Preliminary Text Analysis
News articles (N = 11,420) were collected using media cloud, an open source news database. The search query used the boolean search “Floyd AND Minneapolis” and included the dates 2020-05-26 to 2020-06-05. Additionally, sources included the U.S. Top Online News 2017, U.S. Top Digital Native Sources 2018, U.S. Top Newspapers 2018, and U.S. Mainstream Media collections.
Top 50 News Sources
## Warning: Removed 1 row(s) containing missing values (geom_path).
Most Frequent 50 Words in the Headlines
Most Frequent 100 Words in the News Articles
## police floyd people black
## 70990 35281 30591 27430
## minneapolis protests george officers
## 26562 25262 25018 25015
## protesters death george floyd white
## 23204 23027 19806 17832
## trump floyd's officer city
## 17701 17376 17135 15826
## man president video night
## 13872 13670 11728 11622
## time violence state protest
## 11613 11390 11291 11259
## national justice neck law
## 10355 10018 9786 9539
## country chauvin department minneapolis police
## 9355 9256 8448 8332
## house police officer rights year
## 8188 8136 8127 8078
## floyd's death peaceful died week
## 7946 7933 7894 7867
## told coronavirus back statement
## 7663 7518 7467 7392
## community media minutes twitter
## 7374 7368 7335 7002
## public minnesota lives york
## 6983 6973 6969 6963
## cities times arrested death george
## 6934 6925 6901 6758
## mayor u.s guard called
## 6721 6676 6668 6540
## knee white house police officers murder
## 6515 6486 6455 6453
## enforcement county including social
## 6429 6363 6330 6320
## american california racism law enforcement
## 6320 6302 6208 6127
## street streets washington states
## 5984 5980 5838 5825
## charged demonstrators support curfew
## 5795 5785 5740 5735
## group crowd killing looting
## 5728 5724 5715 5715
## years black man killed force
## 5714 5668 5652 5640
## family fired made world
## 5547 5426 5403 5403
## days national guard violent matter
## 5401 5378 5357 5335
## los post make angeles
## 5317 5276 5276 5262Most Important 100 Words (TF-IDF) in the News Articles
## trump protesters officers city president
## 8418.644 6956.902 6800.032 5531.191 5325.283
## people mr state chauvin house
## 5196.801 4979.422 4833.143 4790.785 4772.517
## night california black white protest
## 4729.807 4715.464 4656.726 4639.723 4631.507
## curfew white house floyd's data national
## 4594.818 4570.763 4481.481 4436.010 4302.487
## guard violence county department law
## 4277.689 4264.859 4206.694 4147.909 4138.973
## biden video coronavirus york justice
## 4132.963 4109.921 4098.175 3984.428 3967.556
## los angeles los angeles crowd p.m
## 3953.658 3944.020 3938.024 3934.323 3873.485
## downtown national guard u.s times minnesota
## 3862.043 3828.600 3823.993 3804.635 3796.439
## peaceful mayor washington demonstrators street
## 3791.949 3724.427 3672.367 3668.226 3659.785
## twitter arrested man public enforcement
## 3644.379 3635.628 3627.642 3622.191 3616.558
## lives protests statement racism law enforcement
## 3600.090 3597.930 3581.885 3529.569 3520.004
## police time community force trump's
## 3516.457 3502.932 3484.539 3464.351 3440.642
## comments data provided officer provided post
## 3423.849 3418.358 3415.167 3405.495 3401.447
## de factset streets country floyd's death
## 3400.852 3382.259 3373.131 3348.296 3345.088
## states park media shot gas
## 3339.029 3332.692 3325.858 3324.235 3309.465
## family cities looting police officers pandemic
## 3302.783 3286.813 3284.123 3281.044 3270.848
## officials san military world told
## 3266.879 3249.958 3240.597 3239.817 3239.037
## degree back matter vote tear
## 3237.362 3223.777 3223.380 3214.775 3209.141
## social group rights newsmax st
## 3207.007 3200.043 3199.459 3196.578 3190.810
## murder federal american year week
## 3188.210 3182.886 3177.782 3175.608 3173.495Top 50 Frequent Words in the News Articles
Comparative Analysis
I compared news text by partisanship using “keyness” comparisons in the R package quanteda see for more information, and Support Vector Machine (SVM), a supervised machine learning method.
