The News in New Media

This past Thursday, April 11^th, social media erupted in chatter after the news of the latest celebrity death. Typically, social media users take to posting about how sad they are after a celebrity death or sharing their favorite memories of recently deceased celebrity. However, the conversations about this specific celebrity were a little different than the normal discourse. The celebrity that passed last week was the infamous Orenthal James “O. J.” Simpson. The former pro football, actor, and alleged murderer died of complications associated with prostate cancer at the age of 76. With the death of a figure as controversial as O. J., social media was exploding with discussions about him, his death, and, again, whether or not he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown.

From the morning of April 11^th to the time of writing this, across all social media platforms O.J. has been mentioned by social media users over 600 thousand times and these posts have been seen 9.5 billion times. This large volume of posts and reach is to be expected when any big celebrity dies, especially one as controversial as O. J. As of Sunday, April 14^th, however, the conversations have largely died down to only a few thousand posts. X was the most significant platform where these discussions took place, and the sentiment split of the discourse was exceptionally lopsided. About 23% of the posts were rated as being positive while 77% were rated as negative. This does make sense though as death can be rated as a negative topic on top of the fact that many people disliked O. J. Some of the top themes of the discussions about O. J. included rest, Heaven, and killer. However, as nice as “rest” and “Heaven” sound, many social media users were quick to make jokes about the polarizing figure.

Demographically speaking, twice as many men than women were posting about O. J., and conversations were exclusively had by American social media users. The top influencers in the conversation have mainly included new outlets such as The New York Times, ABC News, and TMZ, all of which helped spread the news of O. J.’s passing. 

Aside from the negative and joking aspects of these conversations, many of these metrics are common parts of discussions from when celebrities die, but because O. J. possibly killed his ex-wife, ran from the police, and then joked about being a killer for years afterwards social media users preferred to get the last laugh as opposed to celebrate his life. When the next controversial celebrity dies, it can be expected that the posts about their death will look similarly to the post about O. J, from the past few days. 

Author: Ben Katarzynski

On Monday, April 8^th, a total solar eclipse occurred with its path of totality crossing a large section of the North American continent. This was the second total solar eclipse that was visible in North America this century after the one in 2017. As this is such a rare occurrence where areas in the path of totality experience full darkness in the middle of the day, people are obviously going to talk about this unique phenomenon. Social media users did just that as #Eclipse2024 was one of the top trending topics on X this past Monday.

#Eclipse2024 was used over 100 thousand times and had a reach of almost 2 billion users on Monday alone, though the vast majority of these conversations took place on X. The sentiment of these discussions was overwhelmingly positive at about 85% positive and 15% negative. This makes sense as for many people this was their first time experiencing a total solar eclipse. Looking at the volume trend of the hashtag use across the day, there was a steady increase of the use of the hashtag which then exponentially increased the closer it got to the time of totality around 3:00 PM. Use of the hashtag then significantly dropped off for the rest of the day. Some of the top themes associated with the hashtag included totality, which referenced the fact that the moon fully covered the sun, clouds, which referred to the fact that many areas in the path of totality had some form of cloud coverage, and glasses, which referenced the special glasses needed to view the eclipse as it happened.

#Eplipse2024 was also far and away the most used eclipse hashtag where it was used tens of thousands of more times than other related hashtags. Additionally, the most used emojis in posts that used the hashtag were, of course, ones that depicted the sun, moon, and sunglasses. Also, as the eclipse happened primarily over the United States, the hashtag was exclusively used by American users on X. One other interesting point of demographic information is the fact that men used the hashtag almost twice as much as women. Looking at the conversation stream, it appears that organizational accounts, like NOAA Satellites and Texas Football, seem to be classified as “male.” This is further reflected in the influencers who participated in conversations about the eclipse. Some of the top influencers included Jimmy Fallon, Ryan Seacrest, and Elmo.

This story shows that no matter how fractured and divided the internet and social media can get with all the discourse that goes on, a very rare event like this can bring everyone together to talk about it for a moment. Things like politics and celebrity events can be divisive, but everyone can take some time to stop and look at the sun (with the proper eyewear).

