Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy

With Election Over, Illuminating Team Looks to the Future

Wednesday, November 9, 2016, By J.D. Ross
Share
politicsSchool of Information Studies
person at podium

Professor Jennifer Strome-Galley explains how the Illuminating 2016 project gathered social media data from presidential candidates.

Faculty, staff and students from across Syracuse University gathered in Hinds Hall yesterday to spend part of election night listening to a panel discussion led by School of Information Studies (iSchool) researchers working on the Illuminating 2016 research project.

Headed by Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Illuminating 2016 seeks to understand what indicators across social media can be used to determine support for presidential candidates.

To achieve their objective, iSchool researchers have built a tool that has been collecting Facebook and Twitter messages and images posted by major party presidential candidates.

They have also collected Facebook comments, and retweets and mentions on Twitter.

Tuesday night’s panel discussion examined the data collected by the project researchers, and provided interpretation about what the candidates and their supporters have said across social media since the election cycle kicked off nearly 18 months ago.

With the dust now settling on the 2016 presidential election, Stromer-Galley and her team of researchers, including iSchool faculty members Jeff Hemsley, Bryan Semaan, and Nancy McCracken, are setting their sights on the future of their social media data gathering platform, and figuring out how to apply what they learned to improve their system.

“I think one of the most important things that we learned during this election cycle is that popular public perceptions of what the candidates are doing on social media don’t square with how they’re actually behaving on these platforms,” explained Stromer-Galley. “For instance, our data showed us that Hillary Clinton used attack language more often on social media, but the public perception is that Trump was the one who was attacking more.”

Stromer-Galley believes that the system of social listening and the other measures of engagement that the team is building could eventually allow them to identify shifts of public perception around political candidates.

“It may take us a few more election cycles,” she noted, “we’ll do this again in 2018 and 2020. It’s been harder to be accurate with the public’s discussion, as they’re more complex with how they talk, and it requires a lot more attention and work to get a level of accuracy we’re confident with, as compared to just tracking the candidates.”

Among some of Stromer-Galley’s future plans for the Illuminating system are expanding its capabilities to do processing and computational analysis of images included in social media postings. Right now, the system only evaluates text posts.

“We’ll also be fine tuning our algorithms, tweaking some of the aspects of our machine learning, and we’ll point the tool back at politics, of course,” said Stromer-Galley, “but there are also other areas besides politics, like crisis communications or natural disasters, where we think the tool can be useful as well.

The team is also interested in working with journalists to encourage them to use the website in their research and reporting.

“The journalists we’ve talked with have been interested in the site, and they think it’s useful, but we haven’t yet figured out how to get them to integrate it into their journalism practices,” she explained. “We’re looking for ways that we can better address the needs of journalists with this tool.”

Although the election is over, the Illuminating 2016 website will still continue to display the data collected from the major campaigns over the cycle. To learn more, visit: illuminating.ischool.syr.edu.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

J.D. Ross

  • Jennifer Stromer-Galley

  • Jeff Hemsley

  • Recent
  • SummerStart to Relaunch with Expanded Programming and Partnerships
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021, By Shannon Andre
  • LaunchPad Students Launch ‘The Commute to Class’ Podcast Series
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021, By Cristina Hatem
  • Updates Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Availability for Eligible Faculty and Staff
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021, By News Staff
  • Remote Tutoring Program Offers a Valuable Virtual Learning Experience for K-12, Early College Students in CNY
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • Four School of Architecture Alumni Elevated to AIA College of Fellows
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021, By Julie Sharkey

More In Media, Law & Policy

‘Is Election Disinformation Free Speech or Defamation? Courts Will Decide’

Roy Gutterman, associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech in the Newhouse School, wrote an op-ed for Syracuse.com titled “Is election disinformation free speech or defamation? Courts will decide.” Gutterman,…

Hilda A. Frimpong Becomes the First Black Student to Lead Syracuse Law Review

Second-year College of Law student Hilda A. Frimpong has been elected by her peers as the next editor in chief of Syracuse Law Review. When she assumes her duties for Volume 72 (2021-22), Frimpong will be the first Black student…

‘8 Tips for Grad Students for Planning in 2021’

Timur Hammond, assistant professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School, wrote an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed titled “8 Tips for Grad Students for Planning in 2021.” Hammond also serves as a faculty liaison for the Future…

‘What’s the Point of Impeachment? ‘To Lay Down a Marker for History’’

Thomas Keck, the Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics and professor of political science in the Maxwell School, wrote an op-ed for Syracuse.com titled “What’s the point of impeachment? ‘To lay down a marker for history.’” Keck,…

Faricy Explores Public Perceptions of Welfare via the US Tax Code

In their new book, “The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures” (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021), Syracuse University professor Christopher Faricy and Bucknell University professor Christopher Ellis examine how public opinion differs between two types of…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.