Washington: Social media came to a much different
initial verdict about the first presidential debate than did the early polls
and the conventional press, according to an analysis of the conversation on
Twitter, Facebook and blogs by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence
in Journalism.
On both Twitter and
Facebook, the conversation was much more critical of Mitt Romney than it was of
Barack Obama. And when the criticism of one candidate and praise of another are
combined, the conversation on Twitter leaned Obama's way. On Facebook it was
something of a draw.
Only in blogs, which
tended to offer more of a summary of the event than a moment-to-moment
reaction, did the sentiment resemble that of instant polls or press analysis,
which have tended to see Romney as having the better of the debate.
For both candidates in
social media, however, praise of their performance in general was hard to come
by.
Twitter
On Twitter, an
examination of 5.9 million opinions posted from the beginning of the debate
through the next morning finds more of the conversation leaned Obama's way
(35%) than Romney's (22%). But those who favored Obama tweeted not so much to
praise him as to criticize his opponent. Of the entire conversation, 9% praised
the president and 26% was critical of Romney. Of those favoring Romney, 7%
praised him and 15% criticized Obama.
Not every tweet about
the debate was an evaluation of candidate performance. Another 17% of the
conversation involved people offering jokes with no clear opinion about either
contender. A smaller component of the conversation, 9%, involved people sharing
information or news. And 16% of the conversation talked about other things,
such as evaluating the moderator, Jim Lehrer, or people tweeting that they were
watching the debate-or not watching.
If the conversation
that did not evaluate the candidates is removed from the tally, the Twitter
numbers would show 61% leaning Obama's way and 39%, Romney's.
Facebook
On Facebook, the
results were more evenly split. An analysis of 262,008 assertions on public
Facebook posts during the same period found that 40% of the discussion leaned
toward Obama compared with 36% toward Romney. Joke-telling was marginal.
Information-sharing made up 8% of the conversation, and 17% was not about the
candidates.
Here, too, the
conversation favoring Obama tilted more toward criticism of Romney (30%) rather
than praise for Obama (10%). The conversation favoring Romney was more even,
with 17% praising him vs. 19% criticizing Obama.
Blogs
The blogosphere was
the one component of social media that more aligned with the sentiment found in
instant polls and in press coverage. An analysis of 6,313 assertions in a broad
sample of public blogs favored Romney by roughly 4 to 1. Fully 45% of that sentiment
leaned Romney's way and 12% toward Obama. Here, almost all of the conversation
for Obama was criticizing Romney. Of the conversation going Romney's way, more
of it actually praised his performance (26%) than criticized the president's
(18%).
One difference in the
blog conversation, the analysis found, is that much of it came toward the end
of the debate or later, and tended to involve more of a summary evaluation of
the whole event rather than a reaction to a single exchange or moment.
Except for blogs,
these findings about social media offer a contrast to what people generally saw
in the immediate aftermath of the debate in polls or in mainstream media
coverage.
A look at political
analysis in mainstream media found something similar. "Romney takes fight
to Obama," read the headline of the Washington Post lead story. The Denver
Post was more direct: "Round 1: Romney."