Who Sets Social Media Sentiment?: Sentiment Contagion in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Media Tweet Network

Sentiment contagion across the media tweet network of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including traditional and non-traditional journalistic outlets, was identified and analyzed using time-series analysis. Online non-partisan journalistic accounts reported the highest use of positive sentiment words, while political commentators reported the highest level of negative sentiment word use. Online partisan accounts, including @drudge_report, were identified as intermedia agenda setters that led negative sentiment contagion in multiple journalistic outlet categories. No evident individual agenda setter account was found in positive sentiment contagion. Implications for media influence researchers and journalistic actors were discussed.