By CARLY LEVISON
Social media is changing the way Americans view the presidential debates. In a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Rachael Horwitz, a spokeswoman for Twitter noted that, “four years ago, the term 'social media' wasn't widely used. On Election Day 2008, there were 1......
By CARLY LEVISON
Social media is changing the way Americans view the presidential debates. In a recent article in the
San Francisco Chronicle, Rachael Horwitz, a spokeswoman for
Twitter noted that, “four years ago, the term 'social media' wasn't widely used. On Election Day 2008, there were 1.8 million tweets. Now, that many tweets are sent every six minutes.” In fact, the first presidential debate in Denver was the most-tweeted event in American political history, with 10.3 million tweets in 90 minutes.
We took a look at the activity on Twitter during each debate and noted what comments spurred the most chatter. These are measured in tweets per minutes based on references to the presidential debate, candidates and related terms. Although the first debate had the most tweets per minutes overall, the remaining debates still averaged almost 100,000 tweets per minute.
Denver: 10.3 Million Tweets
158,690 TPM - Lehrer quips “Let’s not.”
152,677 TPM - Obama: “I had ?ve seconds.”
149,762 TPM - Discussion of Medicare
139,677 TPM - Romney spars with Lehrer over rules
137,683 TPM - Obama calls Romney plan “never mind.”
135,356 TPM - Romney mentions Obamacare.
135,332 TPM - Big Bird
132,790 TPM - Discussing bipartisanship for healthcare
113,726 TPM - Discussion of “trickle down government.
94,409 TPM - Romney joke about Obama anniversary
Hempstead: 7.2 Million Tweets
109,560 TMP - Immigration/Romney slip on questioner’s name
108,619 TMP – Obama: “You’re the last person to get tough on China.”
107,386 TMP – Romney on tax rates
106,765 TMP - Romney on gun control
105,376 TPM - Obama on Libya
104,704 TPM – Equal pay for women
102,455 TPM - Obama: “My pension’s not as big as yours.”
99,242 TMP – Candidates argue over oil question
68,567 TMP – Crowley Halts
Boca Raton – 6.5 Million Tweets
105,767 TPM - “Fewer horses and bayonets.”
102,339 TPM - Schieffer: “I think we all love teachers”
87,040 TPM - Romney on Obama’s “Apology Tour”
85,152 TMP - Schieffer steers back to foreign policy
78,069 TPM - Romney on auto industry
76,720 TPM - Obama on Assad/Syria
74,856 TPM - Small business discussion
70,639 TMP - Obama: “You said Russia was #1” threat to national security
Social media has become a ubiquitous part of the campaign for both President Obama and Senator Romney. Social media is an instantaneous reaction to every comment, which can drive the issues to the forefront, but also exploit slip-ups. For example, Big Bird Halloween costumes are selling out all across the country in response to Mitt Romney’s comments about the popular PBS program. Social media can’t predict the election, but with
82 percent of U.S. adults now use social media, and 88 percent of them registered voters, it is not something to be taken lightly.