ABC News and Bluefin Labs has announced that they will collaborate on the analysis of social media trends during the network's broadcast coverage of key events during the 2012 presidential campaign.
The agreement is another sign of the growing importance of social media in the coverage of this year's election cycle and the fact that data visualizations of social conversations and sentiment are playing a much larger part of the coverage.
As part of its work with Bluefin, ABC News will use Bluefin's social media insights, analytics and data visualizations during the network's news broadcasts of Super Tuesday, the presidential and vice presidential debates, the Republican and Democratic conventions, Election Night and the inauguration.
In addition to the Bluefin analytic tools, representatives of Bluefin Labs representatives will be on-site during the ABC News broadcasts and will make key contributions to ABC News Digital stories, ABC News reported in its announcement.
ABC and Bluefin are already working together on the ABC News' Political Stock Market, which launched in November. That draws on Bluefin Labs' Social TV analytics technology to provide real-time assessment of how voters are reacting to new developments in the presidential primaries.
Findings from Bluefin analytical tools and findings have also been used on such shows as This Week with George Stephanopoulos following the ABC News New Hampshire Republican Debate on Jan. 8.
Good Morning America, also used Bluefin data to discuss the public reaction to the New York Giants Super Bowl win Monday, Feb. 6.
