Research project shows Twitter's worth

Woy Woy Bay resident Mr Daniel Stone has been awarded a University Medal for Exceptional Merit by the University of Technology for his major research project conducted last year.

Mr Stone was the sole recipient of this award amongst a competitive field of students from across the university.

Mr Stone's major research project explored the ways people engage in political debate and develop their understandings of political issues through discussions on social networks, such as Twitter.

The project specifically explored the impact of these technologies on the way people came to understand and report on the Rudd leadership spill of June last year.

The project used a variety of interviews with significant political and media figures as well as data analysis to reach its findings.

"The whole incident kind of came out of nowhere and thousands of people flocked to real-time networks to try and get a handle on what was happening in Canberra," said Mr Stone.

"Many people commented to me afterwards that this was the moment where Twitter started to 'make sense', even reporters from major outlets confided that there was really something going on there," he said.

Mr Stone is continuing his research while also working within the University of Technology and as a digital journalist with Sky News.

Email, 29 Jun 2011 Daniel Stone, Woy Woy Bay