ITV to track election debate reaction live online

ITV has unveiled plans to track live audience reaction to the First Election Debate online.

The first debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg is live on ITV1 tomorrow (15 April), with the broadcaster using social media to help track reaction to the event.

A Facebook Live tool will allow users to log into their Facebook account and share their reactions on ITV.com and on their Facebook friends’ news feeds, while Twitter tools – built by Tweetminster – will also be available to track the reaction to the leaders’ performance.

“A sentiment tool tracking 5,000 key Twitter users will be employed as a visual representation of what people are Tweeting about each leader, throughout the debate, in real time. An election debate Word Cloud will also highlight the frequency with which party leaders use a selection of key election words,” said ITV.

As well as using social media, ITV will also be hosting a live stream of the debate at www.itv.com/electiondebate.

An audience reaction tool called ‘The Worm’ will be displayed on the live stream video, monitoring reaction from a focus group. The Worm registers approval, disapproval or neutral feelings from the panel and shows this information on a live ‘worm graph’.

Ben McOwen Wilson, ITV director of online and interactive, said: “This is a truly historic occasion and we’re really excited to be the only site able to offer, not only a live stream of the debate, but the opportunity for our users to share their views and opinions both on ITV.com and across social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

“This is a great example of ITV feeding the increasing appetite of our users to engage with big events on the television and online simultaneously.”