MONTCLAIR — People want Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to be happy.
At least that’s what a team of faculty at Montclair State University determined after analyzing social media data during Sunday’s NFL primetime game between the host New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs.
The early season game took on added significance due to the evolving relationship between pop icon Swift and Chiefs star tight end Kelce that has dominated the social media conversation since Swift attended a Chiefs home game on Sept. 24.
Initial analysis conducted on X (formerly Twitter) shows that as the game began, there was a 118% increase in mentions of Swift-Kelce over the previous seven-day period, according to a press release from Montclair State.
Data suggests that there were consistent attempts to hijack discussion during the game with political statements about vaccination and the perceived political stances of Swift and Kelce. The numbers showed a 1941% increase in content politicizing the Swift-Kelce relationship during the game.
While such instances of “hate jacking” are increasingly common in social media spaces, this particular event appears to have hate content largely drowned out by sentiment that was supportive and positive, the release said.
Data analysis from posts on X showed that people were more than four times as likely to express positive sentiment than negative sentiment; 82% positive content
posted compared to only 18% negative.
Before Sunday night’s game, online searches for Swift topped interest in the Chiefs. As the game unfolded, interest in the Chiefs surpassed that of Swift.
Trending topics during the game also focused on conversations surrounding the famous people with Swift at the game; Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Sabrina Carpenter and Sophie Turner.
Online users were also interested in learning more about Kelce as an individual player including his college football team, his jersey number and his net worth.
The study was done by a team of faculty from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media It was the tenth study released from the school, which provides social media analytics tools and training for faculty and students for classroom learning and research projects.
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