Public Opinion Research Articles

Sentiment Analysis of Cigarette Use Based on Opinions from X Using Naive Bayes and SVM

The research employs Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification techniques to analyze attitudes toward cigarette consumption based on Twitter user opinions. Twitter, being one of the most popular social media platforms, serves as an excellent source for gauging public sentiment on various issues, including cigarette smoking, referred to here as "X." The diverse array of opinions poses a challenge for accurate sentiment classification. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Naive Bayes and SVM algorithms in categorizing sentiment as positive, negative, or neutral. Data is collected through web scraping, and preprocessing steps such as text cleaning, tokenization, and stemming are implemented. The performance of the classification is assessed using metrics like accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. The results indicate that SVM outperforms Naive Bayes in sentiment analysis related to cigarette use. These findings provide new insights into public opinion and aim to assist policymakers in developing effective tobacco control strategies.

The war of the Russian Empire against Ukraine: The most dangerous phase of the post-communist transition

AbstractWe believe that the causes of the Russian-Ukrainian war can be understood as part of the post-communist transition. From the perspective of Putin's Russia, compared to the United States and China, the last three decades have been a failure on the economic growth front. Hence Putin's desire to restore as much as possible the Soviet Union, a multi-ethnic confederation of people built on communist ideology. But there is a contradiction here that neither public opinion nor Russian leaders can see. The Russian leadership cannot legitimise its current power and its ambitions to change the status quo by anything other than appealing to Russian national interests. This cannot be done without a communist ideology, because the Slavophile, ethno-nationalist, Pravoslav ideology and Putin's cult of personality are unacceptable to all other ethnic groups in the region.

Quotas or parity? How the framing of positive action measures impacts public support and backlash

ABSTRACT While gender quota and parity laws are increasingly popular worldwide, their introduction often causes controversy. Thus far, we lack an understanding of how the framing of these measures affects public opinion. We conducted a survey experiment in the UK and France (combined N = 2677) to identify the causal effect of framing on levels of support for the policy and potential backlash against women candidates. Comparing (1) gender quotas to increase women’s underrepresentation and (2) gender parity laws to achieve gender balance, we find that overall levels of support are greater than opposition in both countries. Parity is more supported than quotas in France, but no such framing effects emerge in the UK. Respondents’ gender also matters, with men less supportive of both measures than women. We find no evidence that either type of positive action measure increases backlash in the form of reduced support for hypothetical women candidates running under such measures.

Linguistic-discursive peculiarities of pronominal usage in political discourse (based on the material of the political talk show "60 Minutes")

This paper considers the specific features of the functioning of pronouns in political discourse. We analyse their role in the speech of the presenters and guests of the "60 Minutes" talk show. It belongs to the television discussion genre whose function is to form a collective political world picture by projecting and broadcasting certain images and meanings. The relevance of the research is due to the need not only for studying communication strategies and tactics in political actors’ speech, but also for analysing the impact of linguistic means on public opinion formation and transformation. Considering pronouns in the functional aspect enables us to identify the characteristic features that make pronouns one of the most effective means of speech influence (persuasion). Possessing manipulative potential, words of this morphological class can participate in the implementation of numerous communicative strategies and tactics, including the upward and downward strategies, the tactics of self-presentation, cooperation, impersonal accusation, discrediting, and the "us–them" opposition. The research uses discourse analysis, interpretation and contextual analysis techniques, and the communicative-pragmatic approach. As the obtained data show, pronouns can be employed to impose certain beliefs and opinions, to enhance the sense of unity and solidarity between the speaker and the audience, to shift the emphasis in the event under discussion. Moreover, they also prove to be a significant characteristic of politicians, reflecting their worldview.