Author: Ben Katarzynski

American television producer and screenwriter, Dan Schneider, has come under scrutiny following the release of a new Nickelodeon Documentary, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. Popularly known for his work on several big hit shows like iCarly, Zoey 101, Drake and Josh, Victorious, and many more, Schneider has faced many accusations of misconduct and curating uncomfortable work environments for kid actors in his time in the industry. The documentary highlights the aspects of toxic culture and abuse that went on behind the scenes of some of Nickelodeon’s hit shows. Former stars of the shows were extensively interviewed in the documentary series and numerous actors shared their experiences with sexism, racism, and verbal abuse that were all occurring during production. The series is set to be a limited five-part series.

The topic on social media continued to increase following the series release on March 17th, 2024. The topic reached its peak of conversation on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Overall, there was a reach of 3 billion and 324.29 k mentions across social media channels. The most popular social media channels that hosted conversation on the documentary were X, Reddit, and News Sources. 

Dan Schneider has spoken out following the release of the series and the responses from viewers have largely been negative. 

The cause of another peak in conversation on March 21st, 2024 came from a post by Steve Burns, former actor on Blue’s Clues, when he posted a video following the release of the series and his abrupt departure from the show. 

An additional topic of conversation on social media is pertaining to Drake Bell and his involvement in the series. During the third episode, Bell announced for the first time that he was the suspect involved in the Brian Peck trial for child sexual abuse that ultimately sent Peck to prison in 2004. Peck was a dialogue and acting coach for Nickelodeon. Further commentary came when fans took to Bell’s side defending him or ridiculing him for his more recent behavior of pleading guilty to attempted child endangerment. 

Additional commentary occurred with Matthew Underwood when he spoke out following the docuseries. Viewers are criticizing those asking for victims to come forward, indicating how difficult it is for the actors to share their stories. 

The fifth episode of the docuseries is set to be released on April 7th, 2024. Many viewers are awaiting the episode as it has created so much commentary and awareness on the difficult topics. 

Author: Lexi Merriman

On April 1^st, the day known as April Fools’ Day where many people commit to pulling pranks, making jokes, and other hijinks, many people took pause when they logged in The New York Times website to play the daily Connections game. The game which is premised around grouping 16 seemingly unrelated words into four groups of four based on some unifying theme has been a hit online for some time now thanks to the success of other word games like The New York Time’s Wordle. On Monday, however, fans of the game were thrown for a loop when they opened the day’s Connections puzzle to see 16 emojis on the board instead of the usual 16 words. This change in format, likely linked to April Fool’s Day, got users on social media talking about what the game editors had done.

Across the day of April 1^st “Connections” was mentioned 22.67 thousand times and these posts reached over 117 million social media users across all platforms, though X was far and away the most used platform for these conversations. Throughout the day there were five significant peaks in discussion at 1:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 6 PM which are also typical times when people like to fit the puzzle into their daily routines. As more and more opened this surprise from the editors they took to social media to share their feelings. While this was a large shake up to the typical format, the sentiment of the Connections related posts was split at about 71% positive and 29% negative. Seemingly more people enjoyed this change than not. 

Some of the top themes and subthemes of these conversations include “opening up connections,” “Connections for April Fools’ Day is evil, and “hell.” While these do seem to skew negatively, as X users like to do, users took to making jokes about one of the latest trending topics.

The most frequently used emoji when discussing the day’s Connections was the small smile emoji which is often associated with the concept of “smiling through the pain” or saying things are “fine” when they are not, in fact, fine. Further, these conversations were exclusively held between social media users in the United States which makes sense as the puzzle is hosted by and American news outlet. Additionally, the users discussing the Connections were split about evenly gender wise with a slight skew towards women being more verbal. Lastly, according to Sprinklr’s data, those that can be identified as advocates, detractors, and prolific users for this conversation are all small everyday accounts, and the influencers are mainly news related accounts. Overall, this shows that not every topic discussed on social media needs to be a big headline news story picked up by countless influencers and the like online. Often times trending topics can just be by the average social media user and for the average social media user. The occasional news outlet may chime in, but the bulk of the discussion can be credited to the everyday people who use social media to be social and talk about the everyday things that happen in their lives.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

On March 13, TikTok was again vulnerable as US lawmakers pressed forward with a bill that might result in a nationwide ban on the platform. This bill gives Beijing-based parent company ByteDance two significant options: either sell TikTok or face a ban.

