The annual State of the Union address to Congress is considered by many to be politics’ biggest night. With tens of millions tuning in to hear his address, President Obama’s speech will generate reactions from the nation’s living rooms, boardrooms, and legislative hallways.
Until now, we’ve relied on analysts and pundits to interpret the message and the nation’s response to it in the hours and days after the speech.
This year, everyone has a voice. Microsoft’s Bing Pulse partnerships with both MSNBC and CNN will deliver direct viewer sentiment during the speech, providing viewers and analysts with real-time feedback about the speech. While each network will use Bing Pulse in completely different ways, both will give their respective audiences a voice. As the State of the Union broadcasts proceed on Tuesday, January 20, Bing Pulse’s voting technology will be available for viewers to agree or disagree with what the president has to say, and the results of the nation’s sentiment will be shared instantly.
To make your voice heard during either CNN or MSNBC’s broadcast, go to bing.com/CNN or pulse.msnbc.com. You can also follow the conversation throughout Tuesday evening on Twitter using the hashtag #BingSOTU.
Microsoft’s Bing Pulse has been part of MSNBC and CNN political events since the 2014 US mid-term elections and will continue to play a role in coverage of the 2016 presidential elections.
This past summer MSNBC used Bing Pulse technology in its Great Debate series. In both live broadcasts—one on energy policy and the other on the NSA—Bing Pulse gave real-time feedback on the debates. Given this initial success, MSNBC is now integrating Bing Pulse broadly across on-air and digital programming as part of their coverage of the 2016 Elections. MSNBC viewers will also be able to use Bing Pulse technology every weekday during news programming and special events like interviews, panels, debates and election nights.
CNN viewers will make their voices heard during and after Tuesday’s address using Bing Pulse. CNN previously used Bing Pulse during the 2014 mid-term elections, as well as during Erin Burnett’s interviews from the Clinton Global Initiative and during President Obama’s ISIS speech. Viewer feedback appeared on CNN’s Magic Wall, the on-air interactive display used to present election night results and other news data.
Easy to activate and simple to use, Bing Pulse lets viewers make their voices heard from the convenience of a web-enabled device, on any platform. With a click of the mouse or tap of the screen, audiences can “pulse,” or weigh in, on how they feel as often as every five seconds. Bing values your privacy, so voting is anonymous.
As the nation watches the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, viewers won’t have to wait to find out how America feels. They’ll be able to take America’s pulse every step of the way.
To learn more about how you can use Bing Pulse at your next event, visit http://pulse.bing.com.
– The Bing Pulse Team