Analysis of Financial and Digital Literacy Aspects in Modern Economy: Combating Internet Disinformation and Hybrid Threats in OECD

In the current political and economic context, the world is actively addressing the issue of combating disinformation and influencing public opinion. Within the OECD, various initiatives and projects focus on strengthening citizens' critical thinking, promoting media literacy and increasing information transparency. The organization also addresses digital influence and disinformation, considering ways to enhance society's resilience to these issues. Research examines the ability of individuals to combat internet traps, hoaxes, and disinformation in OECD countries, analyzing how individuals identify and detect disinformation and false information online. The research employs various statistical methods, primarily clustering analysis, as well as the analysis of statistical relationships between variables and country comparison analysis. The research indicators are based on OECD data from 2022. The study's results provide useful information for cyber security experts, policymakers, and the general public who are working to combat the spread of disinformation, hybrid threats and hoaxes on the internet.

"The Dying Gladiator" by M. Yu. Lermontov: aesthetic unity of form and content (to the 210th anniversary of the birth)

The article presents a philological analysis of M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem "The Dying Gladiator". Line-by-line and comparative analysis, as well as the methods of "reference points" and slow reading are used. The study reveals the role of rhythm in expressing the subtext of the work and holding a dialogue with the reader. Rhythmic and verbal-figurative chiasmus is considered as the leading compositional device. It plays the role of an iconic sign recreating the image of the concentric bowl of the Roman Colosseum arena, which, in turn, performs the function of a symbol conveying the idea of the mutual reversibility of the roles of victims and killers. Based on the philological analysis data, the paper refutes the popular opinion about the secondariness and artificial nature of the second part of the poem. In it, just like in the first part, the idea of the destructive influence of passions and violations of the moral imperative on the history of mankind is put forward. The article argues that the artistic harmony image created by the exquisite rhythm and perfect form of the poem is an iconic reference to the Truth and Beauty revealed in Christ and the Moral Law.

A summer course in cancer for high school students-an update on lessons taught and lessons learned

BackgroundPrevious graduate students and postdoctoral associates from the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, in partnership with the University of Florida Student Science Training Program, implemented a cooperative learning curriculum, providing high school students with a broad overview of cancer topics over six weeks over the summer. To address discussions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic on student autonomy, we report lessons learned and outcomes of a cancer biology and therapeutic curriculum modified for a collaborative learning environment.MethodsThis pre-post longitudinal observational study conducted in 2023 on a cancer biology and therapeutics course evaluated students’ knowledge retention and general awareness and opinions in cancer research. A structured survey was employed for data collection, using learning assessment surveys and the Likert scale ranging from 1 to 10, with 10 being highly likely.ResultsStudent performance tracked over a 7-year period indicated consistency in performance between years. Post-assessment analysis revealed significant improvements in student benchmark understanding, notably in their ability to define cancer in one sentence (p = 0.0407), identify cancer therapies (p = 0.0040), and recognize cancer hallmarks (p < 0.0001). An increased trend in median response to the likelihood of pursuing cancer research (p = 0.8793) and the possibility of pursuing cancer research (p = 0.4874) were also observed, although not statistically significant. Moreover, feedback from participating students indicated that “the educational activities at the end of class (e.g., escape room, case studies)” and “learning about cancer and getting to work in groups…” the curriculum fostered a positive educational learning environment.ConclusionStudents generally retained the course material presented and upheld a positive perception of the course. Incorporating opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, especially when introducing or discussing complex issues like cancer, may benefit student autotomy.

Investigating the Effects of Cinematic Content on Psychological Attitudes towards Social Issues

Cinematic content plays a crucial role in shaping and reflecting societal attitudes, offering powerful narratives that can influence public perceptions of social issues. This study explores the impact of cinematic content on psychological attitudes towards social issues among college students. A sample of 150 students was divided into two groups: Group A (80 students) impacted the positive attitude while Group B (70 students) served as the control group with negative attitude. This study aimed to assess how cinematic narratives affect attitudes and perceptions of social issues. Statistical methods employed included t-tests to compare attitudes between groups, one-way ANOVA for with-group variations, chi-square tests for categorical relationships, and pre-post tests to measure changes in attitudes. The findings highlight the significant role of cinematic content in shaping the attitudes towards social issues, emphasizing the importance of understanding how films influence public opinion and societal norms. This analysis provides insights into the effectiveness of cinematic portrayals in driving the positive social change and informs content creators on leveraging media for educational and advocacy purposes.

