What are they saying? Sentiment Analysis

Professor Matthew Kushin, PhDShepherd University | Department of Mass Communication | 2012

Preview

Last class: Looked at what people say about a brand online

Today, we’ll explore: Can we more systematically evaluate text content

(such as tweets)?

Defined

Sentiment analysis – process of categorizing text, based on the “sentiment” or “feelings” embedded in the message. Aka “opinion mining”

For assessing opinions

Form of content analysis – systematic process of coding content of media for interpretation

Simple Example

Tweet: “Can’t wait to see Zan the Ram at the game this

weekend!!!”

Sentiment: Positive

Problem How do we know that this text is positive?

Basics: How it works

A database of words and symbols (e.g., !) is created.

Each word is assigned a value Positive = 1 Negative = -1 Neutral = 0

Example: “love” = 1; “hate” =2; “blue” =0

How it works, contd

Computers or person evaluates each piece of data (e.g., a Tweet), searching for words in database.

Total number of positive/negative/neutral counted in data, and a sentiment score or % is given

Example

Tweets about Shepherdstown over a one-week period: 60% positive

20% negative

20% neutral

Usefulness

Potential, potential

Attitude towards your brand

Perception of products, ideas, brands, people, etc.

Reputation management Able to respond to posts Evaluate over time to see if sentiment is changing

as part of campaign goals

Example: Taco Bell Beef!

Last class an unrepresentative sample of Tweets we happen

to look at

Sentiment offers: Much more systematic evaluation of tweets Evaluate thousands of social media posts Very quick & little cost

Tools

Tools

Many tools (paid and free) exist for assessing sentiment

Study of linguistics is applied backed by years of research & understanding of human language.

Common limitations: Language contains context Is subjective Inability to assess sarcasm & other nuances of

human communication

Example

http://twitrratr.com/

Key Considerations

We must interpret what the sentiment means

Sentiment alone is only a minor indicator of the true feelings of the crowd.

Need to ask “Why is it positive/negative?”

“What products do people mention?”

Beyond Basic Sentiment

Computer-assisted content analysis of social media posts virtually limitless potential More detail than “pos” “neg” “neutral”

What about: “satisfied” “dissatisfied” “concerned” “informed”

“afraid” “glad” etc. Count all mentions of ANY term

Ex: product mentions in tweets: “Fries” “McRib” “McFlurry”

Participation: Obama v. Romney Sentiment

Getting the PDF files: Obama Tweets PDF: http://bit.ly/402_ObamaTweets Romney Tweets PDF: http://bit.ly/

402_RomneyTweets