Freddie Gray, gay marriage, Donald Trump and the Paris attacks. Those were among the biggest news topics of conversation for Americans on Twitter in 2015, according to an analysis by Echelon Insights [6], a research and intelligence firm.
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By analyzing 459.9 million tweets from Americans over the course of the last year, we can now see what topics trended, along with the timing and magnitude of each trending topic.
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To ensure that trending news stood out, Echelon Insights removed some of the data outliers related to perennial conversations that get mentions, including President Obama (55 million mentions) and the Republican and Democratic parties. With that filter applied, the most discussed person or issue in the news this year was Donald Trump, with 43 million U.S. mentions, followed by Hillary Clinton, with 31.5 million.
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And, as The Washington Post reports, [11] as a reminder, here is what 2014 looked like...
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