Author: mwils24

Authors: Brennan Schmidt, Amy Makin, & Madison Wilson

President Biden and his administration have been busy since the inauguration. The president has signed 29 executive orders over the last three weeks on issues ranging from climate change to the federal workforce to COVID-19 economic relief. The president’s three most recent executive orders address immigration. The Democratic Party has also been pushing for student loan forgiveness upwards of $50,000 per borrower. President Biden originally supported $10,000 of student loan forgiveness and is expected to address this request in coming days.

Social media has been buzzing over these executive orders. Between February 2-7, 2021, Twitter had 4.07M mentions of the following keywords: “Biden,” “plans,” “Joe Biden,” “Biden” and “plans,” “Biden” and “executive actions,” “president,” or “Biden Administration.” Conversation peaked around 6:00pm EST on February 2, 2021, with almost 900 thousand tweets about the president after signing executive orders on immigration, rejecting press photos while paying respect to fallen officer, Brian Sicknick, and providing a 1.3 billion dollar aid package to Puerto Rico for rebuilding from the 2017 hurricane and future hurricane preparation. Despite these actions, the hashtag #bidenlied was trending on Twitter. People were upset that his promises to forgive student loan debt and send additional stimulus checks were not yet delivered.

It is absolutely indefensible that Biden has yet to cancel one dollar of student loan debt. He could do it with a stroke of a pen, and he just hasn't.

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) February 3, 2021

In conjunction with that conversation, student loan debt and forgiveness were also trending topics on Reddit. Searching “Biden actions” brought up the r/Conservative, r/Biden_OnTheRecord, and r/politics subreddits. Several posts were made about President Biden supporting the idea of canceling $10,000 of debt per borrower and the pressure from the Democratic Party to forgive $50,000 of debt per borrower through executive action. Many users also discussed interest percentages, free secondary education, personal experiences with student loan debt, and the president’s approval rating.

Similar themes were found on Facebook, with 178k mentions of the president and over 1,300 uses of the #biden hashtag in conversation surrounding President Biden’s actions and new plans. Users again expressed mixed feelings – some calling the president a liar because of unkept promises, and others claiming he is doing a better job than Trump and expressing support for his quick action in office.

Conversation on TikTok has been relatively quiet since President Biden’s first day in office. The most popular TikTok posted with the #biden hashtag shows a news anchor dissenting the Christian argument against abortion because not everyone in the U.S. is Christian. This TikTok has 14.4 million views and 4.4 millions likes. The #biden hashtag has 7.7 billion views on TikTok, with tagged content from both those who support the president and those who do not. This pattern can be seen on all social media platforms.

What does this mean?

Talk of President Biden’s immigration executive orders was consistently discussed across social media platforms last week. This spurred side conversations about student loan forgiveness and other executive orders, with people expressing both positive and negative opinions on the matter. Some were upset about the president’s promises not being fulfilled, but the majority of people agreed that President Biden has done more in his first few weeks than most other presidents, including former President Trump. People are starting to question the president’s true intentions, as #bidenlied trended on Twitter. Support continues to fluctuate as President Biden signs more executive orders, but only time will tell how this work will affect his approval rating. One thing is for sure – President Biden has proved that he is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

Full Analysis:

Purpose:
To view what people are saying about President Biden’s initial work in the White House.

Analysis Time Frame:
February 2-7, 2021. 

Overall Trends:
4.07M mentions and 38.7B impressions on Twitter

Sentiment:
4% Positive
75% Neutral
17% Negative

Keyword Groups:
“Biden”
“plans”
“Joe Biden”
“Biden” and “plans”
“Biden” and “executive actions”
“president”
“Biden Administration”

Popular Words:
“Biden Administration” was the most used phrase, with over 176k occurrences. Much of the conversation was about the 20 million lost COVID-19 vaccines and the aid package given to Puerto Rico for hurricane damage.

“Executive Orders” was the second most use phrase, with over 74,797 occurrences. Conversations revolved around the president’s campaign promises and the executive orders aimed at reforming the U.S. immigration system.

“Stimulus Checks” was another top phrase, used 24,261 times. This phrase correlated with the #bidenlied hashtag, as people claimed the president broke promises regarding stimulus check amounts.

