Some exploration for fun

With a focus on the legacy newspapers

Volume and complexity of news

Via Flesch-Kincaid readability measure: \[readability = 0.39 \left(\frac{words}{sentences}\right) + 11.8\left(\frac{syllables}{words}\right) \]

Sentiment/polarity of information and news

Via sentimentr

Moral foundations in news

More on moral foundations

Care-Harm dimension

Within news articles

Within op-eds

Ingroup/Loyalty-Other/Betrayal dimension

Within news articles

Within op-eds

Topics/themes in news

Via LDA topic model

See more on topics here.

So much to do

Analyze

  • issue emphases, ideological positioning, named entities, events, …
  • combinations of features (polarity and issues, morality and topics)
  • word embeddings for “partisan bias” in news sources?

Build

  • dynamic visualizations
  • digital, searchable resource