Evolution mechanism and influencing factors of multidimensional public opinion dissemination from the perspective of game theory

With the popularization and development of the Internet, in-depth investigation into the evolutionary mechanism of online multidimensional public opinion dissemination is crucial to modern public opinion management. This study introduces game theory into the analysis of the driving mechanism and propagation law of online public opinion, constructs a multi-dimensional public opinion network model covering social, psychological, viewpoint and environmental dimensions, and combines systematic simulation and empirical analysis. The study found: (1) In the process of online public opinion communication, the activity level of micro individuals is influenced by the comprehensive benefits of the game. The game benefits are internally affected by the benefits of publishing and receiving public opinion, and the cost of publishing public opinion. Externally, they are affected by the trust between opinion leaders; (2) Increasing the costs of publishing public opinion can effectively reduce the proportion of active participants in public opinion. Increasing the benefits of receiving or publishing public opinion will increase the proportion of active participants in public opinion; (3) A higher average social bandwagon accelerates the polarization process of viewpoints in the spread of online public opinion, while a higher average social trust slows down the speed of viewpoint polarization in the spread of online public opinion. An unfavorable external environment helps promote the polarization of viewpoints in the spread of online public opinion. This study provides a new perspective for understanding and predicting the dissemination of online public opinion, and a scientific basis for the government to formulate effective online public opinion management strategies.

“I know it when I see it”: Public opinion on removing guns from compromised owners

“Red flag” laws allow the government to remove firearms from someone if a judge is persuaded that the owner is a danger to self or others. We present the evolution of these laws and then develop and test a series of hypotheses using data from the Guns in American Life Survey (GALS), a nationwide online survey conducted in late 2018 to investigate public opinion. Findings show that adults who believe they know a “compromised” gun owner (e.g. dangerous, seriously mentally ill or suffering dementia) tend to be much more supportive of red flag laws, moderating the effects of immersion in gun culture. GALS reveals that political underpinnings are not determinative of the views of respondents. However, two sets of gun-related attitudes are strongly predictive of attitudes towards red flag laws–acceptance of scientific evidence that guns are “risky” and dangerous for civilians and principled rejection of gun control as a violation of the Second Amendment. Our results suggest that local circumstances (knowing someone who is a danger) can overwhelm macro-social attitude formation forces. We conclude by reviewing how firearm policy responses evolve, and how previously unpalatable options can become accepted by different groups such as legislators, law enforcement, registered voters and the general public.

Environmental conflicts in the mass media: insight from the media representation of ecological distributive conflicts (EDCs) in Italy

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing prominence of local ecological-distributive conflicts (EDCs) as subjects of social science research in recent decades, interaction between the media and territorial conflict has remained overlooked, still requiring further investigation. Indeed, there is currently a lack of systematic, up-to-date analysis of the relationship between the media and ecological-distributive protests that goes beyond the investigation of NIMBY narratives to provide a general overview of territorial protest representations and their implications for conflict. Based on the application of Political Claims Analysis to the national newspaper, la Repubblica, and its reporting of six Italian local EDCs, this article aims to discuss the ambivalent representations of territorial protest in the media, while also highlighting the implications of different narrative patterns for the values and perspectives embedded in public opinion. The twofold aim is to investigate the media’s narrative strategies with regard to local protests and their evolution throughout the mobilizations and to assess how the cultural context influences the likelihood that different messages will gain support. This investigation is crucial not only for filling the existing gap regarding the relationship between media and the ongoing spread of EDCs in Italy, but also for grasping broader dynamics concerning media management of environmental conflict, something that is becoming increasingly relevant to both the political and media spheres.

