Read on Twitter
Starting w/ https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/955976760176373760?lang=en in Jan '18 followed by https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/988339902386327552 just 3 months after, @RajapaksaNamal's SM campaigns have piqued my interest, as being both egocentric (used in network theory sense, not pejorative) & at the time, ahead of the curve. #lka
Which in brief, brought me to #homegardenchallenge, which https://twitter.com/welikalaa/status/1249264541801775110 captures best. But @welikalaa on #Twitter in the minority. Cricketers, singers, influencers, entrepreneurs & though late to the party even SJB folk also partook in pyretic planting. #lka
But why & why now? The obvious answer: the pandemic & projection of self-sufficiency, harking back to Mrs. B's halcyon days best captured by @mahenrr https://twitter.com/mahenrr/status/1251772674398978055 The not so obvious, egocentric answer (again, non-pejorative) is what's more revealing. #lka
First, #homegrownchallenge on #Facebook, where the #-tag was only used in April. After a short-lived twin-peak crescendo, the campaign is in terminal decline. Both peaks the result of content posted by NR on his page. #lka
Unsurprisingly (& this is true of #Twitter as well) most of the posts are photos ( #planties?) Of the 61 pages that used #homegrownchallenge, NR posts the most. Peak output/planting(?) was between 7-9 April. #lka #srilanka
Johnston Fernando's post on the challenge gets the most post views, but otherwise it's very much NR's page that drives the framing and engagement. Next to NR, it's his father, @PresRajapaksa who generates the most engagement (more on this later).
Jumping to #homegrownchallenge on #Twitter, a capture of 2,797 tweets w/ the #-tag reveals through co-occurance that food sustainability, gratitude for starting the trend, the projection of a united collective & the pandemic feat. strongly in tweets. #lka
Tweets w/ #homegrownchallenge follow a similar pattern of production to #Facebook, but clearly, are more voluminous. In terms of #Twitter mentions (incl. retweets) @AzzamAmeen next to son & father, retweeted more than @KumarSanga2. @Nikshazz feats. heavily too. #lka
But while @Nikshazz, as cartoonist, presents what turned out to be a rather popular critique of #homegardenchallenge, https://twitter.com/Nikshazz/status/1247385661612552192 @AzzamAmeen merely reports on the launch of campaign https://twitter.com/azzamameen/status/1246077206943555584.
. @RajapaksaNamal's accounts gets the most @-mentions. Almost every time, NR retweets the original. A high retweet to tweet ratio is indicative of low diversity in original content. In other words, amplification thru retweets gives sense of popularity. #lka
Not unlike #Facebook, son & father lead generation & amplification of conversations/content around the challenge on #Twitter. In data-viz, clear that cricketers, cartoonists & journalists, amongst others, act as accounts that promote the challenge to their followers. #lka
Network theory allows us to read this behaviour, wherein individual accounts may be entirely unaware of (though I am also keeping it open that architects of these campaigns know exactly whom to target & how, allowing for widest dispersion & virality of content). #lka
A 3D viz helps us understand the structure of this network. @Nikshazz for e.g. connection to @cartoonlka, but not to @AzzamAmeen & @KumarSanga2 who respectively attract their followers to challenge. NR & MR form core. Rest feed into or peripheral, at best. #lka #srilanka
But how did #homegrownchallenge start? 1st use of #-tag by one 'sara_sach', not remotely linked or even once referred to by NR/MR. Sara_sach & SLPP two disconnected/different worlds on Twitter. How #-tag evolved from #මුකුණුවැන්න to NR campaign its own story! #lka
But why? Who knows, really. But studying @RajapaksaNamal from '18 offers some insights. Though Jana Balaya a complete flop https://www.facebook.com/notes/groundviews/doing-the-math-the-jana-balaya-rally/10160761731445641/ it did create the largest ever buzz on SM at the time https://groundviews.org/2018/09/07/jana-balaya-lessons-learned/ leading up to it. Helped egocentric NR network. #lka
The 2018 coup helped NR's egocentric network. The 2019 Presidential campaign helped NR's egocentric network. You can see where I am going with this. #Facebook Page like growth over 2yrs shows NR uses key moments & his own campaigns to increase his own following. #lka #srilanka
The peak of the #homegrownchallenge, in just April 2020, corresponds to the most significant (organic) rise in #Facebook followers for NR. Recall 2018 report https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/955976760176373760?lang=en NR's strategic vision of building a fan/follower base is about a potential vote-base. #lka
The more journalists, celebrities, influencers & other politicians interact, the more NR benefits, even through negative framing (because network, signal & range of other relevant theories suggest greater exposure helps original producer's frames migrate farther, faster). #lka
In other words, NR's been doing this for years, and #homegrownchallenge, now taken up w/ gusto by a newly created account run by the SL Army, is latest attempt to build amplify an egocentric network. When @HarshadeSilvaMP tweets with #-tag, he helps NR, not SJB. #lka
There is one telling thing though, since 2018's Jana Balaya right up until the time I post this tweet thread. One prominent person doesn't engage at all with his campaigns. It's like NR doesn't exist, or worse, is someone, w/ campaigns, to disassociate, to extent possible. #lka
Influence operations, propaganda, marketing, egocentric networks, foundations for future vote-base, expanding one's vote-base, competition, complementarity, filial relations, family fractures - all evident in the data I study. We live in truly interesting times. #lka #srilanka