Top Influencers:
@CNN
@NYTimes
@bbcworld
@theeconomist

The Super Bowl is arguably the most popular sporting event in the United States. Millions of Americans tune in each year to root for their favorite teams, enjoy some tasty snacks, and, of course, check out all of the commercials. This year will look a little different, though. One of the most iconic advertisers, Budweiser, has chosen not to run a commercial. On January 25, 2021, the company stated in a video posted to their Twitter account, “For the first time in 37 years, Budweiser will not air a Super Bowl ad … Instead, we are redirecting our advertising dollars to raise awareness of the COVID-19 vaccines.”

https://twitter.com/budweiserusa/status/1353674829283655680?s=20

Twitter dominated the online conversation surrounding Budweiser’s announcement, with 9,187 posts created on the same day Budweiser made the announcement (January 25). The conversation also peaked this day, with only 3,425 posts the next day. Though not a particularly long-lasting conversation, it still involved a lot of users.

Responses under the initial post (and across social media) were generally positive, with users expressing admiration of the brand’s decision. Analysis conducted on Social Studio revealed that 85.2% of posts were positive, and only 14.8% were negative. A large portion of the conversation comprised users praising Budweiser for their decision and expressing loyalty to the brand. Negative sentiment surrounded a few themes, including users’ overall opinion of Budweiser’s products and the irony of the company creating an ad to announce that they weren’t making an ad.

To be 100% honest, I am not a beer drinker. More of a wine person. That said I do love your commercials each year. I am so impressed with this move I am going to research every recipe that uses beer and go buy a case of Budweiser. Thank you for supporting Covid education.

— Kimberly Brozak (@brozak_3) January 25, 2021

https://twitter.com/stirling79/status/1353735913436807177

Interestingly, three of the most popular keywords in this discussion (“Pepsi”, “Coke,” and “Coca-Cola”) reference other drink brands. These brands, among others, are also opting out of running commercials during the Super Bowl this year.

Top influencers in the conversation were primarily news outlets (e.g., The New York Times, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal) rather than individuals. This tweet from @ABC was one of the top overall posts:

For the first time since 1983, the beer giant isn't advertising its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl.

Instead, it’s donating the money it would have spent on the ad to coronavirus vaccination awareness efforts. https://t.co/EIkXuP07KU

— ABC News (@ABC) January 25, 2021

With a reduced number of fans in attendance, top advertisements missing, and gathering restrictions for tailgating and parties, Super Bowl LV is shaping up to be a much different experience than in years past. Only time will tell if this year’s Super Bowl is setting a new standard for the future.

Full Analysis:

Purpose:

Examine the conversation surrounding Budweiser opting out of running a Super Bowl LV commercial.

Analysis Time Frame:

January 25-31, 2021

Sentiment:

85.2% positive

14.8% negative

Keyword Groups:

“Budweiser” and “commercial”
“Budweiser” and “Coronavirus”
“Budweiser” and “Super Bowl”
“Budweiser” and “ad”
“Budweiser” and “vaccines”
“Budweiser” and “advertisement”
“Budweiser” and “COVID”
“Budweiser” and “COVID-19”

Popular Words:

“Pepsi”
“Coke”
“Coca-Cola”
“Awareness”

Top Influencers:

ABC News (@ABC)
Breaking News (@BreakingNews)
CGTN (@CGTNOfficial)
Market Watch (@MarketWatch)
The New York Times (@nytimes)
The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ)
Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments)
CBS News (@CBSNews)
The Hill (@thehill)
Food & Wine (@foodandwine)

Authors: Marika Thwin & Madison Wilson

This week on Wall Street has been a whirlwind for everyone. The biggest headline? r/wallstreetbets rode GameStop stock #tothemoon by taking down hedge funds. The conversation started on January 11, 2021 when GameStop welcomed three new directors to their board. People believed that this leadership would help the company recover from difficult times by moving towards a more digital strategy. On that same day, some independent investors from r/wallstreetbets noticed that a hedge fund had taken many short trades against GameStop (GME). This investor rallied other independent investors to buy GME stocks to inflate the price. The hedge fund with the short trades was forced to declare bankruptcy after GME’s price increased over 100%. Wall Street executives claimed that this was illegal, Robinhood restricted trade on GME and similar stocks, and Discord banned the r/wallstreetbets server, which has caused public outrage that the economy gives the rich power over the poor.

