Although there are many differences to the use of Twitter following the election in Iran there is still plenty of interesting data around social media use during the ongoing protests in the middle east.
A 3 million tweet sample was used to survey the relative use of Twitter in relation to various protests.
This image shows the tags individuals have used within the sample. Some are using multiple combinations of tags while others choose to focus on a single country. #Tags for  Libya and Egypt are being used by more individuals than others including Yemen or Morocco.
Looking at a single tag – #Morocco, the flow of information through this single tag can be identified through an analysis of the sources of information which are most frequently RT and the resulting network this creates.
The resulting RT network shows some long chains passing on information and some clusters that RT from the same source. Shown closer it becomes easier to identify key sources of information which users RT.
A final view shows the current position of international broadcasters within this network.
In the #morocco tag at least, many more users are choosing to pass on information from an Egyptian human rights blogger, an activist in Morocco with relatively few followers, and a Moroccan Doctor rather than look to international broadcasters. One notable exception is Nicholas Kristof (NY Times). This revisits questions about the preferred sources of information in evolving situations and the role of International Broadcasters offing “impartial news reports, documentaries and analysis from around the globe”.
I hope to have more analysis of content relating to other tags later in the week…
Very informative.
Happy Health