Drew Margolin, a Cornell University communication professor who studies human dynamics through social media, has been tracking how people react to presidential candidates on Twitter since the beginning of the primaries. Using a new method of real-time analysis, Margolin and his collaborator, Yu-Ru Lin of the University of Pittsburgh, found that “locker room talk” was either the top or second most quoted phrase for six of the eight groups monitored last night.
NOTE: More data and analysis from the beginning of the campaign season can be found at, http://cornellcals.tumblr.com/tagged/Election-2016-Tweets. To monitor how are groups are responding throughout the campaign, check out debatemeter.com
Margolin says:
“Both candidates generally received more attention from opposing groups than from their own, and these tweets sent about the candidates from these opposing groups were negative. Some Democratic groups showed positive sentiment towards Clinton. But again, Trump was not able to muster any relatively positive sentiment from any group. Whether the tendency to speak negatively when talking about Trump means tweets direct negative feeling toward him, or simply reflect his channeling of negative feelings toward the nation's situation, is hard to say.
“The phrase of the night across all groups was Trump's characterization of the explicit video released on Friday as ‘locker room talk.’ This was either the top or second most quoted phrase for six of the eight groups, and was top for three of the democratic groups.
“Republican groups' top phrase was Trump's promise to Clinton that if he were president ‘you'd be in jail.’ It should be noted this is the first time Trump's most quoted line has been one received favorably.”
The Twitter groups Margolin is studying throughout the 2016 presidential election:
- - Defectors to Hillary: People who started out with another Democrat, but now follow Hillary
- - Hillary Dumpers: People who started out with Hillary, now follow another Democratic candidate instead (almost always Sanders)
- - Hillary Avoiders: People who started out with another Democrat, dumped them, don’t (yet) follow Hillary
- - Democratic Candidate Avoiders: People who started out with Hillary, now follow no Democratic candidates
- - Defectors to Trump: People who started out with another Republican, but now follow Trump
- - Trump Dumpers: People who started out with Trump, now follow another Republican candidate instead
- - Trump Avoiders: People who started out with another Republican, dumped them, don’t (yet) follow Trump
- - Republican Candidate Avoiders: People who started out with Trump, now follow no Republican candidates
Cornell University has television, ISDN and dedicated Skype/Google+ Hangout studios available for media interviews.
- 30 -
RSS