Amazon Election Heat Map 2012 Amazon.com just launched their Amazon Election Heat Map which it claims to depict what Americans are reading state-by-state categorized by political leaning: Customers can click on any state on the Amazon Election Heat Map to see the percentage of conservative and liberal books sold in that state, as well as the top 5 best-selling conservative and liberal books per state. A state will turn blue, for example, if it has a higher number of liberal book sales for the month, taking into account both print and Kindle formats. When liberal and conservative are more equally represented in a particular state, that state will be shaded beige. […] The Amazon Books Editorial team pulled extensive lists of best-selling books in relevant categories and vetted them using a variety of tools for clear partisan leaning, separating them into red and blue categories. Many books, of course, have no clear political bias, and therefore were not included. The top 250 titles in each list will power the Heat Map, based on customers’ book-buying habits. Exactly how did Amazon.com decide on the categories? We take the top-selling political books on Amazon.com and categorize them as “red,” “blue,” or neutral. We classify books as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion material and/or customer classification, such as tags. We compute percentages, updated daily, for each state and the US by comparing the 250 best-selling blue books during the time period against the 250 best-selling red books during the same time period, including new book launches. Are your favorite books listed above? Do you agree with their classification? (by Jayel Aheram)
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Amazon Election Heat Map 2012

Amazon.com just launched their Amazon Election Heat Map which it claims to depict what Americans are reading state-by-state categorized by political leaning:

Customers can click on any state on the Amazon Election Heat Map to see the percentage of conservative and liberal books sold in that state, as well as the top 5 best-selling conservative and liberal books per state. A state will turn blue, for example, if it has a higher number of liberal book sales for the month, taking into account both print and Kindle formats. When liberal and conservative are more equally represented in a particular state, that state will be shaded beige.

[…]

The Amazon Books Editorial team pulled extensive lists of best-selling books in relevant categories and vetted them using a variety of tools for clear partisan leaning, separating them into red and blue categories. Many books, of course, have no clear political bias, and therefore were not included. The top 250 titles in each list will power the Heat Map, based on customers’ book-buying habits.

Exactly how did Amazon.com decide on the categories?

We take the top-selling political books on Amazon.com and categorize them as “red,” “blue,” or neutral. We classify books as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion material and/or customer classification, such as tags. We compute percentages, updated daily, for each state and the US by comparing the 250 best-selling blue books during the time period against the 250 best-selling red books during the same time period, including new book launches.

Are your favorite books listed above? Do you agree with their classification?

(by Jayel Aheram)