SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse University students are teaming up to analyze what may be the biggest election of their generation. How? Through the iSchool’s Illuminating project. Illuminating is a computational journalism project aimed at helping journalists cover social media during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Hailey Womer, a junior at Syracuse University studying public relations and political science, is heavily involved in the project. She handles everything from advertisement analysis to social media correspondence.
“With the Illuminating Project, I’m directly influencing journalists and analyzing the campaign ads,” Womer said. “I am pretty much tweeting all day every day… analyzing demographics, message type, topic, tone, ages, that each one of the campaign ads is targeting.”
Her goal is to provide comprehensive analysis of the content and character of each candidate’s campaign. Womer and her team created an interactive database which they consistently update. The database tracks and analyses the candidate’s social media and advertisement activity.
Womer, like many Americans, had her sights set on the 2020 Presidential Election; but, her calling may have come a little sooner.
“Once the 2016 election happened, I couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore,” she said. “I remember saying to my mom, ‘In 2020, I’m going to be a part of this.’”
Womer said she is proud she kept the promise she made, working directly with this year’s election.
While she is focusing on advertising and social media analysis of the campaigns right now, Womer said she is not too sure what the future will have in store. One thing is for sure, she wants to make a difference.
“I’m driven by the fact that we really can change the lives of people whether its one life or the lives of millions,” she said.
For more information on the Illuminating project, you can visit https://illuminating.ischool.syr.edu/.