SVM is a supervised machine learning algorithm used for classification. The goal of the algorithm is to create a hyperplane (maximum-marginal hyperplane), which separates the categories.
SVM uses features of the the categories to predict its classification. In the case of text analysis, if the category uses certain words, it is a possible predictor for classifying the text. Features close to the maximum-marginal hyperplane are called “support vectors.” The coefficient w represents the weight of each vector.
When all of the classifications are known (e.g., news sources, topic, news lean), SVM can be used beyond merely classifying text. Instead, the machine learning algorithm can be used to interprete how news sources talk about the same topic or event. Essentially, the weights indicate what features best predict the source; features that are most “telling” of the source when discussing the event.
Using SVM, I analyzed which n-grams best predict the partisan lean of the source. Partisan lean classifications were adopted from All Sides. 19 sources were selected for analysis (N = 4045). I selected these sources because they are in the All Sides data and in the Pew Data for Political Polarization & Media Habits, which can be used for validation of the All Sides classifications.
New Frequency by Partisanship
News Sources
Top 100 Words by Source Partisanship
## $left
## police people black floyd
## 3575 1627 1586 1276
## protests minneapolis protesters officers
## 1138 1120 1097 1068
## white trump george death
## 910 886 823 796
## officer floyd's president violence
## 727 689 684 659
## george floyd man law city
## 653 566 548 533
## time told justice country
## 472 472 466 455
## neck video protest state
## 450 437 416 411
## chauvin department national lives
## 395 391 390 383
## enforcement police officer racism law enforcement
## 371 368 362 361
## peaceful public minneapolis police killing
## 360 358 351 351
## night week minnesota year
## 342 340 336 336
## died killed back called
## 335 332 330 327
## police officers cities house tear
## 316 316 315 311
## gas work pandemic american
## 302 292 289 285
## black man u.s community force
## 284 284 283 281
## americans york floyd's death tear gas
## 278 277 277 276
## trump's arrested demonstrators moment
## 274 273 272 268
## years including twitter military
## 267 266 265 264
## statement federal local world
## 263 259 257 256
## make white house brutality guard
## 255 255 254 254
## fired shot violent states
## 249 248 248 247
## rights breathe call looting
## 246 245 244 243
## murder police brutality knee social
## 240 240 239 235
## health washington donald civil
## 235 235 233 230
## crowd matter media made
## 229 228 227 227
##
## $`lean left`
## police floyd people officers
## 10112 4194 4095 3951
## black minneapolis protests trump
## 3909 3548 3538 3518
## protesters mr death white
## 3213 3096 3075 2879
## george floyd's president officer
## 2821 2712 2626 2275
## george floyd city violence man
## 2036 1901 1662 1620
## video country justice law
## 1604 1593 1555 1546
## national house time washington
## 1541 1512 1472 1431
## night department state floyd's death
## 1417 1396 1390 1269
## white house week told chauvin
## 1228 1206 1194 1158
## american neck cities protest
## 1145 1124 1114 1101
## called minnesota states back
## 1060 1058 1052 1051
## enforcement biden york minneapolis police
## 1043 1020 1014 1002
## police officer law enforcement americans peaceful
## 1001 993 991 986
## year police officers including public
## 986 981 974 966
## demonstrators trump's racism officials
## 956 950 940 935
## mayor twitter knee died
## 926 912 902 900
## arrested murder statement u.s
## 900 899 898 884
## force coronavirus streets days
## 880 879 876 866
## social federal years post
## 855 854 852 848
## family america guard community
## 845 838 828 823
## pandemic looting media charged
## 821 801 798 779
## fired degree made life
## 774 774 773 768
## rights crowd minutes local
## 761 752 736 733
## lives united shot make
## 732 721 712 711
## military unrest civil racial
## 711 709 702 701
##
## $central
