Talk / Overview

This communication presents the results of a new monitoring project of the US presidential election with the aim of establishing computer-based tools to track the popularity of the two main candidates. The innovative methods allow us to extract the frequency of search queries sent to numerous search engines, and social media. Based on these data, this paper demonstrates that Donald Trump is significantly more frequently searched than Joe Biden. When analyzing various political topics, it is observed that the US Internet users have shown a remarkable interest in subjects like coronavirus, and jobs in 2020. Other subjects such as education, immigration or healthcare were given less attention. Some "flame" topics such as "Black lives matter" appeared to be very popular for a few days before returning to a low level of interest. The analysis of all tweets sent by both candidates confirms that the focus of this election was mainly based on the two topics.

Talk / Speakers

Jacques Savoy

Professor, University of Neuchatel

Talk / Highlights

21:36

User Monitoring of the US Presidential Election

With Jacques SavoyPublished July 29, 2021

AMLD / Global partners