Text network analysis allows one to quickly visualize the meanings and agendas present within a text, live conversation, broadcast, or interview.
Our method is different to semantic network analysis. Instead, we focus predominantly on the relationships and clusters of meaning present within the text, uncovering what we call the pathways for meaning circulation
Our interest lies in researching the topology of the resulting network, allowing us to focus on a text as a whole rather than its specific semantic parts. These topologies can then be compared with our extensive database in order to sort texts according to their structure rather than arbitrary categories they belong to.
Text network analysis can also be used to build a map of sentiments and interests for any group. We usually do this by conducting interviews around a certain subject with the group members while notating the more prominent concepts using our online mnemonic network This Is Like. These maps are then put together to form a general picture of the interests or concerns for a particular community, which can then be used by all the participants to have a clearer picture of the organization and its concerns. You can see an example of this work conducted by our specialist at SI in Gent, Belgium in 2010.
To read more about the methods we use, see the Research section of this website and feel free to Contact us if you’re interested to find out more.