ABC News Taps Social Media Analytics Company Bluefin Labs For Election Coverage

By Alex Weprin 

ABC News is collaborating with the MIT-spawned social media analysts company Bluefin Labs for its 2012 election coverage. As part of the agreement, ABC will have exclusive access to data visualization provided by Bluefin during a number of key election events, including debates, the party conventions and election night itself.

ABC and Bluefin have been experimenting with how to present the data over the last few months, including on ABC’s “This Week”:

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More information, after the jump.

ABC News and Bluefin Labs will Collaborate for Social TV Analysis of Major Events in the 2012 Campaign

New York – ABC News and Bluefin Labs announce a collaboration for coverage of key nights in the 2012 presidential campaign including on-air use of social media insights, analytics and data visualizations during ABC News broadcasts of Super Tuesday, the presidential and vice presidential debates, the Republican and Democratic conventions, Election Night and the inauguration. Since the launch of ABC News’ Political Stock Market in November, Bluefin Labs’ leading Social TV analytics technology has given ABC News viewers real-time assessment of how voters are reacting to every twist and turn in an ever-changing presidential primary.

Data visualizations of social conversations and sentiment have also been used on air like never before. As these historic nights unfold, Bluefin Labs will be monitoring public reaction to televised events and providing real time feedback to ABC News anchors, correspondents and producers giving ABC News viewers one more way to see the whole picture.

Bluefin Labs’ technology, grounded in over 15 years of research at the MIT Media Lab, provides a real-time view into social media conversations about TV – volume of social buzz, topics of conversation, sentiment, and trends. This technology allows ABC News to tap into voters’ reactions and bring TV viewers into the conversation like never before.

Bluefin Labs representatives will also be on site for ABC News broadcasts and will have key contributions to ABC News Digital stories. Here are some examples of how ABC News has already integrated Bluefin Labs’ data visualizations and analysis into broadcast coverage of events – from presidential debates to the Super Bowl.

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