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Analysing the Pattern of Twitter Activities Among Academics in a UK Higher Education Institution

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Abstract

This study explores the temporal patterns of Twitter use in academia, through quantitative and qualitative methods, answering the following questions: When do academics tweet? Where do academics tweet? and How often do academics receive feedback from their followers on Twitter? UK academics who are active users of Twitter in a specific institution were recruited for the study. Both the temporal patterns (daily and weekly) in the use of Twitter and the uses themselves suggest that the practice is seen primarily as a professional matter, and secondarily as personal. A significant pattern of ‘microbreaks’ is identified. The data indicates that where Twitter use becomes habitual, it is experienced as a positive addition to available communication tools.

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Correspondence to Nordiana Ahmad Kharman Shah .

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Ahmad Kharman Shah, N., Cox, A.M. (2018). Analysing the Pattern of Twitter Activities Among Academics in a UK Higher Education Institution. In: Chowdhury, G., McLeod, J., Gillet, V., Willett, P. (eds) Transforming Digital Worlds. iConference 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10766. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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