Will Obama win the 2012 presidential election?
According to a map from the Oxford Internet Institute, the current U.S. commander-in-chief has been mentioned more frequently than Mitt Romney on Twitter, and will, therefore, win the race to the White House.
The map (seen below) predicts which states will swing toward the right or left by using geocoded tweets that reference all the candidates names.
Click here to see the interactive version of the map: [via The Guadian]
"There are a total of 132,771 tweets mentioning Obama and 120,637 mentioning Romney, giving Obama only 52.4% of the total (and Romney 47.6%)," researcher Mark Graham states on his blog. He acknowledges that these numbers are "remarkably similar to current opinion polls." Still, he doubts Twitter will accurately predict some states' political views but notes his data does reveal who the nation prefers discussing.
The map is a product of Graham, Adham Tamer, Ning Wang and Scott Hale. Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, the team analyzed 30 million geocoded tweets that mentioned either Romney or Obama. It should be noted that information for Alaska and Hawaii were not included in these data.
Do you believe Twitter can accurately predict the election? Sounds off in the comments section or tweet us your thoughts at [@HuffPostTech]. Then learn why some people are giving up social media for election day (here).
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