It’s (Not) Quiet Uptown

As a historic tribute to the country on a very patriotic weekend, Hamilton was released on Friday, July 3, kicking off the Fourth of July weekend.

The Social Media Listening Center monitored discussion of the musical on social media platforms from June 25 until July 9 to see who would take their shot discussing Hamilton.
In that time period, there were 2.7 million total posts, 92.2% of which came from Twitter. Other notable platforms that mentioned Hamilton included YouTube (5.7%), Facebook (2%), and Mainstream news (.3%).

The musical was mainly talked about in the United States but was also mentioned in the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil. These top countries predicted the top languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Discussion of Hamilton spiked the most on the day it was released with 659, 231 total tweets. However, there was also a small spike on June 28^th, the day that marked the one-week countdown until the musical was released. After Hamilton was released on July 3, there has been a steady decline of discussion on the musical, most likely because as people watch it, excitement has dwindled.

Despite the steady decline, sentiment has remained positive. The 65.8% positive rate included enthusiasm of either awaiting the release or finally be able to watch the musical. Negative sentiment came in at around 34.2% where people discussed their cynical view of the play on social media.

But, for the time being, the musical is set to stay on Disney+, so before you have to wait for it, meet a friend inside and give yourself a musical taste of American History. You can’t help but be satisfied!

FULL ANALYSIS: 
Total Posts

• 2.7m total posts mainly stemming from Twitter (92.2%)
  • Other popular platforms were YouTube and Forum replies
    • Facebook trended at .2% and Mainstream News at .3% 

Influencers

• Top 3 Influencers
  • @bbcturkce
  • @BBCSport
  • @CNN

 Top Places  

• 5% United States
• 7% United Kingdom
• 4% Canada
• 3% Brazil

Top Languages   

• 8% English
• 3% Spanish
• 6% Portuguese
• 4% French

 Media Trend Type

• Chatter spiked on July 3^rd, the day Hamilton was released on Disney+
  • July 3^rd there were 659,231 total tweets
  • There was a small spike on June 28^th talking about viewing parties, people singing along to the musical and excitement about being exactly a week away
• After the release, there was a slight decline until the 9^th as excitement settled and people watched the musical

Sentiment Rate

• 34.2% Negative Sentiment rate
  • Mainly people not liking the musical saying it was bad, awful or had a poor storyline
  • Others stated they would never watch the musical no matter what happened

• 65.8% Positive Sentiment rate
  • People saying Hamilton is a fantastic musical that includes a lot of history and knowledge
    • Positive feedback from critics, reviewers and ‘normal’ people on social media
  • Funny posts of Hamilton cast personalities and them interacting with TV personalities like Jimmy Jallon

 Total Posts on Instagram

• 91,838 Total Posts using the hashtag #hamiltonthemusical
• Majority of posts highlight Hamilton memes, actors and actresses and scenes from the play

Over the past week, many states have hit the brakes on opening up as COVID-19 cases have spiked.

As of June 25, 18 states and an increasing number of cities and towns have implemented laws that required face masks in public. Most recent states requiring facemasks include: North Carolina, Nevada and Washington. More locally, towns like Greenville, Charleston, Columbia and Clemson have mandated facemasks after Gov. Henry McMaster said he will not require masks to be worn in public in South Carolina.

There has been an uproar on social media regarding facemasks with a 52.1% negative sentiment rate consisting of posts trying to shame people into wearing masks in public and a debate on if masks are actually beneficial to your health.

There are also many complaints that masks are uncomfortable and restrict oxygen levels. The other 47.9% positively reflect how masks can affect your health. Other posts regarding positive sentiment include different fabric styles and different companies responding to the mask requirement.

Masks are most talked about in the United States (68.2%), India (4.7%) and the United Kingdom (3.5%), where COVID-19 cases, and deaths, are currently the highest. Languages that are currently discussing masks are English (67.4%), Spanish (16%), and French (2.4%).

