ITV to track online reactions to tonight's election debate
- Added:
- Apr 15, 2010
ITV is to run online coverage alongside its live prime-ministerial debate tonight, using 'sentiment tools' to show reaction of audience and Twitter users.
Audience response to the leaders' debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will be displayed online via a 'worm' sentiment tracker.
The broadcaster is hosting the first of three prime-ministerial debate tonight (followed by Sky and the BBC later this month).
Viewers can watch the debate live at www.itv.com/electiondebate.
A Twitter tool, created by the political aggregator Tweetminster, will track posts by 5,000 selected Twitter users.
The tool labels the tweets about each leader on a "sentiment" scale of 1 to 5, which will be aggregated to give an overall minute-by-minute impression of what the Twitterati think about each leader during the debate.
A picture of each of the leaders will have a score next to it with an arrow, pointing up or down, to track current sentiment.
There will also be a Facebook Live tool that will allow users of the social networking website to share comments that appear on itv.com as well as on their friends' news feeds.
Alongside a live stream of the debate, which will be aired on ITV1, an audience reaction tool called "The Worm" will track the impressions of an ITV News panel.
The panel will use handheld devices to register their impressions, which will be shown in conjunction with the live video stream as a "worm graph".
ITV will also host a live online chat about the debates, giving commentary and posting key quotes from the leaders. Users will be able to submit their views, although they will be moderated.
Ben McOwen Wilson, director of online and interactive at ITV, said: "We are really excited to be the only site able to offer, not only a live stream of the debate, but the opportunity for our users to share their views and opinions both on ITV.com and across social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
"This is a great example of ITV feeding the increasing appetite of our users to engage with big events on the television and online simultaneously."
Following the live stream, the debate will be available in full on both the ITV Player and the ITV1 You Tube channel in the UK and internationally.
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