A Roast or Evisceration?: (Social Media) Posts from the Edge of the Las Vegas Debate
Last night, six Democrats took the stage to debate one another in Las Vegas. Five of the candidates were familiar sites to recent debate watchers. But there was a newcomer among them. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg got into the race in November and has spent more than $300 million dollars since announcing. This has allowed him to skip the early states, skip much of the scrutiny of the earlier debates, and control the messaging from the comfort of his Gotham townhouse. But all of that ended yesterday when the half dozen major contenders for the Democratic contest got together.
You can go many other places to learn more about what happened at the last debate and what analysis is available. But few places will give you the bird’s eye view of how the public felt about the debate. For more insight, we go to Social Studio where we find that some of the most common words of the night were “evisceration” and “roast”…which is probably not a good sign for someone such as Mayor Bloomberg.
Words people use to describe the 2020 Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Source: Social Studio
A review of the feed (the total collection of Tweets, articles, postings, etc. aggregated by the search terms) suggests that one person did the skewering and one other in particular was skewered. Senator Elizabeth Warren is having what some users are calling “a performance for the ages” or saying that “Bernie Sanders may be the Democratic frontrunner, but you wouldn’t know it from the debate.”
While Warren received the bulk of the praise, it was Bloomberg who was seen as taking the most heat and “evisceration” of the group. It’s not a happy place for someone who has spent hundreds of million of dollars to be. Although Warren and Bloomberg were discussed the most, they did not get all of the Social Studio spotlight. References to President Trump and allied individuals who released pigeons in mini MAGA hats outside of the debate venue is a reminder of how big the incumbent president looms over these proceedings. Public opinion will eventually decide who will be the party nominees and the next president, but public opinion along the way is helpful to know as well.
Social Studio can be very helpful in understanding public opinion about an event such as a debate. For one, you can use the system to download as many as 500,000 tweets a day which can help you get a generalizable sense of what people are saying about any given topic. Also, you can sort responses by nation of origin, language, age of user, gender of user, and numerous other factors. You are also able to take a closer look at hashtags being used throughout the debate and its discussion. If you want to learn more about how to use Social Studio to capture information on a major event such as a presidential debate, speak to a Social Studio staffer today!