9,843,849 Media Mentions: Recap of The Democratic National Convention

After more than a year of intra-party wrangling, primary skirmishes and unpredictable results, Campaign 2016 moved into general election mode with the conclusion of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Last week, we looked at the metrics from the RNC confab in Cleveland, which gave nominee Donald Trump a boost in the polls, but left some lingering doubts about his party’s willingness to unite behind him.

For Hillary Clinton, her party’s gathering in Philadelphia included some highly touted speeches, and an attempt to wrest foreign policy and patriotism from the Republicans. As Clinton tried to reposition herself for the last 100 days before Election Day, social and traditional media responded with rabid interest and attention on the convention.

According to Zignal Labs analytics, Social Media interest was much stronger during the Democratic Convention than the Republican gathering in Cleveland. Zignal Labs tracked about 6.4 million media mentions of the RNC, compared to more than 9.8 million mentions of the Democratic Convention.

Viewing the conventions through the media coverage, it looks like Democrats were more successful in keeping their convention on message. The most talked about moments of the Democratic conventions were the speeches from Michelle and Barack Obama. The Republican Convention, meanwhile, was dominated by Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump and allegations of plagiarism in Melania Trump’s convention address.

Since the conventions, Trump has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his comments about Khizr and Ghazala Khan, a Muslim couple whose son served in the military and was killed in Iraq. The Khan kerfuffle has dominated the news since the end of the DNC, but here is a look at the most talked about moments and speakers of the Democratic convention during the four days of the convention itself:

As for Clinton’s big speech, it was received very differently by Republicans as it was by Democrats. These two emoji clouds show how partisans reacted to the Democratic nominee’s address Thursday night. Consternation and thumbs down from the Republicans. Love and thumbs up from the Democrats.

But Trump did show some ability to break through the pro-Democratic bend of the media chatter. Here is a look at the most retweeted DNC-related posts:

July may well have been a pivot point in this long, strange trip of a presidential campaign, but there are undoubtedly many unexpected twists and turns to come. As the campaign and this story continues to develop, Zignal Labs will continue to monitor and analyze the media reaction to the most unorthodox presidential election of our lifetimes.