrated coordination which they exercise through the use of hashtags. The empirical exploration features two case studies: on Polish trending hashtags, which examines a decade of Polish trending hashtags by developing a strategy for historical data collection, and the UK 2017 General Election which looks at how Twitter’s Trend Box could be explored as an algorithmic gatekeeper that sets the agenda of the platform.
Informed by literature review and methodological limitations of the first two case studies, the final empirical chapter introduces Hashtag Cloud Analysis – a method to investigate trending hashtags and to see the effect of Twitter Trend Box as an algorithmic gatekeeper in relation to changes in discussion dynamics by comparing pre- and post- Trend hashtag co-occurrences.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Hashtags (Metadata), Social media, Twitter (Firm) | ||||
Official Date: | March 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Lury, Celia ; Procter, Rob | ||||
Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 344 leaves : illustrations (some colour) | ||||
Language: | eng |
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