Rep. Weiner Media Analysis

8/6/2019 Rep. Weiner Media Analysis

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Prepared for: Members of the Media

Delivered: Tuesday, June 7, 2011

OhMyGov Inc

T 703-243-3461

www.consulting ohmygov.com

OhMyGov Inc. Anthony Weiner Twitter Analysis

http://www.ohmygov.com/




This report identifies patterns of behavior in Rep. Anthony Weiner’s

Twitter account, including where, when, and how he tweeted, and to

whom he most frequently tweeted. Overall, a pattern of tweeting during

non-business hours and to young women emerged. The analysis endswith an account of the public’s reaction on social media to the news

cycle surrounding “weinergate,” from May 27th to June 7th. Public

support waxed and waned along with the news cycle, concluding with a

mix of positive and negative support on June 7th.

Summary of Findings



Introduction

While members of the media are covering the story of Congressman Weiner’s

online affairs, OhMyGov Inc. staff examined some of the patterns in Anthony

Weiner’s Twitter usage and the public’s reactions to the story as it progressed over

a ten day period, from the evening of May 27th, 2011 when Rep. Weiner first

tweeted out a picture of his crotch, to June 6th, when he confessed to sending

the picture and others to various women he met online, and in the media wake

that followed on June 7th.

Platforms Used

While House Ethics Committee prepares its

investigation into Anthony Weiner’s behavior

to determine whether he violated any

House ethics rules in using government

computers or devices or tweeted graphic

photos during working hours, OhMyGov

e x a m i n e d p a t t e r n s i n p l a t f o r m s

Congressman Weiner used over the past

year. Use of the photo sharing site, Yfrog,

was particularly interesting, as that was the

means by which the Congressman sent the

illicit photos of himself.

Figure 1 to the right shows the percentage of time

each platform was used to send the Congressman’s

tweets from November 2010 through March 2011. Tweets were mostly sent from

the Twitter website (64%) and from the Congressman’s Blackberry (33%). Onepercent of tweets were sent via Yfrog, Tweedeck, and Twitter buttons,

respectively.

OhMyGov Inc. Analytics!

Web

Twitter for BB

Twitter Button

Tweetdeck

Yfrog

1%1%1%

33%

64%

Figure 1



April 2010 - Present

Platform use patterns changed mildly from April 1, 2010 onward, where

Tweetdeck was used to send 46% of tweets. Rep. Weiner used his Blackberry to

send tweets 24% of the time and sent 29% of tweets directly through Twitter.

Very few times did the Congressman use Yfrog, or if he did, those messages were

not available for public consumption.

Use Patterns

Part of the danger of using social media, as Rep. Weiner will attest, is that a

thoughtless comment can go viral and be spread around the world within a matter

of minutes. As such, patterns of behavior in using social media can be an

indicator of what the user’s intentions are, or in this case, were. During daytime

hours, one would expect more professionally-focused information to be

communicated via Twitter, irrespective of whether you are a Congressman or

consultant. But at night, as people let their guards down, tweets will typically

become more casual.

In analyzing @repweiner’s twitter usage, some interesting patterns emerged. While

the Congressman spent the majority of his tweeting time during the weekdays, he

continued to tweet a fair amount on the weekends, potentially exposing himself to

the type of casual behavior that led to his June 6th admission of guilt.

Web

Twitter for BB

Twitter Button

Tweetdeck

46%

1%24%

29%


Figure 2



Digging deeper, we see in Figure 4 below that the Congressman also had a habit

of sending late night tweets from his Twitter account. Although the majority of

tweets were sent out during the day, 18% of tweets were sent after 7pm at night,

including the infamous tweet to @gennettenicole containing a picture of Rep.

Weiner’s crotch, which went out at 23:31 (11:31pm).

Mon

Tues

Wed

Thur

Fri

Sat

Sun

0 12.5 25.0 37.5 50.0

Figure 3. Percent of Tweets Sent by Day of the Week

@repweiner




The pattern varies slightly over the past few months (Figure 5), although the

Congressman still consistently tweeted messages late into the evening.