With over 170 million active US users, lawmakers have tried to control the site at different times due to its ties to China. Former President Donald Trump attempted to impose an executive order to outlaw TikTok in 2020, but the courts thwarted this after TikTok filed a lawsuit. According to reports, lawmakers contend that the platform management is best served by maintaining national security since the Chinese government might utilize TikTok to spy on Americans or weaponize it to subtly influence the American public by amplifying or stifling particular content. These claims that TikTok might be a weapon for the Chinese government have been refuted. According to TikTok, it has never given Chinese authorities access to customer data from Americans and won’t if requested.

Furthermore, recent reports have claimed that if the ban finally becomes law, it would be detrimental to small businesses that use the platform for marketing awareness and customer engagement. Also, social media influencers who have built their online credibility over the years will not be left out and depend on this for brand deals or endorsements. For example, a report from Bloomberg sheds insight on how TikTok is juicing home sales. DailyMail states that a slim majority of Americans think TikTok data ends up with the Chinese government. They also agree that it shouldn’t be outlawed. On the flip side, according to the Pew Research Center, half of Americans favor a US government ban on TikTok, while 22% are against the notion, and more than a quarter are doubtful. TikTok claims a total ban threatens millions of businesses, the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and the ability of artists to find an audience.

 To examine online conversations following this development, Sprinklr was used to study social media trends and public opinion. The figures show over 692.77k mentions, resulting in about 9.57 billion reach. In addition, an examination of the topic’s general sentiment reveals that 394,103 mentions were negative, accounting for roughly 84.42% of the discourse, while approximately 72.76k mentions were positive, accounting for 15.58%. Top themes from these conversations, including positive and negative mentions, include TikTok, Ban, Reason, House, Congress, Censorship, and Americans. The results indicate that a number of Americans hold negative views about the development, with many pointing out that strict issues affecting the nation’s level of living should be the government’s top priority. Some, however, believe that the US must protect its security since other nations, such as China, will not want a US company to have a dominant position in social media within their borders; as a result, they concur that social media should be outlawed.

Although the House version is now in the lead, it still needs to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Biden. President Joe Biden has stated he will sign the bill if it is passed by the legislature. In such a case, ByteDance would have 180 days to find a suitable buyer for TikTok.

Author: Bowale Odukale

The Francis Scott Key Baltimore Bridge collapse has left the nation in shock. On Tuesday, March 26th, 2024 at 1:30 AM the Baltimore Key Bridge was struck by a container ship (Dali) passing below. The 948 foot long cargo ship hit one of the two base support beams of the bridge, causing the entire structure to collapse upon the initial impact. Impact is suspected to be due to the ship’s to a loss of power minutes before approaching the bridge and the failure of the cargo ship’s propulsion. Crew members onboard notified the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) that control of the ship had been lost and collision with the bridge was possible. The emergency call from the ship allowed for traffic to be stopped on both ends of the bridge, however 6 construction workers were on the bridge repairing potholes and masonry at the time of the crash.

 Search and rescue efforts continued throughout the day Tuesday to locate the remaining individuals who were on the bridge at the time of impact. On Wednesday March 27th, search efforts were paused due to the amount of debris prohibiting divers from safely navigating the area. The pause occurred after the recovery of two bodies from the individuals that were involved in the bridge collapse. The crash has resulted in the closure of one of the country’s busiest ports.

Social media conversations surrounding the key bridge crash on March 26th, 2024 have continued to rise as the investigation into the deadly event continues and information on the exact events of the crash are being revealed. Since Tuesday, the topic has had a reach of 6.93 billion and 368.96 K mentions. In addition to the six workers who were initially missing, two other workers were rescued, of which one is in the hospital. The topic reached its peak on March 26th, 2024 at 8:00 PM. 

One of the main topics of conversation has been Dali’s involvement in previous incidents. Individuals call into question the reason for its continued use. Some conversations even call into question if this event was an accident.  

Additional commentary occurred regarding one of the two workers who was located shortly after the crash and opted not to go to the hospital. 

First responders are also being praised for their efforts to prevent further loss of life/injury from occurring during the crash. 