There is no real peak to the mask trend on social media as posts have stayed varied and consistent. However, there is a depression in the graph that matches up to when states began to phase open up and masks were no longer required. The trend spikes back up when COVID-19 cases also rose. Top three words include #covid19, masks and wear.

Overall the talk about masks amounted to a total 37 million posts, of which 94.4% came from Twitter. About 2 million posts using the hashtag, #masks, came from Instagram and there are many groups on Facebook specifically for selling and making masks. Debate on comfort of mask aside, mask up and stay safe out there, masks are shown to stop the spread of COVID-19 by up to 70%.

COVID-19 & Facemasks (A Sentiment Analysis)

Authors: Will Henderson, Dr. Anastasia Thyroff, Dr. Elizabeth Barr, Dr. Johnell Brookes, Dr. Andrew Hurley

Figure 1: The volume of social media posts from the dates February 20th to May 20th. The keywords used in this analysis were “Mask” and “Masks.”

The Social Media Listening Center at Clemson University utilized the software to gather volume, sentiment and most commonly used words around the facemasks conversation.

According to the data collected from the SMLC, conversation started increasing on March 12th with clear spikes in the volume of posts on March 31st and April 3rd (Figure 1).

Figure 2: Comparison of post volume compared to other platforms across the 90 day window

In a comparative analysis of social media volume (figure 2), the research gathered 50.5 million tweets compared to the 2.6 million YouTube comments and videos. Through all of posts gathered, the SMLC analyzed 55 million posts regarding masks.

Figure 3: List of Twitter accounts who have the most influence in the conversation. Each account is given a score between 1-100. The score is calculated by follower-following ratio, lifetime of the account, quality of the account, and engagement with their tweets.

The influencers (figure 3) that had the largest authority during this time included CBS News (@CBSNews, The Hill (@TheHill), and Ben Shapiro (@Benshapiro). These accounts had a high influencer score that firmly impacted the conversation.

Figure 4: A word cloud is visualized through the most commonly used words in the posts. With an analysis of  “masks,” the chart shows that other keywords are trending such as “trump” and “refusing.” The researchers can further analyze to see all posts with any of the displayed words. 

Through the 55 million posts that were analyzed by the SMLC, a word cloud (figure 4) was visualized to identify what users are saying in conjunction with “masks.” The team noticed that the keywords “refusing” and “social distancing” are commonly used with the word mask in the public social media data. The team is able to dive deeper into the words to analyze the posts that mention each specific word in the word cloud.

Figure 5: The sentiment around social media posts mentioning masks is split 52.5% negative compared to 47.5% positive.

Also found in the data (figure 5) , the social media posts were split 52.5% negative and 47.5% positive. The SMLC tracks the sentiment through the software with negative/positive keyword tracking. The sentiment analysis shows that while masks are a hot topic with 55 million posts, there is an equal voice on each side of the topic.

Figure 6: The 6,113,011 posts are pulled from May 13th – May 20th, 2020. The posts are then divided into age demographics. The sentiment is representative of the age groups 25-34 and 65+.

The SMLC software pulled demographic data and corresponding sentiment between 25-34 and 65+. While it was equally shared on the sentiment analysis, the data does showcase that 25-34 year olds are the most active age demographic on social media regarding this topic. The least active audience is 18-20 years olds with under 250 posts during that timeframe.

Figure 7:  Sentiment is analyzed on all social media platforms from May 20th – May 27th.

Along with the demographic sentiment, the SMLC analyzed each platform content to determine the volume of positive/negative posts.  With Reddit and Instagram leading with the highest percentage of negative posts, Facebook led with positive social media posts. The SMLC software does recognize reviews on websites. The data included in that column is from reviews left on JoannFabrics.com and Ipsy.com.

