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How is the “ObamaMeter Tone” different than an Approval Rating?
A Presidential Approval Rating is based on responses to a poll in which a sample of people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of the president. Our ObamaMeter is based on the analysis of a certain defined body of text and the presence of positive and negative statements made about President Obama. The tone is a measurement of how positive or negative the media collection is towards Barack Obama on a given day. It compares positive messages about Obama to all words about Obama, positive, negative, and neutral.
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I’d like to get this type of analysis for my company; can you do this for us?
Absolutely! We serve clients in a number of industries and offer customized text analysis services to meet their needs. Click here or give us a call at 614.527.5200 ext. 115 to speak with an Analyst about a program that might work for you.
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If I send you an email or call you with a question about the ObamaMeter, when and how can I expect to hear from you?
If you call us, we’ll respond with a phone call within one business day. If you email us a question, we will also email you back within one business day – if the question is something a lot of people are interested in, we’ll add the question and our response to this FAQ page within two business days.
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How does the ObamaMeter technology work?
The ObamaMeter technology first identifies every reference to Barack Obama in the media analyzed. It recognizes both direct references like "Barack Obama," and indirect ones such as "The President of the United States." Then, in a following pass, it identifies words that have a positive or negative connotation and are also grammatically connected to the reference to Obama - for example, "Obama's success," or "The president failed to realize..." We then output all of the references and all of the positive or negative language - thousands a day - and aggregate them into a score - how positive or negative the media are about Obama on a given day.
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What is the underlying text analysis system for the ObamaMeter?
The core system is called Profiler Plus and is licensed from Social Science Automation, our parent company. The program is implemented in Common Lisp and, in contrast to most statistically-based Natural Language Processing systems, Profiler Plus is entirely rule-based providing fine grained control and complete process transparency. Profiler Plus performs text analytics in a highly flexible, multiple pass process. Results are then interpreted by our expert analysts and/or imported into such data analysis programs as Microsoft Excel, SPSS and SAS.
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Can I suggest a news outlet to add to the ObamaMeter?
We’d love to hear from you about the media sources you are interested in. Currently, our analysis is based on a range of print and online sources that represent a diversity of geographic regions and demographic groups. We also included the top 5 newspapers by circulation in the US and the most prominent news-producing websites. For consistency and over-time analysis, we will not be changing the sources for the ObamaMeter unless they become unavailable. However, we collect and can analyze thousands of newspapers daily. Contact us to learn more about our offerings.
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How often is the ObamaMeter updated?
Daily postings being at 9:00am for the previous day. Processing typically ends by 2:00pm.
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Is the ObamaMeter non-partisan?
Yes. The selected newspapers are based on a range of print and online sources that represent a diversity of geographic regions and demographic groups. Additionally, Profiler Plus automated text analysis program provides unmatched consistency and reliability. Using an automated system means that the same words and phrases will be coded the same way, every single time.
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