Read on Twitter
Starting w/ https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/955976760176373760?lang=en">https://twitter.com/groundvie... in Jan & #39;18 followed by https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/988339902386327552">https://twitter.com/groundvie... just 3 months after, @RajapaksaNamal& #39;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">https://twitter.com/welikalaa... 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& #39;s halcyon days best captured by @mahenrr https://twitter.com/mahenrr/status/1251772674398978055">https://twitter.com/mahenrr/s... The not so obvious, egocentric answer (again, non-pejorative) is what& #39;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& #39;s post on the challenge gets the most post views, but otherwise it& #39;s very much NR& #39;s page that drives the framing and engagement. Next to NR, it& #39;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">https://twitter.com/Nikshazz/... @AzzamAmeen merely reports on the launch of campaign https://twitter.com/azzamameen/status/1246077206943555584.">https://twitter.com/azzamamee...
. @RajapaksaNamal& #39;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 & #39;sara_sach& #39;, 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 & #39;18 offers some insights. Though Jana Balaya a complete flop https://www.facebook.com/notes/groundviews/doing-the-math-the-jana-balaya-rally/10160761731445641/">https://www.facebook.com/notes/gro... it did create the largest ever buzz on SM at the time https://groundviews.org/2018/09/07/jana-balaya-lessons-learned/">https://groundviews.org/2018/09/0... leading up to it. Helped egocentric NR network. #lka
The 2018 coup helped NR& #39;s egocentric network. The 2019 Presidential campaign helped NR& #39;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">https://twitter.com/groundvie... NR& #39;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& #39;s frames migrate farther, faster). #lka
In other words, NR& #39;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