 COVID-19 and Study Abroad

By: Kinley DuRant and Nate Unger

What to know:

COVID-19, more popularly known as the Coronavirus, has been taking a world tour, since its recent outbreak in Wuhan, China.  Ranging from locations is Europe and even the United States. The messages about coronavirus through the use of social media is being taken in a variety of different directions. One big problem with the virus’ global spread, however, is among college students. The virus now poses danger to the thousands of American University students who are studying abroad in foreign countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

The Center for Disease Control has advised colleges and universities to consider postponing or even cancelling upcoming student foreign exchange programs for the foreseeable future. They have issued a Level 3 warning, stating on their website that “travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Italy.” Universities are not hesitating to take action, canceling all current study abroad programs and many summer programs. Colleges like Auburn, Washington University in St. Louis, Rutgers, and even here at Clemson are among dozens of colleges to take efforts to keep their students’ on the mainland.

Here are some of the facts:

• Tweets containing the term “coronavirus” in the past week (February 25^th-March 3^rd), there have been a whopping 28.5 million tweets,
  • spanning the world from the US to Spain and Venezuela, to Nigeria
• Narrowing it down to look at a college perspective: there have been 4.8k Tweets from February 25^th-March 3^rd
  • key words such as
    • “study abroad & covid”
    • “study abroad & cancel”
    • “study abroad & coronavirus”
  • Many of these tweets have been due to universities announcing the cancellations and students replying to it with their dismay, along with students voicing their opinions about future abroad programs.
    • As expected, sentiment is trending towards mostly negative, with 68.8% of all tweets being negative and just 31.2% being positive.

In terms of societal effects, the US is really getting pummeled. The coronavirus has been an economical disaster. Thousands of flights are being canceled, losing millions of dollars for the airline industry, as well as making a dent in the travel and tourism industry. Travel screenings for international travel has become so extensive, with TSA and the government doing their best to ensure that anyone who has been in China recently, been overseas in areas that have been affected. The market has also tanked in the weeks since the coronavirus began to spread. The stock market has become volatile, and with a large portion of the global economy coming from China, the global economy is expected to slow down. On March 3, 2020, the Federal Reserve issued an emergency interest cut rate in an attempt to combat effects of the outbreak, the first time this has happened since the Great Recession in 2008.

As for us here at Clemson University, we need to be on watch. With our Spring Break coming up in just under two weeks, thousands of students are going to be traveling across the country, so they need to be on high alert as they travel. As for study abroad programs, Clemson announced Monday, March 2^nd that all students currently overseas were required to return to campus and all programs were effectively suspended. According to WYFF 4 News, this decision will affect 385 students in 6 countries abroad, along with the 100 or so called back from Italy a few days prior. Associate Vice President of Communication for the university, Joe Gailbreath, stated that an academic advisor would be assigned to each returning student. This has some ripple effects for the university. It may cause panic amongst students at Clemson with those overseas returning to campus, fearing that they may potentially bring back the virus. The university may have to pay for screening and travel to arrange for the students’ prompt return. It also costs the university money in terms of the fact that these students are no longer paying for their programs abroad, as they will almost definitely be refunded in some sort of way. As of this moment (3/3/2020), there have been no recorded cases here at Clemson, but officials are closely monitoring the ordeal.

South Carolina Democratic Debate: Oh, What a Night

By: Kinley DuRant, Nate Unger,  Kenedey Warde, Kyle Goodier, Lottie Smith, Hannah Abbe, Tanisha Tak, Holly Deal, Sarah Wilson, Elizabeth O’Donnell, Jackson Dugger, Abigail Godard,  Alexa Fulcher, Hannah Abee, Megan Courage

The Overview:

The South Carolina Democratic Debate took place on February 25, 2020 in Charleston, SC.  The seven candidates that participated included Mike Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Biden, Tom Steyer, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg. At the top of every hour starting at 3pm, the Social Medial Listening Center analyses the conversation surrounding the debate.

Here are some highlights on the eight hours surrounding the debate.

