Tracking the issues

This chart below reflects the total volume of online conversation across five issues areas: environment, education, the economy, healthcare and defense. Rather than count all mentions of a given set of keywords, PoliPulse aims to spot trends over time and highlight pivot points in the online conversations. Using a proprietary algorithm from Crimson Hexagon to identify statistical patterns in the words used in the vast social Internet (blog posts, online forums — even tweets), PoliPulse seeks to deliver a clear understanding of the nature of the online conversation.

Our intention is to deliver a daily snapshot how engaged observers feel about current political issues. We hope you'll find the charts useful as a reflection of trends that may be developing across the political landscape.

When displaying the percentages, we've rounded each day's results to the nearest whole number — as a result, the numbers may not always add up to exactly 100 percent.