NEW ENERGY WASN’T IN ELECTION CHATTER

Facebook, Politics and the Midterms

Dante Chinni, Natalie Andrews and Matt Stiles, November 3, 2014 (Wall Street Journal)

"The political talk about energy and the environment on Facebook may be most notable for where it [wasn’t]. There [were] no House districts in Texas or Louisiana (big energy producing states) where those topics even made up 6% of the Facebook political conversations…In Facebook’s analysis, energy and environment conversations concerned topics such as ‘climate change, fracking, renewable energy’…[The map shows] the topic largely missed areas where energy extraction is a big or contentious issue…[T]he top district for energy and environment discussions [was] New York’s sixth district in Queens, which sits far from big oil and gas territory…There [were] a few places where the chatter [seemed] more tied to larger energy/environment debate [such as Colorado where oil and gas production is a big business]…[On] the top 100 districts for energy and environment chatter on Facebook – some more obvious places appear, including North Dakota (where an energy boom has fundamentally changed the eastern part of the state) and Pennsylvania’s third, fifth and twelfth districts (where much fracking has been a big topic) and West Virginia’s first and second districts (coal country)…[But of the] bottom 100 House districts for energy/environment political talk on Facebook, more than a quarter, 26, [were] in Texas and [other] major energy producing areas…” click here for more

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