0

7.5

15.0

22.5

30.0

0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200

Figure 4. Percent of Tweets Sent by Time of Day (Military) Nov 2010 - March

@repweiner




Even more interesting, perhaps, is who Rep. Weiner was sending tweets to most

often. Because of the large volume of tweets sent out, we are only able toexamine those receiving tweets from the Congressman most frequently. To control

for tweets sent to the media and other politicians to self-promote his issues, we

eliminated media outlets, politicians and their staff from our analysis. The results

are displayed below.

0

2.5

5.0

7.5

10.0

0600 0800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200

Figure 5. Percent of Tweets Sent by Time of Day (Military) April - June 20

@repweiner




@cheeriogrrrl

@ConsentHousecat

@creepus

@alexmce

@rjgnyc

@HouseSox

@sassbutt

@ettingerdesign

@jazzcattrio

@38_28_38

@IamGoldie22

@lizzhay

@PolitiBitch

@LT425

@charyl

@EmVandermeulen

@kknapp1

@blackbirdfly411

0 1.25 2.50 3.75 5.00

Figure 6. Percent of Tweets Sent to Frequent Contacts

@repweiner


@38_28_38

@charyl@sassbutt

@alexmce

@Knapp1



Public Reaction to Weinergate

Public reaction to Anthony Weiner’s denials, accusations, and admittance has

varied wildly over the course of this two-week saga. In lieu of public polling, which

is often biased by demographics, timing, and the likelihood a person will agree to

be polled while resting comfortably at home, OhMyGov tracks real-time reactions

to events on social media. These reactions can take the form of liking or unliking a

Representative’s facebook page, posting comments to social media, or choosing

to follow/unfollow the Congressman’s twitter account. Very often, these reactions

mirror those seen in approval ratings and provide a useful for tool for analyzing

how the public is reacting to a situation in real-time on a much more massive

scale than polling can provide.

Figure 7 below shows how the public reacted to various news stories about the

graphic photos sent out on Twitter by Rep. Weiner.


“Social media

provides a way to analyze the

public’s

reaction to

events in real-

time.”



The graph shows trends in the Congressman’s support on Facebook and Twitter.

Each plot represents the net number of new Facebook fans and Twitter followers

added to Rep. Weiner’s social media accounts daily. The pattern shows how the

public reacted to various news threads. As the public became convinced of his

innocence and the likelihood that his account was indeed hacked, users of social

media flocked to support Rep. Weiner on social media properties. But as the

interviews continued and journalists pushed for answers, there was a steep drop

in support, showing that the public was also becoming skeptical that Rep. Weiner

was telling the truth.

When the news finally broke that Weiner admitted sending pictures over the Web,

there was a small pop in public support by those moved by his apologetic

speech, and those who were convinced he was still trustworthy enough to

perform his duties in office.

Public Sentiment

In the aftermath of Weiner’s confession, nearly 2,000 comments circulated daily

on Twitter about the Congressman. Surprisingly, the breakdown of positive vs

negative comments was nearly equal. The vast majority of comments on Twitter

were simply circulating the news about the events, and were thus neutral in tone.

Over 50% of all tweets made some mention of his resignation, with many

questioning whether that will be the next step to this chain of events.

Among those calling for his resignation on social media were members of

Congress, including the Speaker of the House.




About OhMyGov Inc.

OhMyGov Inc. is a non-partisan, Virginia-based media and technology firm

dedicated to improving public sector communications through news and digital

productivity tools.

This analysis was made possible by the National Science Foundation, which

provides grant funding to OhMyGov Inc. to create digital tools to evaluate and

enhance communications within the government and political community.

About the Author

Andrew B. Einhorn is the CEO and Cofounder of

OhMyGov Inc. and a public health and communications

consultant with a decade of industry experience.

Mr. Einhorn heads research and development efforts of a

National Science Foundation-funded media monitoring

platform created exclusively for government. As an

adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, Mr.

Einhorn’s research interests included the application of

new and social media to health communications. As a

consultant and former Senior Associate at ICF International, Mr. Einhorn supplied

technical assistance and social media strategy and support to a wide variety of

public and private sector clients.

Mr. Einhorn is a published author and columnist for the Huffington Post, and has

spoken about his varying experiences on international cable news networks andsyndicated radio shows. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Emory

University and a Masters of Engineering Management from The George

Washington University

Available for media interviews.

For more information, visit http://consulting.ohmygov.com or the

award-winning political blog at www.ohmygov.com.



http://consulting.ohmygov.com/





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