## police floyd people black
## 2920 1658 1437 1417
## protests officers george death
## 1305 1226 1214 1117
## minneapolis trump floyd's white
## 1081 985 978 941
## protesters george floyd president officer
## 935 898 804 760
## city man justice video
## 631 558 530 524
## time law neck house
## 507 500 496 479
## national department u.s country
## 479 474 470 461
## floyd's death told state violence
## 447 446 446 444
## minneapolis police night protest chauvin
## 430 418 417 404
## peaceful coronavirus week police officer
## 398 396 382 376
## p.m white house twitter back
## 366 364 360 356
## community statement year died
## 355 355 355 349
## mayor called social public
## 349 344 343 341
## racism enforcement knee cities
## 336 328 327 327
## york murder including law enforcement
## 323 314 313 311
## american death george police officers washington
## 310 306 304 303
## family today minutes black man
## 302 302 300 286
## americans trump's lives minnesota
## 280 278 278 277
## arrested support racial media
## 275 272 272 270
## federal make curfew charged
## 270 269 269 267
## made pandemic crowd change
## 266 259 259 259
## donald usa officials killed
## 256 255 254 254
## force press health states
## 254 253 252 247
## life violent america part
## 247 241 239 239
## covid civil guard years
## 238 235 235 234
##
## $`lean right`
## police floyd george minneapolis
## 4081 2973 2416 2166
## death george floyd protests people
## 2057 1807 1738 1711
## black floyd's officers officer
## 1450 1380 1313 1126
## city trump protesters white
## 1081 1051 1040 994
## man president violence video
## 967 914 899 883
## night national neck country
## 765 731 728 726
## death george justice law chauvin
## 724 712 684 679
## told minneapolis police died violent
## 661 655 639 623
## york looting time protest
## 622 618 601 598
## riots floyd's death mayor cities
## 598 589 584 542
## custody department police officer murder
## 533 532 531 522
## charged state minnesota peaceful
## 506 505 500 497
## guard knee enforcement arrested
## 469 468 460 459
## media back degree police officers
## 454 447 443 441
## week law enforcement george floyd's called
## 441 434 432 431
## social twitter house national guard
## 408 407 407 404
## business american lives community
## 393 391 391 387
## police custody year fired black man
## 386 376 375 375
## including involved america derek
## 375 367 362 361
## cops coronavirus local statement
## 356 356 352 352
## racism antifa derek chauvin store
## 352 348 347 343
## added nation years minutes
## 342 342 341 340
## u.s family press biden
## 339 336 334 332
## response made matter reported
## 323 317 317 316
## post days incident attorney
## 315 315 314 312
##
## $right
## police floyd minneapolis george
## 1514 1074 930 867
## death george floyd protests people
## 790 700 617 560
## black officer officers floyd's
## 539 526 456 449
## president trump video riots
## 433 427 396 386
## man twitter death george protesters
## 370 364 359 348
## neck violence city white
## 344 344 339 333
## chauvin minneapolis police died looting
## 320 319 281 279
## police officer minnesota country night
## 276 271 255 253
## violent department national justice
## 236 228 223 221
## protest cities told floyd's death
## 219 217 210 207
## law time reported murder
## 206 203 202 189
## rioters donald knee minutes
## 184 182 181 180
## arrested state custody media
## 179 176 174 174
## derek peaceful u.s derek chauvin
## 172 170 168 167
## charged lives police officers arrest
## 166 166 161 158
## mayor tweet american rioting
## 155 155 152 152
## degree america donald trump called
## 152 151 150 148
## matter family social president donald
## 145 143 143 142
## statement left house week
## 142 141 141 140
## public killed antifa floyd died
## 139 137 136 135
## york police department content businesses
## 134 134 134 133
## back including incident fired
## 133 132 130 130
## enforcement states support law enforcement
## 129 129 126 125
## daily fire guard community
## 125 123 123 120
## post added follow americans
## 120 118 118 118Comparison by Source Partisanship
