Political Analysis· 2013Q1· Review
Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content Analysis Methods for Political Texts
- 3,200citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
Automated text analysis methods offer a powerful way to reduce the cost of analyzing large political text collections, fulfilling a long-standing promise in political science.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Automated text analysis drastically reduces the cost of analyzing large political text datasets.
- These methods have begun to fulfill their promise in political science research.
- Automated methods require extensive, problem-specific validation and are not a substitute for close reading.
- Methodological contributions in new methods and validation are crucial for wider adoption.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Politics and political conflict often occur in the written and spoken word. Scholars have long recognized this, but the massive costs of analyzing even moderately sized collections of texts have hindered their use in political science research. Here lies the promise of automated text analysis: it substantially reduces the costs of analyzing large collections of text. We provide a guide to this exciting new area of research and show how, in many instances, the methods have already obtained part of their promise. But there are pitfalls to using automated methods—they are no substitute for careful thought and close reading and require extensive and problem-specific validation. We survey a wide range of new methods, provide guidance on how to validate the output of the models, and clarify misconceptions and errors in the literature. To conclude, we argue that for automated text methods to become a standard tool for political scientists, methodologists must contribute new methods and new methods of validation.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Political Analysis, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: General Social Sciences
General Social SciencesSocial Sciences