What to know:

• The total number of posts over all of the social media platforms at the end of the debate was 2,048,212
• Around 11 pm the demographics showed that there were 50.1% of females in the conversation and 49.9% males out of 285,509 posts during the hour.
• During the time of the debate, the conversation surrounding the candidates on Social Media reflected the following:
  • Bernie Sanders (55.3% Negative)
  • Joe Biden (61.3% Negative)
  • Mike Bloomberg (55.3% Negative)
  • Elizabeth Warren (59.8% Positive)
  • Pete Buttigieg (53.7% Negative)
  • Amy Kochlubar (77.9% Negative)
  • Tulsi Gabbard (55.6% Positive)

The conversation surrounding the Debate offered a variety of topics. Below there are several of the themes that were discussed on a variety of platfroms:

• Bloomberg, Biden, and Sanders are currently the most talked about
• Beat Trump
• Bernie is the only one who can beat Trump
• People mostly tweeting about who they want to be elected President
• Many questioning Sanders’ ability to be President
• People generally looking forward to the debate, if only for entertainment value
• Continued conversation on Biden misspeaking about election
• Many talking about Sanders’ honeymoon in Russia
• Conversation about Bloomberg’s alleged connections to Epstein
• Many upset at moderators, claiming that they are favoring certain candidates
• Some critiquing moderators for not being able to keep control of the debate and the candidates, not asking the right questions and having enough background info to push the questions

The share of voice numbers fluctuated throughout the debate. Highlighted in red represents a decline as the debate continued and green represents an increase in shared voices toward the end (8:00 pm – 10:00 pm):

• Bernie Sanders went from 54.4% at the beginning to 39.1% in the last hour of the debate
• Joe Biden went from 13.4% to 17.8%
• Mike Bloomberg from 7.9% to 12.6%
• Elizabeth Warren from 0.1% to 14.3%
• Pete Buttigieg from 8% to 7.6%
• Amy Kochlubar from 4.3% to 4.2%
• Tom Steyer from 1.2% to 3.9%
• Tulsi Gabbard from 0.7% to 0.5%

Now to the fun stuff. A few of the themes regarding bloopers and humor:

• Many making fun of Bloomberg’s height
• Biden accidentally said he is running for the Senate
• Outside the venue, both Republican and Democrat supporters joined together to sing Sweet Caroline
• Naked Cowboy – a cheap, but iconic, attraction in Times Square (NYC) Bloomberg promises to put a Naked Cowboy in every city; the joke falls flat and exemplifies a gap between Bloomberg and a majority of Americans who didn’t understand the reference.

A variety of Tweets and Instagram posts were sent out in the duration of the analysis, ranging from support and disagreements, to memes and bingo boards. Below are some examples of the commentary.

Several examples of the Instagram topic are seen surrounding the hashtag #demdebate:

The content on social media shows many of the thoughts and opinions of not just the candidates but the public opinion, as well. As a whole, the South Carolina Democratic Debate is a stepping stone in the journey for candidacy for the next democratic nominee who will run for the President of the United States in this next coming year. South Carolina gets to be one of 12 debates that have and will happen in the next coming months.

Source: The Verge and Vanity Fair

Battle of the Babies

By: Nate Unger and Kinley DuRant

What to Know:

Since November 12, 2019, Baby Yoda has taken the internet by storm with memes, comments and posts. As of February 2^, 2020, a competitor has emerged against this internet sensation. Baby nut, the little version of the iconic Mr. Peanut of the Planters Peanut company, was born.

Here is some of the info:

• Number of Baby Yoda tweets in the week following its release (1/12/2019-11/19/2019) soared to 227.1K
  • Peak of 64.8K on November 16^th.
• Number of Baby Nut tweets in the week following its release (2/2/2020-Present) was 80.9k
  • Peak of 38.2k on February 3^rd.
• Total Number of Baby Yoda tweets since mainstream release (11/12/2019-Present) – 5.5 million, with peaks on Sunday, December 1^st, 2019
  • Several of the big spikes include:
    • 2k tweets, Monday, December 30^th, 2019
    • 9k tweets, due to release of Rise of Skywalker
    • 3k tweets, due to release of “competitor” Baby Nut, on Monday, February 3^rd, 2020
  • Total Number of Baby Nut tweets since mainstream release (2/2/2020-Present) is around 209.8K

