The University of Akron鈥檚 鈥溾�� conference held a panel today on how political scientists are using social media.
The holds the conference every four years, following a presidential election. The closing panel focused a great deal of time on what they鈥檙e are 鈥� and are not -- able to predict, especially after last year鈥檚 election.
Seth Masket is a political scientist at the and director of the . He says that following social media buzz is not as effective as the tried-and-true model of monitoring historic patterns of electoral success.
鈥淛ust following social media [and] following news reports can be really helpful for hearing what the candidates are trying to do to reach out to people [and] what sort of messages they鈥檙e working on. But generally, if I want to know how people are going to behave, honestly the political science models are still the best way to do it.鈥�
Masket adds that things like the state of the economy and presidential approval ratings have traditionally been key indicators of what happens in mid-term elections, such as the one next year.
The entire Bliss Institute panel with political scientists is available below.
