#2023PlasticFree twitter hashtag Does it build real action? Bintang Ekananda Sukma Riverningtyas Rizka Arianti

Outline Introduction Methods Results and discussion Conclusion Keyword Analysis Networked Communication Twitter Sentiment Social Capital and Network Formation on Twitter Community, Agency, and Social Capital Conclusion Recommendation for future research References

#2023 Plastic Free Introduction The 'Single Out: 2023PlasticFree' campaign pledges the University of Leeds and Leeds University Union (University of Leeds Sustainability, 2018). Plastic Invitation to support the campaign through social media, one of which is by using specific hashtag (#2023PlasticFree) on Twitter. Free A tool in coordinating publics from various backgrounds in certain dialogues and debates (Rambukkana, 2015). Does the #2023PlasticFree community on Twitter have the potential to foster the kind of discussion that would build community capital appropriate to inspire action?

Methods We explored the keyword analysis and networked communication to explain the twitter sentiment, social capital and network formation on twitter, and the discourse on community, agency, and social capital. Data were collected using the hashtag #2023PlasticFree We used NodeXL Pro to import tweet contains #2023 Returned number of edges and users. The edges correspond to relationship among the users. Using Graph Metric in NodeXL Pro to calculate the overall metrics of the data. Sentiment analysis network density, in-degree and out-degree level, betweenness centrality and reciprocity analysis.

Keyword Analysis Sentiment-based keyword extraction. Tweets with positive sentiment: users engage in pro-social behavior or community supporting behavior. Tweets with adjectives indicating positive feelings (28 words with positive adjectives) greatly outnumbered tweets using adjectives indicating negative feelings (0 word with negative adjectives). Words like "support" and "innovative" are most prevalent.

Networked Communication Social action and agency require the presence of connectors, a resilient network, and the capacity to resolve power and conflict issues (Ling and Dale, 2013) Network analysis of the #2023PlasticFree network on Twitter consisted of 17 users (accounts that tweeted the hashtag) and 148 edges (i.e. follow-type relationships among these accounts). Low density: users are replying to one or two other users. Low reciprocity shows little dialogue in the #2023PlasticFree discourse. Enough number of connectors (influencers) between communities as suggested by the betweenness centrality measurement. The presence of nodes with a high degree of betweenness centrality can indicate the presence of influencers.

Networked Communication c’td In-degree (or posts mentioning the user) and out-degree (or posts in which the user mentions others) centrality measures to see whether dialogue is occurring and which users serve as connectors within each network. Higher degree centrality found in the central users such as @unileedsstaff, @universityleeds, @uolstudents and @seeleeds. Rather broadcastic than dialogic orientation within the network.

Twitter Sentiment Tweets demonstrate pro-social and community building behavior among some of participants as a whole, which could support both bonding and linking social capital (Hodson and Dale, 2018). The positive sentiment is promising insofar as it shows efforts at community building textual behaviors. Hashtag has the possibility to reach beyond an immediate community of people who already support the single-use-plastics in the University of Leeds.

Community, Agency, & Social Capital Efforts to build bonds with others and to set up an environment in which conflict resolution can occur. The #2023PlasticFree network hosts influential users could potentially serve as connectors under the right circumstances. However, the presence of alternative viewpoints in the #2023PlasticFree community is needed, for instance, from users who are students or staff in the University of Leeds to support an openness to new ideas and individuals. Network is not resilient (characterised by the level of connectivity, or density of links within a network) (Janssen et al. 2006). Engaging with the #2023PlasticFree community on Twitter is not merely slacktivism. It can help build awareness of an issue or campaign among a broad variety of users, particularly when celebrity voices are part of the discussion. Opportunities to build social agency and community through this platform, particularly if large and influential accounts are encouraged to increase their out-degree tweets behavior to inspire dialogue among the many people who follow them.

Conclusion There is evidence of community building behavior in the #2023PlasticFree community though with low graph density. This does not mean merely "slacktivism". There are opportunities to inspire real action if the influential accounts are increasing their out-degree tweets behavior to inspire dialogue among the users who follow them.

Recommendation for future research We examined the hashtag during a period of time when there is no major environmental news or events had occurred. Future work could compare a period of time like this one to a period of time in which environmental events (e.g., International Plastic Bag Free Day, Climate Strikes, etc) were prevalent, to see if the presence of an event helped to drive #2023PlasticFree conversations forward. Due to the limited time and feature of the software, the data from Twitter are available only for 8-9 days. Future work could span the period of time or exploiting another software in order to understand the #2023PlasticFree conversation in Twitter better.

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