Attitudes toward abortion legality and abortion regulation: Insights from a nationally representative study

AbstractObjectiveNational public opinion polls and surveys use different questions from one another to assess people's abortion attitudes. We included commonly asked abortion attitude items on a single survey to examine people's attitudes toward abortion legality and abortion restriction to create profiles of people which we then compared across state groups. Concurrently assessing attitudes toward both abortion legality and restrictions is important given the changing abortion legislative climate in the United States.MethodWe administered an online survey to U.S. adults (n = 919) via Ipsos probability panel and used latent class analysis to identify classes of participants. Then, we used multinominal logistic regression to make state‐level comparisons.ResultsWe identified three classes: (1) 35.0 percent—abortion should be illegal/more restricted, (2) 35.1 percent—abortion should be legal/laws should reflect the status quo, and (3) 29.9 percent—abortion should be legal/more available. Trigger‐law states comprise the largest proportion of people who think abortion should be illegal/more restricted, whereas states without trigger laws comprise similar proportions of people from all three classes.ConclusionConcurrently measuring whether people believe abortion should be legal and the extent it should be restricted can provide a more comprehensive understanding of people's attitudes and demonstrates important state‐level nuances in attitudes.

Reading the Tea Leaves: Question Wording and Public Support for the Tea Party Movement

The emergence of the Tea Party in 2009 was a pivotal moment in American politics signaling a right-ward shift among Republican Party primary voters that would later help Donald J. Trump secure the Republican nomination for president in 2016. This article looks back in time analyzing public opinion data concerning the Tea Party movement from 2010 to 2011 examining how opinions changed over time. Specifically, two types of questions are used to plot views of the Tea Party over time: those gauging the favorability of, and support for, the movement. Findings show a decline in Tea Party support over time, with support peaking in November of 2010. This study also examines the influence of question wording on opinions of the Tea Party finding that support or favorability toward the Tea Party movement can vary significantly, depending on the options given to respondents. The implications of these results for the Tea Party movement, and the measurement of public opinion, are also explored.

The Taliban Are Coming! How Intra-Oligarchic Conflict Proliferates Computational Propaganda in Indonesia

ABSTRACT This study examines online propaganda against fifty-seven former employees of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK). This propaganda, which centered on false allegations that these employees were radical Muslims similar to the Taliban, was used as a pretext to fire them after they had failed a controversial compulsory civics test. Using Gramscian concepts of civil society and the political economy of communication, this study argues that the rise of computational propaganda in Indonesia reflects fundamental conflicts over state power and economic resources within the spheres of civil and political society. The campaign to portray KPK employees as Taliban members was the digital corollary of a political struggle among oligarchic elites over control of the anti-corruption agency as an instrument to advance their political aims. This article showcases how intra-oligarchic struggles have shaped the formation of public opinion about the KPK, a key aspect of reform, and examines their longstanding attempt to enforce oligarchic hegemony. It challenges existing studies on computational propaganda that foreground the nature of the state, or regime type, and the state’s adaptability to information technology.

Discursos periodísticos de la represión estatal en Colombia y México, 1968-1982. Un estudio comparativo

This article analyzes the role of the political press in the construction of public opinion during the processes of state repression in Mexico and Colombia between 1968 and 1982. Its objective is to analyze the types of discourses through which the major political press influenced the way in which readers interpreted the dynamics of state repression in both countries. A historical-comparative analysis of two cases is carried out to review the journalistic positions of the primary sources, in this case, the newspapers Excélsior, El Sol de México, El Informador, El Tiempo, El Siglo, El Espectador and La República. The results reveal that the press promoted seven main discourses on state repression: 1) youth and university co-optation, 2) public order violated, 3) subversion and terrorism, 4) institutions, security and the state, 5) the external enemy, 6) human rights as a violation of national sovereignty and 7) the press as a guarantor of public opinion. These discourses positioned newspapers as actors in the political contest and in the construction of public opinion in the context of recent history.

