Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Pew – Twitter and the Campaign

Twitter and the Campaign – How the Discussion on Twitter Varies from Blogs and News Coverage And Ron Paul’s Twitter Triumph, December 8, 2011

  • “A detailed examination of more than 20 million Tweets about the race for president finds that the political discussion on Twitter is measurably different than the one found in the blogosphere — more voluminous, more fluid and even less neutral. But both forms of social media differ markedly from the political narrative that Americans receive from news coverage, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which examines campaign coverage and the online conversation from May 2-November 27. One distinguishing factor about the campaign discourse on Twitter is that it is more intensely opinionated, and less neutral, than in both blogs and news. Tweets contain a smaller percentage of statements about candidates that are simply factual in nature without reflecting positively or negatively on a candidate. In general, that means the discourse on Twitter about the candidates has also been more negative.”
  • Sorry, comments are closed for this post.