Identify Twitter hashtags for a current political event and a current entertainment event. Observe, collect and store all postings for these two hashtags for one day. Conduct a content and discourse...

Identify Twitter hashtags for a current political event and a current entertainment event. Observe, collect and store all postings for these two hashtags for one day. Conduct a content and discourse analysis that focuses on the topics of discussion and their frequency, the interactivity of the tweets (the degree of re-tweeting/information/communication), the overall number of tweets, the number of participants, the number of postings per participant and the share of tweets for each participant in the total number of tweets, the use of emoticons, abbreviations and affects. If there are disagreements, how are they expressed? Are these disagreements further discussed? Observe also how the number of followers of the most active participants changes during the day. How many new followers does s/he gain?

• Interpret the results of your small study in the light of Habermas’s public sphere theory.