The signing of the denuclearization agreement between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un may be the biggest item in international news in 2018 so far.
A recent report from an international media monitoring agency, however, reveals that it is the U.S. leader who has the upper hand—at least in the media exposure and social conversation category.
Trump ahead in exposure, conversations
Meltwater released some surprising audience statistics from the historic summit between the two formerly quarreling leaders.
It found that Trump led the online coverage based on a “share of voice” comparison of the coverage the two leaders received during from June 10 to 13.
In short, the outspoken American head of state was the talk of the town during the summit.
As expected, Trump again led in media exposure, with 250,000 media posts on him compared to Kim’s 217,000.
All the media exposure he received however has not translated to positive comments on Trump. Meltwater detected 16 percent of all posts to be negative reactions to Trump, while only 14 percent of posts were positive reactions. The remaining 70 percent of posts bore neutral sentiments.
Kim meanwhile has been subject to less negative sentiment from his exposure.
The June 10-13 period also saw a massive accumulation of social media posts on the summit. Melwater noted that social conversation on the summit produced 351,000 social media posts, doubling the editorial coverage count of 178,000.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s preferred social media platform dominated other platforms during the period. Twitter, where Trump is known to express his views and reach out to both supporters and critics, generated around 283,000 posts. Facebook came in second with 17,900 posts, while online discussion forums generated 17,000.
Most shared posts about the Trump-Kim summit
This meme from comedy website 9gag has the distinction of being among the most widely-shared humor posts on the summit.
Back to the realm of political discourse, Meltwater lists this tweet from broadcaster and political commentator Bill O’ Reilly critical of the summit as one of the most prominent social media posts during the period.
Absurd press reaction to the Trump-Un meeting in Singapore. Blatantly dishonest especially when compared to to the Kerry-Obama-Iran nuke thing. The American media is destroying itself. Get honest analysis on https://t.co/fqUvO5EEW0.
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) June 12, 2018
Founded in 2001, Meltwater uses a software of the same name to employs artificial intelligence to track social media trends and produce insights for marketing and public relations firms. — Graphs provided by Meltwater
