Breathtaking Changes in the Country’s Conversations

Our analysis of what people are talking about regarding the major party Presidential candidates shows a breathtaking shift over the first six months of 2020.  Bread and butter issues, impeachment and elections dominated the conversations in January and February. There were also some third strand stories like the Biden/Tara Reade allegations in February. Then, the pandemic became a dominant topic in March and April. May shows a big change - people are still talking about the pandemic but it almost takes a backseat to issues like vote by mail and the protests resulting from the death of George Floyd. 

Starting this month, we shifted to a weekly analysis of online conversations. We find that conversations in the first week of June 2020 are dominated by the protests around the country, police use of tear gas and rubber bullets, use of the national guard, race and racism. The second week of June 2020 shows more shifts. People are now talking about funding (and defunding) for police and are back to conversations about the race for the Presidency.  It’s a rapidly changing environment.