A week late but heat on Texas senatorial debate is still high and only rising, so I thought I’d try and satisfy a curiosity — Is there a spike in biased content online for the incumbent, as we approach midterm election day? And if so, where do you start identifying it.
Below is a quick visual comprised of (1) volume of mentions of each candidate by commonly used name, across channels, in isolation; (2) how the sentiment of content pertaining to each candidate around the specific topic of immigration is tracking.
Note: Twitter is the majorly dominant channel on which the conversation is taking place. No big surprise.
At a glance, mentions of Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in isolation have spiked significantly the week of October 12th leading up to the second debate between the candidates, far outpacing mentions of Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the media overall. Maybe there is some truth to the theory that politically motivated speech was systematically posted online at this time.
Secondly, when looking at sentiment around the topic of immigration as it pertains to this race, it being a selected “divisive” issue, integral to the GOP’s preservation of a congressional majority in southern states (Despite recent historical evidence of the Democratic party being tough on immigration), as related to Cruz there’s a spike in sentiment nearing the day of the second debate. One interpretation that requires further investigation is whether a strategic inundation of content related to Cruz was comprised of broadly positive affirmations of his stance on the issue, with or without drawing comparisons to Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke. If so, where did they originate and gain traction…
Tons more info to look into. As we accept that today’s mass communications tools have been used for influence operations, especially focusing on divisive topics nearing the 2016 US presidential election, we call on ourselves to flex our understanding of the tools and methods of communications applied to these manipulative aims, and thus confront our societal concerns.
