Digital media analytics

Data-driven decision making is a key factor in the industry today. As part of a capstone project, students applied practical skills with a number of tools, techniques and software to collect, analyse and visualise social and digital media data.

For example, students were provided with two datasets of tweets about MasterChef Australia (2019 and 2020). These datasets were collected and prepared by QUT’s Digital Observatory.

Brittany Cheadle

Brittany focussed on the dynamics of audiencing and fandom on Twitter. She shows how a series of incidents in 2019 introduced the discourse of politics into a cooking program, and in comparison, she shows how the changes made in the program avoided this in 2020, which led to a more homogeneous network of fandom and audiencing.

Tweets in 2019 - Original tweets were prominent in the dataset, and majority of users used handheld devices to tweet while watching.

Tweets in 2020 - There was a significant increase in the number of tweets. Original tweets were prominent, and majority of users used handheld devices.

Secondary Hashtags in 2019 - Many hashtags normally related to politics in the 2019 dataset. This was due to news of alleged wage theft related to one of the judges.

Secondary Hashtags in 2020 - There were far fewer political hashtags and the majority of discussions revolve around food and cooking.