Word cloud analysis of Barack Obama, Senator McCain election night speeches
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Minutes after Sen. John McCain gave his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona, President-elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in front of thousands gathered in Grant Park in Chicago. Below are word clouds representing the text of both speeches.
Barack Obama: "Change Has Come to America"
John McCain: "The Failure Is Mine"
Sources: Obama: Newsweek, McCain: Los Angeles Times
Barack Obama: "Change Has Come to America"
John McCain: "The Failure Is Mine"
Sources: Obama: Newsweek, McCain: Los Angeles Times
What I don't understand is the color-coding? What significance does a word colored red have, in contrast to one colored blue? Why is Obama's cloud colored with stronger contrasts, and McCain's in duller shades?
Likewise, what significance does placement have? The words aren't arranged in alphabetical order. Is the distribution simply a whim of a graphic designer?
And what editorial bias is revealed by the layout of Obama's word cloud using both horizontal and vertical directions of text, more dynamic; in contrast to the flat, horizontal, uniform layout of McCain's?
Word clouds are supposed to be a neutral means of graphically displaying the contents of a text, application of an a priori algorithm. Much of the visual interpretation presented in these two clouds however appears applied post hoc, by a human thrilled by Obama's win.
What if you changed the graphic scheme, rendering McCain's with more contrast, and a dynamic layout? What then would the graphic tell us to think?
Matthew G. Miller, Seattle
November 14, 2008 3:21 PM