(Trinidad Express) Posts and opinions from users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are being monitored by the Government. This includes comments posted on news sites maintained by media houses.
This, as a private firm has been hired to gauge the feedback from the public on national issues such as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s recent speech on the economy.
In September 2014, Ministry of Trade, Investments, Industry and Communications, led by Minister Vasant Bharath, commissioned JL (Jeston Lett) Creative Source to monitor the opinions of the people on social media. The company recently monitored the feedback from social media with respect to Persad-Bissessar’s address to the nation on January 8, 2015.
Feedback was also monitored on the controversial billboards that were erected along some of the nation’s highways, bearing the Prime Minister’s image and her Merry Christmas and Happy New year greetings to the people.
Based on information from the feedback gathered, Bharath had said earlier this month, 80 per cent of social media had no problem with the billboards although there appeared to be much negative hype about them.
However, the social media and monitoring report on the Prime Minister’s address to the nation found there was a 50/50 feedback, with the average citizen leaning towards positive sentiments.
The overall sentiments from social media found 49 per cent of the feedback was positive, 42 per cent negative and nine per cent neutral.
Lett, managing director of JL Creative Source, in a telephone interview yesterday, explained to the Express how his company derived this information.
He said all the feedback gathered with respect to the opinions on the Prime Minister’s speech was from computer software that was able to pull posts from profiles and sites that were public, using specific keyword searches.
