Rolliapp Launches Election Social Media Dashboard

Aug. 6, 2024

Aug 06, 2024

Editor’s note: Today’s newsletter is about a new dashboard for tracking presidential election social media created by Rolliapp, which is a sponsor of this newsletter and JournalistsToolbox.ai

One-hundred days before Election Day, Rolliapp launched a MUCH needed tool: a new elections dashboard that tracks social media engagement from presidential candidates and others. Much of the focus is on X/Twitter but it touches on may other areas as well.

The dashboard (above) features line charts. area charts and many other easy-to-understand visuals to interpret social media behaviors about the presidential election. This dashboard is an extension of Rolli’s Information Tracer integration, created by developer Zhouhan Chen.

Nick Toso, a former CNN producer, founded Rolliapp as a search tool for finding expert sources. He later partnered with Chen to extend searches to topics in social channels, just in time for the Democratic and Republican primaries.

That tool, which is free for journalists, tracks suspicious patterns and accounts on social channels such as X/Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. With X/Twitter, it classifies accounts into four categories: individual, media, organization and bots. The latter is a valuable tool for journalists flagging bot accounts on a particular subject. The tool works well for global, national and even local topics and issues, including hashtag searches.

The election dashboard is more hyperfocused, giving us insights on the official presidential and VP candidate accounts. One of the most useful sections is the “Daily Sentiment Analysis” of candidate X/Twitter accounts (see image above). It groups posts into positive, negative and neutral categories. Lower on the dashboard, it lists top posters writing about candidates on X/Twitter.

Below is a video on how to set up your initial Rolli account and how to use it. Once you’re done with that, open the election dashboard and you are ready to roll.

ICYMI: SearchGPT Signup

As you have probably heard, OpenAI has announced the launch of SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine designed to deliver real-time information from the web. You can sign up as a beta-tester and try it out. From what I’ve heard, it’s a similar approach to Perplexity, which delivers a mix of LLM-driven content and web search results. Once I start using it, I’ll have more to share in future newsletters.

ICYMI 2: Reuters Digital News Report

The Reuters Digital News Report 2024 dropped a couple of weeks ago. You can read it here or watch a two-minute video highlighting key points.

My favorite part of the report is the country-by-country stats on trust in news. For instance, trust in news in Argentina has dropped 32 percentage points in the past year, and things are going well in the United States, either.

You also can look pack to previous Reuters reports dating back to 2012.

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Sponsor

Free! Power your election coverage with deep insights from the 2024 Election Dashboard. Analyze trends, online engagement patterns, topic spreads, and more!

Click here or visit rolliapp.com/election-2024.

Unlock Rolli's AI tools for journalists with code: “JOURNOAI” at Rolli.ai

Become a sponsor: Would you like to sponsor future Journalist’s Toolbox™ newsletters? Our rates are reasonable and our sponsors get results. Contact me at mikereilley1 [at] gmail [dot] com

Free Election Tools Training Sessions

RTDNA and Google have teamed up to launch an election fact-checking training program targeted to broadcast and digital newsrooms, the organizations announced on Monday. The trainings, which last one to three hours, can be taught in-person or over Zoom. Once you decide when, where and which trainer you want, you can fill out a form linked off the program’s web page. The program costs nothing; Google covers the trainers’ time and travel costs.

ONA/Microsoft AI in Journalism Initiative

You can still sign up for the Online News Association/Microsoft AI in Journalism Initiative training program. The trainings are free for ONA members and $25 for non-members. You can register for the training here.

The next training is Aug. 8 on AI data journalism tools.

Textbooks

The Journalist’s Toolbox

My new book, “The Journalist’s Toolbox A Guide to Digital Reporting and AI” will be published by Routledge in December. You can order it here.

Data + Journalism

Samantha Sunne and I co-authored a textbook, “Data + Journalism” that’s available now on Routledge. (Order here). It’s an introductory- to intermediate-level guide to learning data storytelling from A to Z.

In Quotes …

“Responsible AI is not just about liability — it's about ensuring what you are building is enabling human flourishing.” - Rumann Chowdry, CEO at Parity AI, 2023

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