As war rages on in Europe, President Biden sought to unify a divided, fearful country in the annual State of the Union Address last night. While upwards of 37 Million viewers turned on their TV to watch, social media response to the president’s address was nothing short of substantial. A total of 34.94K mentions were noted across platforms from the night before the event through today. An impressive 396.85 Million feeds were reached with news regarding The Address. A shocking discrepancy in net sentiment scores reveals most participants within the social media conversation were displeased with the president’s remarks. Only 6.14% of mentions were positive while 93.86% had a negative tone.
President Biden’s first formal State of the Union address largely focused on Ukraine, inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and a four-point “Unity Agenda.” According to Domenico Montanaro, Senior Political Editor/Correspondent for NPR, “Biden urged world unity in standing up to Russia, listed ways he’s trying to address rising prices (even if they will likely have limited to no effect in the short term) and offered an optimistic outlook about the end of the pandemic. Biden made mention of some progressive policy items, such as the need for robust voting-rights legislation and stood up for transgender and abortion rights (while leaving out some other topics such as climate change).”
Kevin Liptak, political correspondent for CNN noted that Republican audiences were seemingly unimpressed with Biden’s ability to counteract inflation. Although inflation is difficult to combat for any president, “The stark divisions currently fracturing the country were just as plain Tuesday as they have been since Biden took office. His economic proposals gained almost no applause from Republicans in the audience.” Liptak notes, “In the eight months until November’s critical midterm elections, Biden isn’t likely to have a larger audience than he had Tuesday night; his message will have to resonate if he hopes to speak next year to a Congress still controlled by Democrats.”
Twitter surpassed traditional news outlets for leading the conversation surrounding the State of the Union Address with over 15.6K mentions while news sources gathered around 13.2K. Trending hashtags included #secureourborder, #foxnews, #sotu (State of the Union), and #Ukriane. These trends corelate to the larger trends in the conversation surrounding Ukraine and the large republican response to the president’s latest address.
Leaders in the conversation surrounding the State of the Union Address included CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press. While the President set the tone for the political agenda in the coming months, we are sure to receive additional responses from numerous state government officials in the coming weeks. As always, the Social Media Listening Center will keep you up to date with all of the latest trending topics.
You can listen to President Biden’s full State of the Union Address here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/
