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Can Social Media Predict Election Outcomes?
Contenders for the Republican presidential nomination will put social media to the test on Super Tuesday.
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are key battlegrounds for the campaigns of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul. As people interact with campaigns on these popular Web destinations, the pile of social data on voters and candidates grows.
That treasure trove of information has helped campaigns target their messages to voters and allowed technology companies to analyze social-media trends and make some predictions about Super Tuesday's winners.
USA Today's Scott Martin and Jon Swartz interviewed Lithium Principal Scientist of Analytics, Dr. Michael Wu, about the accuracy of applying complex algorithms to Twitter data, blogs, news sites, and other media for predicting political outcomes.