PHILADELPHIA – Posting, sharing, liking, commenting: Social media is delivering more news this election cycle than ever, according to veteran news tracker Pew Research.
Facebook, with an outpost right at the convention arena, reports through primary season to conventions' end, 89 million people logged 2.9 billion likes and posts about the candidates and issues.
"Some of the top issues people are talking about in Florida over the last 30 days include things like crime, government ethics," Katie Harbath, who works for Facebook politics and government outreach said. "A lot of people talking about the FBI decisions around Secretary Clinton's emails, homeland security."
It makes sense that a news item would prompt more posts about a candidate or issue.
Florida posters talk a little more about Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton and a little more about Mike Pence than Tim Kaine.
And Facebook counts numbers, without separating positive from negative posts, so numbers translate to interest, not necessarily support.