Posted on 06/28/2014 7:57:09 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Uncle Sam is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to pay for social media-related services and to fund grants for research into the habits of the Twittersphere and other online worlds.
Exactly how much the federal government spends on social media is not clear. The Congressional Research Service made waves when it found the government spent at least $945 million on advertising and public communications, including social media, four years ago.
• $208,000: 2013 grant by National Institutes of Health to University of Rochester to use Twitter to study "disease spread, mental health in a hard-to-reach population, and presence and extent of 'natural helping' in promoting wellness and reducing norms supporting violence in low-income urban neighborhoods"
• $125,000 + $100,000: Grants by NIH to University of Washington to study Twitter and how to use it to identify "deviant behavior" -- or tracking when someone Tweets violent or death threats (grants were in 2012-13)
• $11,000: State Department expense for outside analysis of U.S. embassy Twitter and Facebook accounts (2012)
• $42,000: DOT for a contractor to "design, develop, implement, evaluate and enhance" the Federal Railroad Administration's social media accounts pages (2012)
• $260,000: Federal Emergency Management Agency to an outside company to "analyze news clips in which FEMA was mentioned, including times on social media sites like Twitter" (2012)
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonexaminer.com ...
They are so good at it they probably support the ISIS media blitz...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3173401/posts
And what IS the reason?
To get out the vote?
July 4th. Independence from what?
Americans who love liberty ought not be participating in July 4th festivities now. Screw National Hot Dogs, Beer and Fireworks day.
July 4th ought to be observed now as a national day of mourning, and true American patriots ought to be flying or carrying solid black flags in protest of our federal government's War on American Liberty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.