This trend lasted for a few short weeks and the meme account for Baby Nut was shut down. Twitter recently removed 3 accounts created by Planters in an effort to spread memes, a violation of Twitter’s rules and conduct.According to Insider, the Mr. Peanut Twitter account was attempting to build clout by replicating real accounts.  They stated that “coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting,” and “operating multiple accounts with overlapping use cases, such as identical or similar personas or substantially similar content.” (Insider)

Based on this information, it is noticeable that Baby Yoda is a much hotter commodity than his counterpart, Baby Nut. Along with the release of the ninth installment in the Star Wars saga, Yoda got much more attention and is more culturally accepted than Baby Nut. People swooned over Baby Yoda, making him into memes to represent relatable experiences in addition to making fan accounts to post updates as new episodes of his show, The Mandalorian.

Baby Yoda trend:

Baby Nut came out a few months later to a bit of a mixed reception. On one end, people love the cute factor that came with its arrival, similar to that of Baby Yoda. However, people are turning down the notion of Baby Nut in favor of his counterpart, Baby Yoda.

Baby Nut trend:

Source:NHPR

New Hampshire Primaries: Who’s on Top?

By: Sarah Wilson and Kinley DuRant

What to know:

The New Hampshire primaries, some of the first pieces of the American presidential election process, took place on Tuesday, February 11^th. Within these state-wide elections, the people vote for their desired candidate to represent their respective political party in the National Conventions, set to take place in July (Democratic) and August (Republican) of this year. These primaries hold much significance to the future of the election as a whole, as it provides the first insight into which candidates are truly in the running for the nomination.

Here are some things to know:

• One of the very first primaries to be held in the process of choosing each party’s presidential nominee (2^nd to only Iowa’s caucuses)
•  New Hampshire elections are considered by many to be a major test for presidential candidates
  • they set the tone for future primary elections. Within this highly anticipated day
  • unsuccessful candidates commonly drop out, while previously overlooked candidates can become serious contenders with the increased media attention.
• A win in New Hampshire increases a candidate’s final primary count in all states by 27% – a number with the power to make, break, or revive a campaign.

On Tuesday, all eyes fell to New Hampshire’s Democratic primary in particular, anxiously waiting to see what candidates have the potential to stand in the fight against President Trump, who – to no one’s surprise – won New Hampshire’s Republican primary by a landslide. According to social media, the names to watch were Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang. However, the social media conversation leading up to the primary consisted of many interesting surprises, solid predictions, and false assumptions.

According to data pulled from January 13- Feb 2 (the 2 weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus), the most popular candidates online were Sanders (11 million total posts), Biden (9.9 million total posts), and Warren (5.3 million total posts). Of the three candidates, Warren held the best online reputation with 55.3% of the conversation being recorded as positive. Although a close measure, her majority positive sentiment was notable compared to both Sanders’s and Biden’s majority negative score. However, the candidate with the most impressive online attitude was Yang, with an overwhelming 72.9% positive sentiment. While only bringing in 836 thousand tweets in the 3 week span, Yang’s strong approval percentage put him as a potential front-runner in the New Hampshire primary. Buttigieg, coming in with 871 thousand posts, and Klobuchar, recording 746 thousand, were not to be counted out, but also not top candidates.

When the results on the New Hampshire primary were announced on Feb 11^th, it wasn’t unexpected that Bernie Sanders came in first, having won 9 pledged delegates and 25.7% of total votes. With the largest amount of online conversation (a lead of over 1 million), it was a reasonable prediction that Sanders would rack in the most counts on election day. However, the surprise was that neither Biden or Warren came in second place. Despite having 10 times (Biden) and 5 times (Warren) as many total posts as Buttigieg leading up to the primary, Biden finished fifth and Warren fourth, while Buttigieg stole second.

In third was Klobuchar, which also came out of left field, if one were to base their predictions on social media traffic alone. Klobuchar and Warren shared a nearly identical percentage of positive conversation. (around 55% positive). However, Warren held 7 times the post volume. From these numbers, one would assume Warren would have the lead over her component but, despite the odds, Klobuchar finished with 30,000 more votes and 6 more pledged delegates.

