Pew Research Center : Twitter lies
March 5, 2013 | 7:28 am
A remarkable year-long study by the Pew Research Center finds that what’s trending on Twitter, often used by national reporters to gauge immediate public opinion of news events like President Obama’s election, exaggerates to the point of lying.
The key reason: a majority of those who tweet are young Democrats, giving the social network an unbalanced view of the world. What’s more: reaction is more negative than what public polls find.
Take the reception to Obama’s reelection as an example. Pew said polling found that 52 percent of the public was “happy,” and 45 percent “unhappy.” But the Twitter reaction was 77 percent “happy,” 23 percent “unhappy.”
But there are times when the “Twitter universe” turns negative, even conservative. Here Pew offers the reaction to Obama’s second Inaugural Address. Polling found that 48 percent had a positive view of it, 22 percent a negative view. But on Twitter, 66 percent were neutral, 13 percent positive, and 21 percent negative.
https://washingtonexaminer.com/pew-twitter-lies/article/2523268