Study Examined Social Media Reactions to Affirmative Action, Student Loan Forgiveness SCOTUS rulings

New research from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication at Montclair State University showed social media reaction to two historic rulings last week by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

The study examined more than 150,000 posts between June 27 and July 3 on major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter. The research team utilized search queries to discover how social media users in the U.S. reacted to the separate, landmark rulings regarding Affirmative Action and Student Loan Forgiveness.

Highlights of the study include:

Exponential increase of topic discussions on social media

• 13,000% increase on unique discussions on “Affirmative Action” during the period of June 26 – July 2.
• 12,000% increase on unique discussions on “Student Loan Forgiveness” during the period of June 26 – July 2.
• The majority of conversations regarding these two topics occurred on Twitter compared to other social media platforms.

Emotions and Sentiments

• Sadness and disgust were the dominant emotions exhibited by American social media users on both topics (i.e., Affirmative Action and Student Loan Forgiveness).
• On the topic of “Affirmative Action,” emotions of disgust and sadness saw an astounding increase of 19,483% and 25,085% respectively.
• “Student Loan Forgiveness” showed similar patterns, with the dominant sentiment of sadness increasing 14,776%.
• Based on the results from Brandwatch for both topics (i.e., Affirmative Action and Student Loan forgiveness) neutral sentiment was dominant, accounting for 60% of the sentiments.
• Similar sentiments were reflected in Keyhole’s findings on the topic of “Student Loan Forgiveness” but not on the topic of “Affirmative Action.” Based on Keyhole’s results, positive (36%) sentiment was slightly higher than neutral (35%) and negative (29%) sentiments.

Trending Topics

• Discussions of Student Loan Forgiveness were frequently tied to disappointment toward the Supreme Court and PPP Loans Forgiveness given to celebrities, politicians or big companies.
• The most engaged tweets about “Affirmative Action” were from Barack and Michelle Obama.
  Discussions on Black people related to racism, rights, success, students, admission processes and other topics have increased 92% in the studied time period.

Trending hashtags, key words and mentions surrounding each topic (e.g., #AffirmativeAction, #affirmative, #SCOTUSRuling, college loan forgiveness, #StudentLoan, #studentloandebt, etc.) were used to build relevant search queries on Brandwatch and Keyhole, which are social media analytics software platforms that specialize in uncovering business insights and trends through AI-powered social listening.

The study, available to read in full, was led by faculty Yi Luo, Jin-A Choi and Bond Benton from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication, located within the School of Communication and Media. The Center provides social media analytics tools and training for faculty and students for classroom learning and research projects.

For more information or to set up an interview, contact the Media Relations team at Montclair State University.