The News in New Media

Month: January 2024

Elmo, We’re Not Doing Alright. But at Least We Can Joke About It!

January 31, 2024

At 10:46 am on January 29th the official Elmo X account made a post saying, “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” 

It was an innocent inquiry from arguably the most iconic character from Sesame Street that was likely conceived to play to audiences’ nostalgia in a similar vein as the post from Steve from Blue’s Clues did a few years back, but the responses were not the same.

The one singular post from Elmo received over 131 million views, 77 thousand likes, 31 thousand quotes, 6 thousand reposts, and 10 thousand bookmarks. This post blew up. Looking deeper at the analytics, since Elmo asked the users of X how they were doing “Elmo” was mentioned across X over 300 thousand times, and these posts reach almost 2 billion users. The sentiments of the discussion around Elmo are almost exactly 25% positive to 75% negative. The top themes of the discussion include terms such as “Great Elmo,” “Good,” “Bad,” and “F**king limit.” This leaves one to wonder what exactly users were saying to or about Elmo. Many users took to quoting the original post to “tell Elmo” how they were doing.

While some were doing what has been referred to as “trauma dumping,” which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as “the act of telling another person or other people in a detailed way about problems and emotional pain that you have experienced, expecting them to give you sympathy and comfort, when they may not be able or willing to do this,” others took the opportunity to hope onto a viral joke. 

https://twitter.com/sleep2dream/status/1752047357439434817?s=46&t=3LXPh2VbZ7i1qhDmF-cxwQ

One hashtag that began circulating along with the Elmo discourse was #emotionalwellbeing which was popularized by a follow up post from the Elmo account posted on the afternoon of the 30th. The account wrote, “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends!  Elmo loves you.❤️ #EmotionalWellBeing.” 

Further, the official Sesame Street X account quoted this post providing some mental health resources saying, “Mental health is health! For #EmotionalWellBeing resources and more, visit @SesameWorkshop: Sesame.org/MentalHealth.”

It is also important to note that while this discourse has been taking place with users from around the world, it was primarily centered with users from the United States with over 130 thousand mentions of Elmo here alone. Some famous individuals and accounts also hopped into the discussion such as United States president Joe Biden, the government organization NASA, and singer-songwriter T-Pain.

In the end, all jokes aside, it is important to remember that mental health is an important part of our wellbeing. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, consider the following resources:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free 24-hour helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

Mental Health America’s website

Mental Health First Aid’s website

Author: Ben Katarzynski

The 2024 Academy Awards: Nominations Are In and Creating Controversy

January 29, 2024

On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were hosted honoring film released August 1, 1927 through August 1, 1928. Since then, the Academy Awards (commonly known as the Oscars) have been a longstanding tradition and highly anticipated event in the cinema industry. Created to highlight some of the best achievements made in the art of film, recipients of the award receive golden statuettes signifying their success. In preparing for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10th, 2024, we look at several nominees that have been highlighted by the Academy and have generated several hot topic conversations on social media. 

Overall, since their release on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024, conversations regarding the release of nominations from the Academy have 1.14 million mentions and a reach of 12.59 billion. X, new sources, Reddit and Instagram are the social platforms most used in these conversations. Conversations peaked on January 23rd with the announcement of the nominees at 8:30 AM with 705,539 mentions. 

One of the biggest topics of conversation was surrounding the nomination of the Barbie movie and its actors. The movie was released in July of 2023 and deemed a re-make of an iconic movie that pushes cultural norms and is supportive of feminism. The lead actors were Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera and Will Ferrell. Collectively, Barbie was nominated for eight Oscars, but the controversy came with the actors who did received a nomination. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Actor and America Ferrera was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Conversations regarding Margot Robbie not receiving a nomination was collectively one of the main complaints with an overall negative sentiment on social platforms. 

Oppenheimer was another film that was a topic of conversation among the announcements of Oscar nominations. The movie, which focuses on the race to create the first atomic bomb surrounding World War II, received the most nominations with a grand total of thirteen. When the film hit theaters, it consistently topped records. It overcame another movie’s seven year long streak in the box office, achieving a gross total of nearly $1 billion. 

Two other topics of conversation among social media users were regarding promotion of feminism, while “throwing other women under the bus”. Lily Gladstone, was the first Native American Woman to be nominated for the best actress award and Justine Triet was the only female director nominated this year for the Anatomy of a Fall. The big controversy came in that not all conversations were based on the two women’s success in being nominated. Instead, social media conversations focused on how it was disappointing that most people were taking away from her opportunity to highlight that Margot Robbie was not nominated. 