The arguably most surprising turn of events was the defeat of Andrew Yang. With a competitive post volume and a 17% gap between his leading sentiment score and his fellow components’, many were shocked to learn he finished in eighth place, with a mere 2.8% of votes and 0 pledged delegates. Yang dropped out of the race shortly following the closing of the polls in New Hampshire on Feb 11^th.

As the Democratic National Convention quickly approaches, the race for the presidency will only become increasingly more ruthless. While social media analytics can be extremely telling of a candidate’s potential success, the truth lies in the election results. During this election season, it’s important to remember that using social media to exercise your First Amendment right to political activism is great. Getting involved in politics online can spread awareness about important issues and encourage others to join in on the conversation. However, remember that as loud as your political voice may be in a tweet, there’s no better way to be heard than in the voting booth.

Source: American Majority

Money, Money Everywhere: Democratic Primary Spending

By: Sarah Wilson, Kyle Goodier, Lottie Smith, and Kinley DuRant

What to know:

This data was pulled on February 12th and will change as the campaigning progresses in the coming months. Campaigning for the primary elections is no cheap task. The primaries refer to the process of each state voting on the candidate that they want to represent them in the general election. The Democratic Primaries are underway and as they progress so does the price tag.  Last year, Trump and the top four Democrats spent more on digital advertising than on television advertising. Based on data gathered from the Social Media Listening Center, we are able to see just how much goes into this election process this year, already.

Here are some of the basics:

• A total of $29,995,000 in Facebook spending for the Early nominating States
  • Iowa, New Hampshire,  Nevada and South Carolina
• The top Candidates:
  • Pete Buttigieg is in the lead and has spent $62.3 million on campaign
    • Committee Name: Pete For America Exploratory Committee, Inc.
    • His total amount fundraised was $61 Million and he has gone through $52 Million of it, putting the rate at which he has burned at 85%
    • Over 1,200 people gave Buttigieg’s campaign at least $2,800 in the quarter, the maximum amount a candidate can receive in the primary. Some donors contributed more than that, which Buttigieg will not be able to spend unless he reaches the general election. Big donors include Arne Sorenson, the CEO of Marriott, and former Palm Springs, Calif., Mayor Robert Moon.
  • Bernie Sanders is in second and has spent $90.7 Million
    • Committee Name: Bernie 2020
    • His total amount fundraised was $109 Million and he has gone through $90.7 Million of it, putting the rate at which he has burned his fund raised money at 83%
    • Sanders paid over $8.5 million in salary in the last three months of the year to over 900 staffers, accounting for about 17 percent of his total spending
  • Elizabeth Warren has spent $68.3 Million
    • Committee Name: Warren For President, Inc.
    • Her total amount fundraised was $82 Million and she has gone through $68.3 Million of it, putting the rate at which she has burned her fund raised money at 83%, also.
    • Getting on the ballot in states across the country isn’t cheap. Warren’s campaign spent over $64,000 to get on ballot-access expenses in 23 different states or territories. South Carolina, the fourth state on the calendar, was easily the most expensive at $20,000.
  • Amy Klobuchar has invested $24.0 Million
    • Committee Name: Amy for America
    • Her total amount fundraised was $29 Million and she has gone through $24 Million of it, putting the rate at which she has burned her fund raised money at 83%
    • The Minnesota senator had about 180 staffers on her payroll at the end of the year, which makes her campaign significantly smaller than the poll-leading campaigns she hopes to compete against in Iowa
  • Joe Biden at $52.1 Million
    • Committee Name: Biden for President
  • • His total amount fundraised was $61 Million and he has gone through $52 Million of it, putting the rate at which he has burned his fund raised money at 85%
    • One of Biden’s biggest expenses, outside of paying his staff, is digital advertising. His campaign spent about $2.4 million on digital advertising to vendors including Facebook, Infogroup and Hulu.
  • Michael Bloomberg with $188Million
    • Committee Name: Mike Bloomberg 2020, INC.
    • His total amount fundraised was $200 Million and he has gone through $188 Million of it, putting the rate at which he has burned his fund raised money at 94%
    • Bloomberg is paying his top staffers big bucks. Annualized salaries for his campaign chair and manager could reach as high as $375,000.
  •  Tom Steyer with $201Million
    • Committee Name: Tom Steyer 2020
    • His total amount fundraised was $206 Million and he has gone through $201 Million of it, putting the rate at which he has burned his fund raised money at 97%
    • The billionaire spent over $101 million on ads, with most of that money going through Buying Time, a D.C.-based media buyer. Steyer also spent over $101,000 to advertise in five prominent black publications in South Carolina.
  •  Tulsi Gabbard with a total of $9.9 Million
    • Committee Name: Tulsi Now
    • Her total amount fundraised was $12.6 Million and she has gone through $9.9 Million of it, putting the rate at which she has burned her fund raised money at 78%
    • The Hawaii congresswoman had just 13 staffers on her payroll — which excludes people paid through firms or as a consultant. That’s likely the smallest level among the remaining candidates

