Thursday, November 02, 2006
Media Exercise 5: Sentiment Analysis Program
Group 6:
Jody Warner
Marcie McSwane
Daniel Ebert
Trisha Morrow
A RECENT report indicated that the Bush Administration had funded a Homeland Security initiative that would see $2.4m spent on developing "sentiment analysis" software. This initiative would allow the government's "security organs" to sift through millions of news articles for "negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas". The software would be developed by academics in some of the US's leading institutions, including Texas A&M University.
Your task is to critical assess this development through the following questions:
Jody Warner
Marcie McSwane
Daniel Ebert
Trisha Morrow
A RECENT report indicated that the Bush Administration had funded a Homeland Security initiative that would see $2.4m spent on developing "sentiment analysis" software. This initiative would allow the government's "security organs" to sift through millions of news articles for "negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas". The software would be developed by academics in some of the US's leading institutions, including Texas A&M University.
Your task is to critical assess this development through the following questions:
- What are the key objectives in developing the sentiment analysis software?
- How will the information gathered from these searches be used in relation to security?
- What concerns are raised in relation to freedom of speech, civil liberties and privacy that reflect similar issues foudn in the US government-Google wranglings over access to user information?
- What implications does this software development have for the roles and responsibilities of the media?
- How will sentiment analysis impact on the delicate balance between government, media and society?
Resources:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C1EF73F540C778CDDA90994DE404482
http://www.rense.com/general73/crtic.htm
http://www.alias-i.com/lingpipe/demos/tutorial/sentiment/read-me.html
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/111704/Software_sorts_out_subjectivity_111704.html
http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/comment/2159993/search-moves-notch-emotional
Due Date: November 9, 5pm
Comments:
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I think the general understanding of this program has been reasonably well articulated. And so too have the weaknesses been identified in relation to understanding perceptions (or sentiment) by using computer software. The software seems to lack the kind of sophistication necessary given the potential dangers such an approach inherently embues. For example, Jody has dealt with the issue of freedom of speech (always a popular focus point). But how will these processes potentially impact on freedom of speech. I think we need to explore this concept in a little more depth rather than just assume we all know what this value embraces and that encroaching on it is bad. Further to this, the other areas of privacy (given the Google case) and civil liberties have not been addressed at all, yet they are just as important and vitial for each citizen and US society at large. Another issue that Jacque has identified is that of sovereignty of foreign governments and individuals. If the US government is examining foreign newspapers and other public discourse, is that not encroaching on the freedom of others to criticize. As for US individuals, what if the approach is flawed and innocent people who are expressing their right to free speech are persecuted or incaserated. Isn't this what this country was built on. I think more needs to be done on this topic to really draw out the key issues.
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