Given the high volume of conversation and controversy regarding the announcement of the nominees, many people are anxiously awaiting the announcement of winners when the 96th Annual Academy Awards take place on March 10th, 2024.

Author: Lexi Merriman 

Decoding the Social Pulse: A Deep Dive into Sentiments from the New Hampshire GOP Primary

January 26, 2024

It is no longer news that former President Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary, bringing him closer to being the Republican presidential nominee. Donald Trump won the primaries with 54.5% (169,620 votes), while Nikki Haley received 43.3% (134,829 votes).

According to reports, Donald Trump is the first non-incumbent Republican contender in modern history to win the Iowa and New Hampshire GOP primaries. With the #NewHamphirePrimary generating a lot of online talk, the SMLC team took a quick look at the social media conversations around the GOP New Hampshire primary using Spinklr during and after the event over 24 hours. Here are a few fascinating facts.

A review of the conversations revealed over 64,558 mentions and a reach of more than 1.01 billion, with most of the conversation on the X platform. In addition, the study revealed a sentiment score with positive mentions at 61.6% and negative mentions at 38.3%. Examining the most active age gap, millennials from 18 to 35 were the most active, with over 11.2k mentions, followed by the middle-aged group, ages 35-60, with over 6.28k mentions.

A summary of  #NewHampshirePrimary on Sprinklr
A summary of the age analysis

Nevertheless, upon a thorough examination of the sentiment scores, it became evident that a significant number of social media users, particularly within the specified active age group, expressed joy over former President Donald Trump’s victory in the #NewHampshirePrimaries election, with a prevailing mixed theme centered on sharing personal happiness and taking our country back and culture. Here are some of the tweets featuring positive mentions.

To provide a well-rounded perspective, let’s explore some critical tweets to gain insights into users’ perspectives and responses to the #NewHampshirePrimary. According to Sprinklr, the most negative mentions stemmed from users’ perceptions expressing discontent with how Democrats played a pivotal role in supporting Nikki Haley’s candidacy. Here are a few examples of these tweets.

Despite these user chats, a report from USAToday, claims that New Hampshire has a closed primary, which means that voters can only vote in a political primary if they are registered members of that party or undeclared. Someone registered as a Democrat cannot vote in the GOP primary because the deadline for changing party affiliation was in October 2023.

Although the #NewHampshirePrimary has come to an end, emerging conversations around former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to suspend her campaign are in top gear; Nikki Haley has made it bold to state that the race was “far from over” as she pledged to stay in it.  The upcoming GOP Presidential primaries are scheduled in Nevada and the Virgin Islands. Nevertheless, both candidates are currently focusing on a clash in the South Carolina primary.

Author: Bowale Odukale

Traitors, and Faithfuls, and Murders Oh My! Listening to the X Conversations About Season Two of Peacock’s The Traitors

January 25, 2024

Have you ever wanted to watch a bunch of reality television stars live together in a castle in the Scottish Highlands while the secretly murder one another? Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t, but that is exactly what The Traitors season two is delivering this year. Premiering on January 12th, the Whodunit style show hosted by Alan Cumming, pits reality stars from shows such as Survivor, Big Brother, The Real Housewives, Love Island and more against one another as they secretly “murder” and interrogate each other in hopes of winning a prize pot of potentially $250,000. From the season premier to today, the sentiment around the hashtag #TheTraitorsUS leans slightly negative (about 60%) which is reflective of the drama in the show and the fans picking the sides of their favorite contestants. This comes from the over twenty thousand uses of the hashtag on social media since January 12th. And that is just in the United States alone.

After the success of season 1 last year which featured a mixed cast of reality television stars and everyday people, the cast of this season has upped the ante by including some of the biggest names in reality television from the last 20 years including Sandra Diaz-Twine, the first ever two time Survivor winner, Janelle Pierzina, the first four-time Big Brother contestant and recipient of VH1’s best reality star award, and Johnny Devenanzio “Bananas,” a seven time winner of MTV’s The Challenge. With a cast as star-studded as this, fans of reality television had an online frenzy when the cast was announced in September of last year.

