2. Twitter and the 2012 Election
• Funding from the Reynolds Journalism
Institute (RJI) to examine twitter reactions to
major political events
3. Twitter and the 2012 Election
• What are people talking about on Twitter
during political events?
• How can we understand Twitter political
conversation?
• How can new organizations understand and
use talk on Twitter?
4. Partnering with Local News
• Dallas and Jacksonville papers
• Promoted a local hashtag for the Presidential
debates
– #dmndebate
– #jaxdebate
5. Partnering with Local News
• Dallas and Jacksonville papers
• Promoted a local hashtag for the Presidential
debates
• We collected and analyzed the tweets from
the debates
• Papers reported next day
9. Partnering with Local News
Second Presidential Debate – Issue Mentions
Dallas Jacksonville
1. Jobs 1. Women (full of binders)
2. Taxes 2. Taxes
3. Guns 3. Government (size, role)
4. Women (full of binders) 4. Sheldon Adelson
10. News Audience Survey
• Social watching political events
– Watching Presidential debates while
communication with others (in person, via
Facebook, via Twitter)
– How much people enjoyed the debates
– How much of the debates they watched
11. News Audience Survey
• Watching debates while talking to others in
person was related to enjoying the debates
more
– But not via Facebook or Twitter
12. News Audience Survey
• Talking to others in person or via Twitter was
related to watching more debates
– But not via Facebook
13. Young Voters Experiment
• Young voters watched a January 2012 GOP
Primary debate
• Answered questions before and after debate
• Tweeted while watching the debate
14. Young Voters Experiment
Who Tweeted More?
• Those with larger Twitter networks
• Those with more Political Information Efficacy
• More confident that they are knowledgeable and
informed about politics
• Liberals
15. Young Voters Experiment
Change from before debate to after debate
Will win Could beat
Candidate Tweets Like nomination Obama Vote
Paul 278 22.15 .82 .85 33%
Romney 158 16.38 .47 .54 6%
Santorum 111 3.78 .00 .05 1%
Gingrich 103 -14.19 -.46 -.22 -7%
16. Challenges
• Twitter
– Architecture is continually changing
– Users are constantly growing
• Sentiment
• Conversations