Tweetminster election site will power news organisations' real-time election coverage

Tweetminster, a start-up that tracks MPs and prospective candidates on Twitter to help them better connect with the public, has relaunched its service with a new site for the forthcoming UK general election.

The Tweetminster Election 2010 site offers real-time political news and information for journalists, readers and news organisations, and will give an overview of election buzz and trends on the social media campaign front.

The new site includes a map showing where parties are campaigning and a "real sentiment ticker" to measure the reactions of parties and candidates to election issues on Twitter. With more than 400 candidates now on Twitter, the site will also run a live study comparing buzz on the microblogging platform with election results, Alberto Nardelli, Tweetminster founder, told Journalism.co.uk.

Journalists and voters can also use the site to find candidates on Twitter by name, constituency and postcode, and search through months of tweets to compare what the candidates were saying then and now.

As part of its election launch, Tweetminster is working with several news organisations to complement their election coverage, said Nardelli.

"We built a map displaying where the parties are campaigning across electoral regions for the PA [Press Association], and a dashboard to follow all the tweets of candidates, hacks and news sources for the Independent," said Nardelli.

There are significant benefits to both voters and politicians in making such real-time news and information available and searchable, said Nardelli.

"For politicians and parties there is the ability to connect with people, share their messages and 'compete' with the media - all in real time, meaning, potentially, greater influence in shaping stories and opinions. For voters, alongside the ability to connect directly with candidates and news, there is the opportunity to participate in shaping the election and issues in ways that previously was not possible," he said.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).