As previously mentioned, this season of The Traitors premiered on January 12th streaming exclusively on NBC’s streaming service Peacock. The first three episodes of the season were all released together to reveal which contestants were the traitors, those whose goals are to sabotage and ultimately “murder” the other contestants, and the faithfuls, those whose goals are to add money to the prize pot and find out and eliminate the traitors hiding amongst them. With over eleven thousand uses of the hashtag #TheTraitorsUS on Xduring the premier weekend, fans have taken to social media to support their favorite contestants and, just as frequently, attack the contestants they don’t like. Along with the previously mentioned contestants Sandra, Janelle, and Johnny Bananas, other notable contestants that have left impressions on the fans from the first three episodes include Survivor winner Parvati Shallow, Big Brother winner Dan Gheesling, The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks, and RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Peppermint who were all frequently appearing names in the social media conversations. Here’s what some fans had to say:

After the premier day, the rest of the episodes are scheduled to be released one at a time on Thursday nights until the season finale. Sharon Tharp, a press member who specializes in reality television reporting, posted on X saying, “Not to be cryptic but episode 4 > first 3 episodes. #TheTraitorsUS.” This helped generate even more excitement and anticipation for the episode that aired on January 18th.

Episode four, which was filled with arguably more drama than the first three episodes, was mentioned over ten thousand times on X, and the conversations surrounding the episode were twice as negative (about 66%) as they were positive ( about 33%). This is likely due to the fact that the episode ended in a fight between fan favorite contestants Phaedra and Parvati. 

Other conversation leaders include contestants Tamra Judge and Larsa Pippen, reality television podcaster Rob Cesternino, and Big Brother winner Andy Herren. As this show is a confluence of reality television worlds, it’s no surprise that those who are established in the reality television landscape are all coming together to speak on this all-star cast. Here’s some of what they’ve said:

With episode four ending on a cliffhanger, the online discussion of season two of The Traitors is surely going to heat up as new episodes come out each week. Overall, since the premier on the 12th #TheTraitorsUS has been used over seventy thousand times across the world and reached almost one billion people, and that number is only going to climb as more contestants are murdered or ousted in the race to the grand prize which currently sits at $65,500. Can the traitors continue to off the faithfuls? Can the faithfuls find out and eliminate the traitors? Will the contestants be able to keep adding to the prize pot? Episode five premiers at 9:00 pm EST tomorrow, January 25th only on Peacock.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Palisades Tahoe: The January 10th Avalanche

January 22, 2024

Known as a major tourist attraction in Olympic Valley, California, the Palisades Tahoe ski resort became a key conversation on social media when tragedy struck not once, but twice. Palisades Tahoe is one of the largest ski resorts in the California Lake Tahoe region. The resort was in the middle of its primary ski season (November 22nd, 2023- late spring 2024) and a large-scale snowstorm when the first of two avalanches occurred. 

Conversations on the event occurred across a variety of media platforms with X, Reddit, and Facebook being the primary social media platforms where conversation took place. TV and news platforms (ABC7- San Francisco, Fox11- Los Angeles, TIME Magazine, etc.) also had a high number of conversations regarding the ski resort’s avalanches. Overall, since January 10th, the topic has over 18.94k mentions and has had a reach of 534.02 million. The conversations peaked on January 10th, 2024 around 9:30 AM. 

The first avalanche occurred on Jan. 10th, around 9:30 AM in the GS Gully area of the mountain, right near the well known KT-22 chairlift. The slide occurred below the lift and took in four people, injuring three and killing one. Twenty-seven hours later, another avalanche occurred on the Alpine Meadows area of the mountain by the Wolverine Bowl. No one was injured in the second avalanche. 

Fortunately, several good hearted individuals found themselves in the right place at the right time during the first avalanche to assist in helping those swept and buried. Individuals at the scene took to social media, sharing their experience in rescuing those on the mountain. 

Palisades Tahoe is known to be a good mountain for moderate to advanced skiers due to the  advanced ski/snowboarding routes offered. There are several steep groomers and runs with steep ungroomed terrain. Avalanches in resort areas, though dangerous anywhere, hold more concern because mountain goers often aren’t equipped with avalanche safety/protective gear. With the varying grades and snowpack levels at Palisades, these concerns held true as ski patrol took to the mountain following the avalanche. 

Jason Parker, one of the individuals buried in the event spoke to his experience, stating “It just buried me so quick”. 

Experts have since pointed to “complicated snowpack” as the suspected reason for the avalanche. Snowpacks are areas where snow has fallen and hasn’t melted due to below freezing temperatures. Complicated snowpacks occur where the snowpack goes from thick to thin rapidly. In areas where the snowpack is thinner, it can be easy to trigger events where snow shifts (for example: avalanches). 

Allegations against the Palisades Tahoe resort have been suspended as the resort has released that they did not use explosives on the day the avalanche occurred (aka, “bombing the run”). 

The CEO of the resort, Dee Byrne, commented that it was a “very sad day for my team and everyone here”.

Author: Lexi Merriman