The cause of Dali’s power failure is still unknown. Jennifer Homendy, National Transportation Safety Board Chair, stated that investigators had boarded the ship to recover the data recorder in hopes of piecing together the timeline and reasoning leading to the crash.

Author: Lexi Merriman

Season 46 of Survivor premiered on February 28^th. Now, four episodes into the season, conversations about the show are becoming plentiful online. In total, #Survivor46 has been used over 73 thousand times and reached over 184 million users since premiere day. Obviously, conversations using #Survivor46 peak on Wednesdays, the days episodes air, but each episode has generated a different amount of conversation. The premiere day had over 10 thousand mentions, the subsequent two Wednesdays had a little over seven and six thousand mentions respectively, while the most recent episode had a significant spike with over 20 thousand mentions. That being said, there is clearly much to talk about with this new season despite it just starting. 

Some of the top themes of the discussion include Jelinsky, Jess, and Venus who are all contestants on this current season. Jelinsky was eliminated in episode one, Jess was eliminated in episode two, but Venus is still in the running and has been a dynamic character across these first four episodes.

Looking further at the metrics surrounding these conversations, the majority of these discussions have taken place on X. Further, the users participating in these discussions are one third women and two thirds men. Additionally, the United States is far and away the most central place that these online discussions have taken place in. However, the second most represented country in these conversations has been India which is likely due to the fact that one of the most represented contestants on this season in these first four episodes has been Bhanu Gopal, an Indian native. Bhanu also contributed to the spike in conversation during the fourth episode as he was the main character across the edit and eventually eliminated after a significant breakdown.

Despite this showing Bhanu had, overall Survivor 46 has so far been discussed at a split of almost 59% positively and 41% negatively. In fact, most of the negative mentions of this season have to do with how social media users perceive the treatment of the women on the cast by the other contestants. 

On the other hand, many of the contestants this season have been well received as the characters that they have been presented as and that is what is being celebrated in the positive mentions of the show.

Some top influencers in these conversations over the past four weeks include Janelle Pierzina, a realty television star most known for her appearances on Big Brother and The Traitors, Eliza Orlins, and Hai Giang, both of whom are former Survivor contestants. This is a common finding when looking at conversations surrounding reality television shows as these people are figureheads for these topics.

As the competition for the one million dollars continues on, one thing is certain: social media users are going to continue to talk about these contestants as they continue to battle one another each Wednesday night this spring. Who will be the next big theme across these conversations? Only time will tell.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Two fatal plane crashes within 24 hours of one another have spiked social media conversations surrounding the safety of private aviation travel. Many individuals took to social media on March 10th and March 11th, 2024 to share condolences and concern for the individuals that passed away on board the flights. Of the two plane crashes, one occurred in western Virginia and the other in northern Oregon. 

Five people have been pronounced deceased following the plane crash in western Virginia. On March 10th, a twin-engine IAI Astra 1125 plane was reported by the Federal Aviation Administration to have crashed into the wooded area near the Ingalls Field Airport in Hot Springs, VA. The crash occurred around 3pm. Among those deceased were four adults and a minor. The plane was reported to have come short on the runway which led to the plane hitting the surrounding trees and then the hillside. The plane caught fire upon impact, killing all passengers. The individuals were pronounced dead at the scene. 

On the same day, another plane crash took place in central Oregon involving a small plane that was inbound for Idaho. The crash occurred around 7 pm in the evening. The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-32, crashed roughly 6 miles southeast from Madras, OR and is reported to have no survivors. The crash is currently under investigation by the local sheriff’s office, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board. Due to difficulty in ability to contact the deceased’s family, specific information on those involved in the crash has yet to be released. 

Social media conversations surrounding the two plane crashes have an overall negative sentiment. Since the crashes occurred on Sunday, the topics have had an overall reach of 59.42 M. The conversations have had 3.63 K mentions. Conversations peaked on March 10th, 2024 at 6:00 PM following the story breaking about the Virginia plane crash on news outlets with 1,995 K mentions. 

Concerned citizens also took to social media to express concern for the volume of crashes occurring, both in the area and nationally. 

As the investigations continue, individuals are curious to see the reasoning for what appears to be a spike in the number of small-scale plane crashes.