Between January 26-30, 2021, there was a total of 15.2 million mentions across all platforms and just over 5 million Twitter users talking about the whole ordeal. The conversation hit a peak on January 28, with 6.7 million mentionsacross all platforms and over 3 million Twitter users contributing to the conversation. The overall sentiment this week was pretty evenly split – roughly 48.9% positive and 51.1% negative. Both positive and negative tweets supported the independent investors instead of Robinhood or the hedge funds.

The most retweeted tweet came from @ashwsbreal, an active r/WallStreetBets member.

robinhood decided this morning to suspend buying of AMC and GME stock because regular people were making too much money, proving once again that any time the poors find a way to get any sort of financial foothold in this world the billionaire class will move swiftly to crush them

— Ash Crypto (@Ashcryptoreal) January 28, 2021

Politicians from both parties spoke out against Robinhood, including AOC, Ted Cruz, Rashida Tlaib, and Donald Trump Jr.

This is unacceptable.

We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.

As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary. https://t.co/4Qyrolgzyt

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

It took less than a day for big tech, big government and the corporate media to spring into action and begin colluding to protect their hedge fund buddies on Wall Street. This is what a rigged system looks like, folks! #RobinHood #RedditArmy #GME #GMEtothemoon https://t.co/UhrwGHCjng

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 28, 2021

Elon Musk also expressed his support for the independent investors and tweeted a link to their subreddit. Musk has a history of influencing the stock market through Twitter. In December 2020, he tweeted about the Dogecoin cryptocurrency (DOGE-USD), which caused the stock price to rise about 20%. Dogecoin started trending again after his “Gamestonk!!” tweet. As a play on Musk’s career, the phrase, “to the moon,” started circulating to describe the situation. #tothemoon became a trending hashtag around increasing stocks, especially Dogecoin and AMC.

Gamestonk!! https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2021

https://twitter.com/TheDogeInvestor/status/1355012254983475200

Financial influencers on Instagram produced some of the top engaging content as they used the platform to educate audiences on why Robinhood is not an ideal investing platform in the first place. Top posts have received over 12k likes and hundreds of comments in agreement.

Redditors used the platform to criticize Robinhood for their restrictions, shame the company for contributing to political turmoil, and motive people to keep buying GME shares. Top posts have over 150k upvotes and top comments have over 25k upvotes. Thousands of comments including the search terms, “Robinhood” and “GameStop” expressed concern about economic inequality and the power associated with it. “Market manipulation” was a commonly used term to describe the situation, and Reddit users were the most proactive audience discussing about what the general public can do to avoid this manipulation.

Full Analysis:

Purpose:

Analyze social media users’ thoughts and sentiments when r/WallStreetBets independent users caused an increase in the GameStop (GME) stock price and Robinhood restricted GME trading on their platform.

Analysis Time Frame:

January 26-30, 2021

Overall Trends:

• January 28, 2021 had the highest conversation volume across all platforms, with 6.71 million total mentions and over 3 million Twitter users contributing to the conversation.
  • The night before, GME shares increased to an all-time high closing price of $350.
  • On this day, Robinhood also announced their restrictions for buying GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and others.
• The top posts on every platform were against Robinhood’s restrictions.
• After Robinhood restricted GME trading, politicians on both sides called the action “unacceptable” and sided with independent investors.
• Social media users used the phrase and hashtag #tothemoon to describe the price trend for GME and similar stocks (e.g., Nokia, Blackberry, AMC, American Airlines, etc.).
• In general, conversation suggests that underlying, decades-long economic inequality is the real problem.

Sentiment:

48.9% positive

51.1% negative

All sentiments generally reflected support for the independent investors.

Keyword Groups:

“Reddit” and “GameStop”

“Reddit” and “GME”

“Reddit” and “Robinhood”

“Robinhood” and “GameStop”

“Robinhood” and “GME”

“Robinhood,” “GameStop,” and “GME”

Popular Words:

“Robinhood” and “GameStop” were the most commonly used words in online conversations, but there was also a lot of discussion about Elon Musk and dogecoin.

