The internet jumped into 2016 with a splash only fitting for a new year. There was a lot to talk about this week, but two emerging themes we saw were television and politics (what else is new?).
So sit back and relax while you take in the week that has been, the first week of 2016, through the lens of online discussion.
As if Netflix hadn't taken over your life enough, it's now #Everywhere
Netflix used their time in front of the CES audience to announce that they would be available in an additional 130 countries. The very relevant hashtag that accompanied this announcement was #NetflixEverywhere, and fittingly, accumulated around 23K mentions.
As is normally the case, the United States led this conversation with 42% of all contribution - although it generally holds a majority share in the 80 and 90 percentiles. The UK, Saudi Arabia and India all accounted for 4% a piece.
When we look at countries that contributed additional significant mentions we can see that Brazil and Indonesia were stoked about the announcement as well.
Looking at the top hashtags that appeared in the #NetflixEverywhere conversation we can see which programs tweeters are most excited about, and it appears that Orange Is The New Black is the most anticipated with the hashtag #OITNB accruing more than 9 million impressions.
Now that Netflix is coming to a screen even nearer you, you'll be able to binge on the show that is the focus of this update's next segment.
What's that Netflix series everyone is talking about right now called? Oh yeah...
Since "Making a Murderer" premiered on December 18 it has been mentioned more than 443K times online. You can see that mentions have really increased starting on January 4 (nearly 320K mentions since the 4th).
The sentiment around "Making a Murderer" is quite close to even. Negative mentions account for 56% of all sentiment-categorized mentions. The reasoning for the close sentiment gap is due to how people are talking about the series, and what happened therein. Many positive mentions concern themselves with how people enjoyed the series as a whole. Negative mentions are primarily directed at the criminal justice system in this particular case.
It is fair to say that the media have been captivated by "Making a Murderer." Since December 18, "Making a Murderer" has been mentioned around 5,700 times in online news publications (peak mentions within online news outlets occurred on Jan. 5 with more than 1,000 mentions).
This series has struck men and women evenly, as unique Twitter authorship is at a 50/50 split across gender.
I think it is important to point out that #FreeStevenAvery occurred naturally within this conversation's top hashtags, accumulating nearly 9 million impressions.
Netflix doesn't release its ratings like traditional networks, but if the social discussion can serve as any indicator Netflix originals like "Making a Murderer" seem to be streaming all the time.
Ladies Love The Bachelor
I think the saying goes something like, "New year, new season of The Bachelor," right? Perhaps I'm a bit confused, but the season premiere of "The Bachelor" caused quite a stir as it accumulated around 41K online mentions.
It's fair to say that the premiere was a smash, as 73% of sentiment-categorized mentions were positive, but would you expect anything less from a show that has a dedicated following that refer to themselves as #BachelorNation. This particular hashtag actually accrued more than 1,000 tweets for over 5 million impressions.
Ladies dominated this conversation as women accounted for 77% of unique Twitter authors.
The topics that mattered the most to the viewers appear to be this season's contestants as many of the hopefuls' names made their way into this major topics cloud broken down by gender.
Nothing more American than "The Bachelor," and that is the best segue-way into this post's next theme: politics.
People Are Talking About Donald Trump for a Change
Donald Trump has made some statements that have lead to social media meltdowns, but I'm not entirely certain this quasi-meltdown was warranted. The tweet in question is:
The upshot of this tweet was a mass of people questioning Trump's geographic knowledge. So much so that it sparked 25K mentions.
The conversation is overwhelmingly negative as 89% of sentiment-categorized mentions are negative. I'm not certain that a possible syntax error deserves this much blowback.
Mentions were spread considerably even across gender as men hold a slight majority of unique Twitter authorship at 55%.
You can see that people started talking about other foreign countries within this conversation as Morocco and Mexico found their way into the main topic cloud that's broken down across gender.
This must be a syntax error, or is it? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see Trump's response when asked about this tweet.
This Week's Political Focus Sets Upon Firearms
On Tuesday President Obama shared the overview of his executive orders on gun control in a press conference. This being such a passionately debated topic within the country led to 294K mentions of the hashtag #StopGunViolence.
Both sides of this debate, from all over the country, took to social media to share their opinions of the president's intentions. You can see which states shouted the loudest when using the #StopGunViolence hashtag in the chart below.
California, New York and Texas lead all states, but you must consider the large populations that call those states home. Florida, the District of Columbia, Illinois and Pennsylvania had a lot to say, too.
Whether you support the actions being proposed by the president, or not, it is clear that he is completely behind his executive orders as President Obama is at the very center of this discussion.
To see how presidential candidates and their supporters are talking about this issue and others, visit our real-time, data visualization that examines the online conversation revolving around each 2016 presidential hopeful.
Brandwatch is releasing a monthly newsletter around the 2016 presidential election social conversation. Email [email protected] to subscribe.