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Thanks for your input Jonnie, you've highlighted one of the main limitations of text-based sentiment analysis. I've never always asserted that the sentiment der

Thanks for your input Jonnie, you've highlighted one of the main limitations of text-based sentiment analysis. I've never always asserted that the sentiment derived from this study is not indicitive of "true" sentiment of an individual person. Rather, the sentiment derived here is simply saying that people on Twitter are using particular words that connotate happiness or sadness. This is the same limitation that most other studies have found, but it doesn't make the results any less interesting. Another way to look at it is as signal-to-noise. Whatever stereotypes of the UK exists, we don't all talk sarcastically (at least not all the time). Because of this the majority of tweets, which are probably not sarcastic, average out the hard to read tweets. Again, this is something that other studies have found as well. My aim here isn't to fault the method of sentiment analysis. I'll leave that to the guys at Florida University who created it. :)

JonnieCache 15y ago
Oh I didn't mean to criticise anything you're doing. There's no such thing as bad data mining, only bad analysis of the results :) I just worry that people in our governments and security services will sieze on work like this which is largely being carried out for the amusement and satisfaction of academics and general geeks, and decide that it is appropriate to make specific judgements about specific people based on the data. It doesn't help that I read this article just after I woke up this morning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/03/protester-sue-police-secret-surveillance http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/03/protester-sue-polic... Combine it with this recent episode: (the guy was eventually convicted and fined) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/robin-hood-airport-twitter-arrest http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/robin-hood-airpo... ...and with all the recent hype over 'cyberwar,' I start feeling a bit chilly.
- robhawkes 15y ago
  I agree completely. These results shouldn't be simply taken at face value if they're to be used for further analysis.

JonnieCache 15y ago

Oh I didn't mean to criticise anything you're doing. There's no such thing as bad data mining, only bad analysis of the results :) I just worry that people in our governments and security services will sieze on work like this which is largely being carried out for the amusement and satisfaction of academics and general geeks, and decide that it is appropriate to make specific judgements about specific people based on the data. It doesn't help that I read this article just after I woke up this morning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/03/protester-sue-police-secret-surveillance http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/03/protester-sue-polic... Combine it with this recent episode: (the guy was eventually convicted and fined) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/robin-hood-airport-twitter-arrest http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/robin-hood-airpo... ...and with all the recent hype over 'cyberwar,' I start feeling a bit chilly.

robhawkes 15y ago
I agree completely. These results shouldn't be simply taken at face value if they're to be used for further analysis.