Talk by Yelena Mejova given at the First Summer School in AI at American University in Beirut on June 16, 2015. Part 1 -- Politics.

1. Language of Politics on Twitter
Summer School in AI
American University Beirut
June 16, 2015
Yelena Mejova
@yelenamm
Social Computing Group
Qatar Computing Research Institute, HBKU

2. political
twitter
analysis

5. Buzz online equals money online.
Money online equals money off-line.
Money off-line equals GOTV [get out the vote],
which equals votes.
This is a very close-knit, tied-together thing.
Vincent Harris
Ron Paul’s chief digital strategist
2015

6. You used to be able to just interact
with your five or 10 talking heads
who went and did the TV shows, and
now you’ve got an infinite number of
social-media content creators.
And how do you herd the cats?
Vincent Harris
Ron Paul’s chief digital strategist
2015

7. Elections
“the crowning of the
Internet as the king of all
political media”
“the beginning of the
Internet presidency”
bloggeruniversity.wordpress.com
- on Obama's 2008 victory
Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek

8. When counting only fundraising that was
initially generated by digital efforts,
including email, social media, mobile and
the website, the [Obama] 2012 campaign
raised $504 million, up from $403 million in
2008

9. Transparency
“Instantaneous tweeting of shady
government practices -- and the resulting
uproar -- means that public bodies are
more responsive than ever”.
- Wesley Donehue, CNN

12. Mobilization
“This exercise of power has produced a
template for political action on a massive scale
fueled by social media.”
on PIPA and SOPA
Vivek Wadhwa, Washington Post

16. Attention
Twitter is used to publicize protests that are already going
on -- and bring the world's attention to the acts of
violence committed by the regime.
There has, indeed, been a lot of criticism of the lack of
Iran-related coverage on CNN; Twitter users have even
organized an entire campaign to deal with this called
#cnnfail. I think they have been successful: CNN
executives/reporters eventually had to answer
questions about it.
on Iranian election
Evgeny Morozov, June 17, 2009
blogger for Foreign Policy

17. Reframing
Public reframing versus mainstream media

19. Can Twitter Tell Us What We're Feeling?
- Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/04/17/twitter-feeling/
What does the Twitterverse think of Warren Buffett’s secretary?
- Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/mention-machine-what-does-the-twitterverse-
think-of-warren-buffetts-secretary/2011/09/30/gIQAnlWtAL_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Twitter Indicator Could Trump Polls for 2012 Election Measurement
- Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/01/03/washington-post-twitter-elections/
Don't Bet On Social Media Picking Super Tuesday Winners
- ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dont_bet_on_social_media_picking_super_tuesday_win.php
Twitter Cannot Predict Elections Either
- Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427807/twitter-cannot-predict-elections-either/
Twitter, Politics Don't Mix: Social Media Sites Not A Popular Source For
Political Info: Pew
- Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/07/twitter-politics-campaign-news-pew_n_1260057.html
19

20. questions
what do people really think about
issues/politicians?
who are the opinion leaders?
how will people vote?
how does traditional media affect people’s political
views?
what is traditional media missing/ignoring?
how can media or politicians sway political opinion?

21. next
twitter data:
what is it? how to get it?
how to process it?
NOW
If you don’t have one, get a Twitter account
or sit by somebody who has one