as revealed by QUOting the POTUScristian/Structure_of_Political_Media_Coverage_files/...Can we...

QUOting the

The structure of political media coverageas revealed by quoting patterns:

POTUS*Vlad Niculae (me)

*Caroline Suen*Justine Zhang

Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil Jure Leskovec

Cornell (MPI-SWS) Stanford Cornell (Stanford, MPI-SWS) Cornell (MPI-SWS)Stanford

1

equal contribution{

The press claims to befair and balanced.

Tea Party Anti-Tax March, Sep 12, 2010. Capital Mall, DC

Photo Credit: Bob Simmons license CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

America’s trust in media is at

an all time low.(Source: Gallup poll, Sept. 17 2014)

2

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flickr.com/photos/tuaussi/7681394436/&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFtGH0wPTPgnrWaA1x4r56suT4_VQ

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

“Media Bias” is subjective

Source: Gallup poll, Sept. 17 2014

Liberals

Conservatives

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Too liberal Too conservative

(Out of the ones who say it’s biased.)

3

“Media Bias” is subjectivemultidimensional

Predetermined dimension Proxy to slant

[Dalton et al, 1998][Peake, 2007]

Democrat/Republican Endorsement

[Schiffer, 2006] Democrat/Republican Congress

[Gentzkow et al, 2010][Groseclose et al, 2005]

[Lin et al, 2011]Democrat/Republican Congress

[Ho et al, 2008] Liberal/Conservative Supreme Court Justices

& other theoretically possible dimensions… 4

hard to quantify

Large Scale,

Unsupervised,

Without fixing a bias dimension.

5

We want a way to address media bias:

Insight: Quoting patterns.

Photo Credit: David Suter

Selection BiasNo space to report everything.

Outlets must makeconscious choices.

Fair world:” are the choices based only on newsworthiness?

Or is there something else behind?6

“

http://suterism.blogspot.com/

7

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey license CC-BY 2.0 8

https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/5605687303/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

With or without this Congress, I will keep taking actions that help the economy grow. But I can do a whole lot more with your help. Because when we act together, there's nothing the United States of America can't achieve.

Barack Obama, 2012 State Of The Union address.9

—Right Wing News


10

—CNN, Huffington Post


11

Are quoting patterns systematic?

Do they correspond to intuition?

Can language characterize the bias?

12




13

Quoting graph

275 online media outlets.(newspapers, blogs, …)

54K Obama quotes in 6 years.

Edge = outlet reported quote.230K edges.

)The Adjacency

Matrix(X=

14



Can we predict quoting?If we can predict quoting choices, it means there is a pattern.

15


Can we predict quoting?Leave out 250K entries of X.

16



17

Matthews Correlation Coefficient

0% 14% 28%



18


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%


Can we predict quoting?

19


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%

Leave out 250K entries of X.

In a “fair world” without bias: - popular quotes get cited more,



In a “fair world” without bias: - popular quotes get cited more,

20

Quote Popularity


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%



In a “fair world” without bias: - popular quotes get cited more, - and big outlets quote more.

21

Quote Popularity


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%



22

Quote Popularity

+ Outlet Size


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%

Leave out 250K entries of X.

In a “fair world” without bias: - popular quotes get cited more, - and big outlets quote more.



23

Quote Popularity

+ Outlet Size


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%

Matrix completion by low-rank factorization



24

Quote Popularity

+ Outlet Size


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT



25

Quote Popularity

+ Outlet Size


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%


)( )( )(≈

outlet space quote space

X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT



26


)( )( )(≈


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT

Quote Popularity

+ Outlet Size

MatrixCompletion


0% 14% 28%

Reca

ll

0%

17%

33%

50%

Precision

0% 12,5% 25% 37,5% 50%




27




28

Yes! There is systematicity

beyond newsworthiness.

Are quoting patterns systematic? Yes!



29

)( )( )(≈


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT

30


)( )( )(≈


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT

31


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13

The first two latent dimensions:

32

)(outlet space

X̂ = ⋅VT


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13


33

)(outlet space

X̂ = ⋅VT


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13


National ReviewThe BlazeDaily Caller

PJ MediaTown Hall

Real ClearReasonWeekly Standard

34

)(outlet space

X̂ = ⋅VT


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13



PJ MediaTown Hall


The Guardian

The BBC

Al Jazeera

The Hindu

35

)(outlet space

X̂ = ⋅VT


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13


BarackObama.com


PJ MediaTown Hall


Mother Jones

The Nation

Washington MonthlyCrooks & Liars

Daily Kos

The Guardian

The BBC

Al Jazeera

The Hindu

36

)(outlet space

X̂ = ⋅VT


Does it correspond to intuition?

At the top of dimension 2:

Free RepublicLonely ConservativeRight Wing News…

37




38




Around zero on dimension 2:NY PostThe EconomistLA Times…

39




Around zero on dimension 2:NY PostThe EconomistLA Times…

40




Around zero on dimension 2:

Around the bottom of dimension 2:Sydney Morning HeraldOttawa CitizenThe Globe And Mail…

NY PostThe EconomistLA Times…

41




Around zero on dimension 2:

Around the bottom of dimension 2:Sydney Morning HeraldOttawa CitizenThe Globe And Mail…

NY PostThe EconomistLA Times…

42




43




44

Kind of. It’s not only

liberal/conservative.


Do they correspond to intuition? Kind of.


45


)( )( )(≈


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT

46


)( )( )(≈


X ≈ X̂ = U ⋅ VT

47


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,1348

(The same axes!)

)(quote space

X̂ = U ⋅


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13

If we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, “you’re on your own.”

49

)(quote space

X̂ = U ⋅


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13

The truth is, you could figure out on the back of an envelope how to get this done. The question is one of political will.


50

)(quote space

X̂ = U ⋅


-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13


The truth is, you could figure out on the back of an envelope how to get this done. The question is one of political will.

By the end of the next year, all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq.

51

)(quote space

X̂ = U ⋅


Average sentiment of quotes:

52

(The same axes!)


Average sentiment of quotes:

53

(The same axes!)


Average sentiment of quotes: Amount of negation in quotes:

54

(The same axes!)

Conclusion

55

Online visualization & data:http://snap.stanford.edu/quotus/

Quoting patterns are systematic:We can predict them.

http://snap.stanford.edu/quotus/

Conclusion

-0,16

-0,08

0

0,08

0,16

0,00 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13

56

Online visualization & data:http://snap.stanford.edu/quotus/

Quoting patterns are systematic:We can predict them.

Selection bias is multidimensional.

Language plays a part:Sentiment and negation show alignment.

http://snap.stanford.edu/quotus/

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