RISE LIKE A PHOENIX (on top of a mound of big data)
According to the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, the amount of data that humans created since the beginning of civilisation through to 2003 is now being produced every two days (Siegler, 2010). To many, including myself, this concept is frightening to say the least. However, to giant global companies and governments, big data presents a world of opportunity.Â
Big data is gathered and analysed with several purposes, the most interesting of which is whatâs called predictive analytics. This is when data is mined and analysed in order to create predictions of outcomes for the future or otherwise unknown events, including elections or trends in the stock market.Â
As well as predicting the outcomes of economic and political events, the mass amounts of data mined from social media sites can be used to predict events and trends in popular culture. At this very moment, the hash tags #eurovision, #sbseurovision and #joinus are trending globally on Facebook, tumblr and twitter. This is due to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest, a massive competition that involves every European country, which took place this weekend. Each country must select a band or musician to represent them with a song written specifically for the competition. Eurovision has been running for 59 consecutive years and although it only involves European countries its eccentric and outlandish nature has attracted a global following. This yearâs winner Conchita Wurst, a bearded lady from Austria, has captured the hearts of many and gained an immense social media following.Â
Data pertaining specifically to the Eurovision Song Contest can be collated using the hash tags, which additionally prompt audience members to participate in and fuel further discussion. Surveying the data from these tags gives audience members an idea as to which performers are most popular, and gives hosting countries and advertisers clues as to how they can improve the monetisation and ratings of future broadcasts. In addition to this, the hash tags tap into the notion of participatory culture frequently discussed in our lectures and tutorials, particularly the tag #joinus which was the slogan for this yearâs competition. The interval act for last nightâs semi final was a Eurovision dance, comprised of audience members who had posted videos of themselves dancing and tagged them. The dancers in the most popular videos were flown out to Denmark where the competition was held, to perform their moves on stage in front of the live stadium audience.Â
References
Eurovision TV. 2014. âEurovison #JoinUs Danceâ. YouTube video, posted May 10. Accessed May 11, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7n3tLKHSk
Siegler, MG. 2010. âEric Schmidt: Every 2 Days We Create As Much Information As We Did Up To 2003â. Accessed May 11, 2014.http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/
Woodford, Darryl, Katie Prowd and Axel Bruns. (forthcoming). âTelemetrics: Towards Measuring Social Media Engagement with Television.â










