Data Mining Methods for the Content Analyst

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SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

Sentiment analysis is a special form of vocabulary analysis focusing exclusively on the emotional content present in text. No matter how carefully written, all documents contain telltale clues of an author's emotional state and views toward the subject discussed. Two newspapers covering a sporting event, one based in the hometown of the winner, and one in the loser's, will report the same factual score, but almost certainly will differ in their portrayals of it. The paper of the winning team will likely use a higher density of positive words to describe the game, while the losing team's paper will use a greater percentage of negative words. Similarly, a political speech motivating the public to vote for an upcoming referendum ...