SUSSEX researchers are using pioneering technology to scan thousands of political tweets during the General Election.

Experts from the Informatics department at the University of Sussex have developed unique software that uses complex algorithms to analyse and understand thousands of tweets building up to the big day – all in a bid to give a detailed portrait of public opinion on a particular issue.

The software, called Method52, will study constituencies including Brighton Kemptown, Brighton Pavilion, East Worthing and Shoreham, Eastbourne and Hastings.

Together with the Demos think tank, the brains behind the project have set up the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) to learn how to ‘listen’ to conversations online.

They have already successfully used the technology to analyse ‘cheers’ and ‘boos’ during the 2014 football World Cup, to monitor online misogyny and to find the ‘winner’ of last year’s debates about Europe between politicians Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage.

Professor Ivor Gaber, professor of journalism at Sussex and a former political journalist, is leading the project.

He said: “I don’t think we can say that this is ‘the social media election’ – tweets don’t win votes. As with all new communication technologies, the change is gradual.

“But I think that almost everybody agrees that social media will be very noisy in the campaign, which gives us a rich, largely untapped resource to undertake some interesting analysis.

“For example, will we see a discernible ‘issues agenda’ that arises from social media? How will the different parties use tools like Twitter? What will be the balance of negative, supportive and humorous content?

“We have focused on the south coast because of its importance to the major parties and newcomers alike. If polls and forecasts are right, around half of the seats we are looking at could change hands.”

As well as analysing tweets, the team will track key Facebook pages, blogs, YouTube videos, and party and candidate web pages.

Local, regional and national media outlets are also being monitored in an effort to pick up references to social media activity during the election campaign.

CASM’s findings will be featured weekly in the Sunday Times and will include analysis of the major digital moments of the 2015 General Election campaign.