A network analysis of Twitter discussion during the first presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney was used to examine the process of public opinion formation as the debate was occurring. Hypotheses derived from network theory were tested to determine which mechanisms drive hub formation. Additional questions were examined. What user characteristics are associated with centrality in this kind of network? What roles do journalists and other media figures play? Does sentiment move toward one candidate or the other as the debate progresses? The viability of social networks as a gauge of public opinion is discussed as well as the implications for media.

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How are attitudes formed in the 21st Century, and who sets the agenda for initial COVID-19 coverage in the United States? We explore these questions using a random sample of 6 million tweets from a population of 224 million tweets collected between January 2020 and June 2020. In conjunction with a content analysis of legacy media such as newspapers, we examine the second-level agendamelding process during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The findings demonstrate that in the early weeks of the pandemic, public opinion on Twitter about the virus was distinctly different than the coverage of the issue in the traditional media. The attributes used to describe it on social media demonstrate users relying on their past experiences and personal beliefs to talk about the virus. In the 1st week of February, public opinion, traditional media, and social media converged, but traditional media soon becomes the main agenda setter of COVID-19 for 13 weeks. However, for the final 5 weeks of our sample, traditional media are taken over by social media. The findings also show that, except for a few weeks at the onset of the outbreak, Twitter users relied on their personal experiences far less than what statistical models predicted and allowed. Instead, traditional media and social media to shape their opinion of the issue.

World leaders and citizens alike use a mix of traditional (e.g. newspapers, magazines, radio, and television) and social (e.g. Twitter, and Facebook) media to redefine community in the digital age. Nations confront challenges from collectives that are asserting their voices into national and regional issues. This dynamic change is made possible by modern digital technologies that allow citizens to use a variety of media to find each other, gain social support, and articulate alternative agendas easier than at any time in history. This article, however, argues that traditional media still provide the main national agenda. But that agenda is supplemented, and in some cases even challenged, by alternative agendas persistently offered via social media. The Arab Spring is an example of how alternative agendas challenged the national agenda. This article presents the Agenda Community Attraction formula for measuring the traditional, social and personal agenda correlations. Given the changing dynamic between national and alternative agendas, social systems confront new challenges and opportunities-mainly the need to balance traditional national values with the need to allow a gradual social agenda to enrich individuals. This allows a national evolution that sensitizes and benefits national organizations. The result is gravitation toward a balance between the power of vertical, institutional society, represented by the Pyramid, and the ease and convenience of social media to convey information, such as mobile Papyrus paper allowed. This mixing of vertical power and horizontal challenge is creating a newer form of national organization, the emerging Digital Society. This new society requires more tolerance between leaders and citizens than at any time in history. Communication plays a major role, but not the only one, in this evolution, or revolution, as the case may be.

A survey of American adults was combined with a content analysis of traditional and social media sources to test the agendamelding theory. Correlation analyses indicated strong agenda-setting effects for both traditional and social media. A regression analysis indicated, among other things, that younger audiences and Democrats give more weight to social media than traditional media while Republicans generally allow their personal preferences to impact their agenda. The findings support the agendamelding theory.