Author: Lexi Merriman

In a bid to set out his platform for a second term and convince United States citizens of his capabilities to govern the country’s helm of affairs for another four years, President Joe Biden made his case loud during the State of the Union address that he is ready to continue the job despite concerns surrounding his age and abilities to meet the demands of the nation.

Biden’s sixty-eight minutes of energetic and passionate speech reflected his administration’s achievements and lashed out at his  Republican rival, Donald Trump, even though he didn’t mention his name but referred to him as “Predecessor.”

Examining public perception and the social media buzz conversations after the State of the Union address on social platforms using Sprinklr, records show there were 1.59 million mentions, reaching 27.45 billion. Also, a quick divide into the sentiment score shows that 24.59% had positive mentions while 75.41% had negative mentions. This net sentiment score measures the overall sentiment of online conversations of the State of the Union.

Additionally, several prominent themes surfaced during these discussions, centering around Trump, Americans, and President Biden. Positive mentions highlighted keywords such as union, president, Biden, good, policies, and more, offering deeper insights into the social media discourse. These keywords indicate that certain citizens have conveyed their confidence, believing that Joe Biden is the suitable candidate for the upcoming November elections, and they are inclined to vote in his favor. Furthermore, some opinions asserted that the address stood out as one of the most commendable State of the Union speeches.

Nevertheless, every coin has two sides. Alongside the positive mentions, there were also negative sentiments. Users articulated significant concerns, prominently the border walls crisis, which continues to be a major issue. Beyond the border, other negative keywords emerged, including tax, people, Americans, and more. These observations point to users enumerating the challenges related to a high standard of living, such as recent spikes in grocery prices and taxes.

As the nation looks ahead to the November elections, these diverse perspectives and the closely predicted race emphasize the challenging task ahead for Biden in convincing undecided voters and securing a successful bid for another term in office. The dynamic interplay of public discourse, including references to Trump, continues to shape the narrative, setting the stage for a politically charged and closely watched election season.

Author: Bowale Odukale

What do Vincent van Gogh, Friends, and ice cream all have in common? They all have some form of immersive experience modeled after them to capitalize on the craze of taking audiences and placing them into their respective worlds, whatever that might look like. Recently, one new immersive experience started make rounds on social media but for all the wrong reasons. In Glasgow, Scotland, a company known as “House of Illuminati” advertised their new immersive experience called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an unlicensed event aimed at capitalizing on the Willy Wonka IP. What was advertised as a magical and candy filled experience turned out to be much less according to some attendees on social media, and the immersive experience quickly became a viral meme.

Most social media users have been referring to the event as the “Willy Wonka Experience” which has been mentioned almost 500 thousand times since February 22^nd, just days before the event which took place the weekend of February 24^th. Further, this topic has reached almost 2 billion users across social media with the most prominent platform being X which is where the jokes and memes really took off followed by Reddit which is where the story first started gaining traction on the day of the event. Relevant conversations continued to increase the during the following week and peaked on February 29^th with over 17 thousand mentions. Sprinklr rates the sentiment of these conversations at about 61% negative and 39% positive which makes sense as many users took to speaking on how poorly the experience was executed while simultaneously making fun of it. Top themes of discussion include “AI Art,” which describes how all of the promotional material for the experience was created, “kids with the Krabby Land,” a reference to a joke from SpongeBob SquarePants, and “bad people called the cops Lmao,” which is a line from one viral post that noted the experience was so poorly received that attendees called the police to the scene.

While the “immersive” experience took place in Scotland, the United Kingdom was the second most vocal country in the social media discussions on the topic at just over 31 thousand mentions behind the United States which had just over 71 thousand mentions. American accounts began to circulate more and more pictures from the experience to crack jokes at just how underwhelming it turned out to be as well as mixing it with other recently popular memes.

Influencers in the discussions include some pop culture and news outlet accounts such as Culture Crave and The Guardian as well as other various influencers whose tweets have been sampled above.

What this story shows is that viral moments can come from anywhere. The AI generated advertisements for the experience raised little to no eyebrows across social media prior to the event taking place, but once Redditors began sharing the story and users on X got ahold of it, it blew up to a now canon social media meme. From the sad Oompa Loompa to the AI created villain “The Unknown,” this story is likely to linger in social media users’ minds for years to come simply because it was just so ridiculous and unexpected. 

Author: Ben Katarzynski