It’s called Social Trends and is an application implemented by the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of Pisa to measure the popularity of personalities, parties, and news outlets on social networks.
How to measure the popularity of a public figure, a journalist, or a political party? This is where the application comes in.Social Trends, developed by theInstitute of Informatics and Telematics of the CNRin Pisa. It is a sort of social media “auditel” that, in addition to measuring the popularity of some well-known figures, including journalists, also takes into account the approval of political parties or news outlets. All this, of course, in relation to social media.
A real-time popularity meter (number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers), therefore, which shows how a personality popular onFacebook is not always equally well-known on other platforms, such as for exampleTwitter. It is clear that everything is based on different factors. Online reputation is also a result of frequent and good use of the medium, in addition to other more or less important factors. Therefore, ifBeppe Grillo (considered at the time of writing the most renowned politician) is very popular on all platforms considered (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), it does not mean that the journalistRoberto Saviano, popular onFacebook (in first place as I write), can replicate the success also onTwitter (second place) and onYouTube (a distant third place).
Social trends is not only in an Italian version. TheCNR in Pisa (this is where the NIC, the entity responsible for registering Italian domains, is located) has thought of going beyond borders. Popularity measurement, in fact, is also possible forFrance, Germany, United States e England.Â
The Social Trends application is defined as highly trustworthy by industry professionals, thanks to the neutrality of those who conceived and disseminated it (a non-profit organization). It is free and easy to navigate. The default ranking of social media is fixed at the top 10 positions, but there is a way to go beyond the top ten thanks to a dropdown menu where you can choose the number of results to display, from a maximum of 47 to a minimum of 1.
The influence of characters, political parties, or news outlets is very interesting. As can be seen, the most popular person is not always the most influential, just as a well-known figure does not always engage in the most activity on social media (another measurable factor). In fact, while Marco Travaglio is the most influential journalist with the most activity on social media, he is not in the top position for most popular journalists (Roberto Saviano).
At a glance, it emerges that, for example, the most popular journalists are those who respond well to television dynamics. In short, television journalists, as well as athletes from the most popular sports and teams with the greatest prestige, transfer the same popularity to social media, which appear to be more of a reporting medium than a truly neutral one. An identical situation applies to news outlets, with a few interesting exceptions primarily linked to the personalities associated with them.
The immaturity of the Web, still influenced by television, could be due to the young age of social platforms. Only time will tell us where the truth lies and, above all, whether the Web, and social media in particular, will remain mere tools for the most popular individuals outside the internet, or if, as hoped, they will carve out an important space among media, beyond other means of dissemination.
Pubblicato in Social Media
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