• by Wayne Friedman , December 27, 2012

Social media TV entertainment activity keeps growing -- but 2012 was dominated by stories with a news and political bent.

The biggest single-day social media activity came from the presidential election this November -- with some 17.4 million social media interactions. Researcher General Sentiment looked at all social activity from social platforms, as well as news channels.

This was followed by Hurricane Sandy (9.4 million), the battle over anti-piracy legislation (8.7 million), and the second presidential debate (7.6 million) and the vice presidential debate (6.87 million).

The biggest entertainment event of the year -- in terms of single-day social media activity -- was CBS' "Grammy Awards," which posted 6.8 million in social media. After this came NBC's Summer London Olympics. The opening ceremonies pulled in 7.2 million; the closing ceremonies, 6 million. ABC's "Academy Awards" grabbed 4.4 million. Farther down the entertainment list came the theatrical premiere of big movie "The Hunger Games," which took in 2.9 million.

Five of the top 15 events were entertainment-oriented, with the other 10 either being political or news-oriented.

Looking at other notable TV shows: ABC's "Emmys Awards" took in 1.18 million; AMC's "The Walking Dead" season premiere had 1.16 million; and Fox's "American Idol" season premiere had 740,000.

Apple's release of its iPhone in September ranked 11th place with 4.2 million.