In the graph below we are able to see the percent of this money that the candidates have spent on Facebook campaigning alone in their first four states: South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Iowa. 

There are still another five months of campaigning that will be done before this election comes to a close.  The spending numbers are continuing to fluctuate.  At this rate the numbers could continue to soar far beyond where they are now.

Sources for Data:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/2020-presidential-candidates.html

Source: WLRN

SuperBowl Halftime LIV: A Performance to Remember

By: Kenedey Ward and Kinley DuRant

Over the past 54 year the SuperBowl has been noted for not only the football but for their extraordinary halftime shows.  SuperBowl LIV show did not fall short according to much of the conversation around the event. This year, the stage was claimed by both Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, both with their own flare. This iconic Latina performance was filed with various cultural aspects that left the audience with mixed reviews on social media.

Here is what we need to know:

• Overall the show was a success, with a sentiment recorded as 68.9% positive, per audience analysis.
• Online users applauded both Shakira and JLo for their voices, performance, and overall effort.
• There is somewhat controversial discussion around the artists’ costumes and choreography, full of hip shaking and body rolls.
• This discussion comprises the majority of chatter in regard to the halftime show.

While thousands of users praised the women for their incredible performance, some criticized the show, claiming it was over-sexualized. With the controversy concerning these women’s rights to respect while still dancing and dressing the way they please, many were left wondering if the show was a movement to support and celebrate women or just a perfect demonstration of how objectified women are in our culture. Despite the sexist critiques, majority of the conversation agrees that the performance was incredible, naming it one of the best halftimes shows to hit the Super Bowl stage in years.

Source: NYTimes

What to Know About the State of the Union Address

By: Elizabeth O’Donnell and Kinley DuRant

The Facts:

On February 4^th, President Donald Trump gave his last state of the union dress while in office.  Much of the conversation was negative but was then met by almost half of the positive responses as the conversation increased.  With a totally of 3.7 Million posts surrounding the event, it clearly was an event to talk about. There were several elements to the occasion that broke the traditional form of the address.

Here is what to know:

• A State of the Union Address is a statement that the president of the United States gives at the start of each year to Congress
• Trump made his case for reelection in the speech
  • However, no mention of the impeachment came out of the speech
  • Unemployment rate
    • Trump spoke heavily of unemployment

• Nancy Pelosi
  • She tore up the paper state of address
  • Trump did not shake her hand before his speech
  • She did not introduce him as Presidents have been historically
    • The words “it is my honor” and “highly esteemed” were not used

• White Blazers
  • Women honored the anniversary of the 19^th Amendment by wear white blazers to the SOTU address

• 54.2 % of the conversations surrounding the Address was negatively correlated
  • 45.8 % was positively associated with the event

Based on the surrounding conversation of the event, we can see the political climate is tense and divided. One thing to keep in mind is that this State of the Union Address happens to be occurring in the middle of Trumps impeachment trial that is said to come to a close this Wednesday. Trump is still hoping to get reelected for a second term in office in the coming election.