Who is Paul Ryan?

August 20, 2012 | Comments Off

Before Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate for the 2012 US presidential election, Paul Ryan was almost non-existent in social media. On any given day, only a few hundred comments were made about him.

On August 11, 2012, however, his 15 minutes of fame began with Romney’s announcement. Thousands of comments about him instantly started appearing every single day. But who is Paul Ryan and what are people saying about him? Let’s have a look at the hundreds of thousands of social media comments and find out.

The chart you see plots 23 topics of conversation according to how many people were talking about the topic  (popularity),  as well as how negative and how positive those conversations were.

The most popular topics of conversation included Mitt Romney, emotions, income, and feedback. Obviously, people are talking about Mitt Romney in relation to Paul Ryan, and those conversations are among the more positive conversations. Conversations related to emotions, e.g., “I love him,” “I hate him,” “He makes me mad,” aren’t nearly as positive.

In terms of negative conversations however, Paul is taking heat for his stance on birth control, the environment, student loans, crime, and abortions. The most important issues he is addressing are, unfortunately, generating the most negative conversations.

And finally, the most positive conversations, fundraising, pride, charity, and donations are not the real issues that Americans will be voting on. They will, of course, help to propel Ryan forward in the public eye.

Let’s see how long his 15 minutes of fame will last.

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