Authors: Brennan Schmidt and Madison Wilson

JoJo Siwa, the 17-year-old performer and YouTube personality, is known for her tight ponytails, big bows, and glitter. On Thursday, January 22, she came out to her social media followers as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. The star posted a TikTok of her singing Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and later tweeted a picture of her in a shirt that says, “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” with the caption, “My cousin got me a new shirt.”

https://twitter.com/itsjojosiwa/status/1352719582977355777

Siwa, who started her career on the hit reality series Dance Moms and now has a contract with Nickelodeon, a solo music career, and a popular YouTube channel, has created a personal brand based in positivity, face paint, glitter, and lots of dancing. She uses her platform to speak out against bullying and promotes being yourself and not letting the haters get you down. This has made her a popular role model for kids, and Time Magazine included her in their 2020 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Siwa’s news broke the internet and received mixed responses. Analysis of the social media conversation around JoJo Siwa for January 21-23, 2021 shows 285k mentions of the keywords “JoJo” or “JoJo Siwa.” Peak conversation was between 5pm and 6pm on January 22. Her TikTok video went viral, with over 5.9M likes, 34.8M views, and 320.3k comments.

The overall conversation sentiment was 28% negative, 18% positive, and 53% neutral.

Conversation during this time circulated around the following:

• Discussion about her “label” as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Celebrities and social media influencers like Coleen Ballenger, Hyram, James Charles, Tana Moungeau, and Lil Was X expressing love and support for being so young and showing her true self.
• General users expressing confusion about what the TikTok meant. People thought she was just singing to a good song or showing her support for the LGBTQAI+ community.
• Parents expressing disapproval for the teen star as a role model.

The negativity didn’t seem to bother Siwa. On January 23, she hosted an Instagram Live to express her excitement for being out and gratitude for the support she received. She talked about how her sexuality and how she does not have a label for it. She also responded to comments on her Instagram post and replied, “Okay!” to a mother who commented that she would not let her daughter watch her anymore.

With that, Siwa is living up to her own words:

“Here’s the thing – if you have one person who says something mean to you, you can’t listen to them because there are 10 people who are saying something nice to you” (Source: Kidspot).

Full Analysis:

Purpose:

Analyze the social media conversation about JoJo Siwa’s coming out announcement on January 22, 2021.

Analysis Time Frame:

January 21-23, 2021

Announcement Posts:

TikTok Video: 34.8M views, 5.9M likes, and 320.3k comments

Tweet: 159.5k retweets, 1.2M likes, and 20.9k comments

Overall Trends:

Peak conversation occurred on Thursday, January 22, 2021 (the day she posted her TikTok and tweeted).

Initial responses expressed confusion with the meaning of the TikTok video, with users wondering if there was a deeper meaning beyond just singing to a good song or showing support for the LGBTQIA+ community. After Siwa’s follow-up tweet, responses shifted to more expressions of love and support.

Sentiment:

Negative: 28%

Positive: 18%

Neutral: 53%

Keyword Groups:

“JoJo” or “JoJo Siwa” (285k mentions)

Popular Words:

“Parents” was mentioned 77.1k times and with a 79% negative sentiment on Twitter. Discussion around this keyword generally had two themes:

1. Parents no longer supporting JoJo Siwa as a role model for their children because of her sexuality.
2. Others commenting on how parents who do not support the LGBTQIA+ community might react to Siwa’s announcement.

“Networks” was mentioned 60.9k times and with a 98% negative sentiment on Twitter. “Reason” was mentioned 62.8k times and with a 96% negative sentiment. These keywords were tied to a tweet from @bigfatmeg calling Siwa’s announcement brave because she mainly works in children’s entertainment and could upset the networks she works with.

“Queen” was mentioned 16k times with an 84% positive sentiment and 1% negative sentiment on Twitter. Most of these posts were in support of Siwa and called her a “queen” for coming out to a young audience at such a young age.

Follow-up Conversations:

Pink News and Daily Mail both shared special pages on their Snapchat stories about Siwa’s coming out. Pink News focused more on Siwa’s life and accomplishments as an advocate for anti-bullying, as well as her coming out. Daily Mail used quotes and video clips from Siwa’s Instagram Live and talked about how she did not have a label for her sexuality.

After her Instagram Live on January 23, Siwa was the victim of a criminal prank where someone called the police department, alleged that she was shooting people at her house, and a SWAT team arrived. “Swatting” has been known to be pulled on celebrities that are not liked. Social media responses to this incident were very angry, with people expressing their disappointment that a 17-year-old girl could not come out without being attacked.