The Legal Profession in Battle: Cause Lawyers Versus State-Embedded Lawyers in Hong Kong's Democratization

The existing literature has long recognized that cause lawyers play important roles in fighting for political justice. However, the implications of how the state responds to these lawyers have yet to be comprehensively explored. This article argues that the state in Hong Kong has co-opted “state-embedded lawyers” against cause lawyers for the counter-mobilizing of public opinion. Thus, both cause lawyers and state-embedded lawyers engage in political battles with polarized objectives, either for democratic reform or regime stability. Theoretically, this paper contributes to analyzing the state's response to cause lawyering and its counter-mobilization actions by developing state-embedded lawyers. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong helps enrich the existing literature by exploring the confrontational relations within polarized legal professions. The conclusion shows that such tensions can stimulate further polarization with different business paths between lawyers, consumption patterns among citizens and understanding of the rule of law and responses from mainland China.

Making the people’s voice heard: pathways of E-participative governance in China

The widespread use of information technology has reshaped the public sphere in the digital age, turning various online platforms into novel channels for civic participation. This article delves into the dynamics and political ramifications of China’s digital participatory policymaking from the perspective of state-society interactions. Based on extensive fieldwork spanning over three years in multiple localities across China, we identify and compare three distinct models of e-participative governance: disclosure, consultation, and deliberation. These models, initiated proactively by local governments in response to citizens’ critical demands, vary significantly in key aspects such as the level of institutionalization and the nature and extent of state-citizen interaction. While they have bolstered citizens’ political influence, these models have also enabled governments to solicit public opinions on local issues, enhance the quality of decision-making, and tactfully channeled increased civic activism into non-threatening areas. Our findings underscore the intricacies of China’s e-participative governance, providing valuable insights into understanding the country’s state-society relations in the digital age.

The government intervention effects on panic buying behavior based on online comment data mining: a case study of COVID-19 in Hubei Province, China

At the end of 2019, the world grappled with an unparalleled public health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also precipitated a global economic downturn. Concurrently, material panic buying occurred frequently. To restore benign market order, the government instituted a series of interventions to stabilize the market. This scholarly exploration dives deep into evaluating the tangible impact of these governmental measures in Hubei, China, a region which found itself at the very epicenter of the epidemic in its onset phase. Existing papers often employ structured questionnaires and structural equation methods, with small samples and limited effective information. In contrast, we used a dataset of tens of thousands of entries and employed text analysis to maximize the extraction of valid information. Through a meticulous analysis of public feedback, our findings unveil several pivotal insights: (1) The news measures of materials have the best effect. Their effectiveness, in descending order, is ranked as: material sufficiency > authority effect > market supervision > appeal and guidance; (2) Government measures during the epidemic’s initial phase exhibited a delay. After the lockdown measures, the phenomenon of large-scale buying has been formed, and the relevant material news was released later; (3) A dual approach combining authority influence with material sufficiency yielded the most favorable results. In light of these findings, the paper concludes with tailored recommendations aimed at amplifying the efficacy of government-led public opinion interventions in future crises.

Transformer-Based Video Comment Analysis

In this work, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of sentiment in Bilibili comments using a Transformer-based model. We employ the mT5_m2o_chinese_simplified_crossSum model, a multitasking Transformer model specifically designed for summarizing Chinese text. The study involves scraping comments from a video related to the "trolley problem," followed by data cleaning and preprocessing. The preprocessed data is fed into the Transformer model, which generates summaries that accurately reflect the main viewpoints and discussions in the comments. Our results show that the model effectively captures key ethical dilemmas, personal opinions, and emotional responses, providing a nuanced understanding of public sentiment. This research highlights the potential of advanced NLP techniques in processing large volumes of user-generated content, offering valuable insights for businesses and researchers in understanding public opinion and facilitating ethical discussions. The study underscores the importance of optimizing Transformer models for specific tasks, demonstrating their flexibility and performance in text summarization. These findings provide a robust foundation for future applications and innovations in natural language processing.

Public opinion and Chinese exports: evidence from Twitter sentiment analysis

This paper employs web-crawling and sentiment analysis techniques to quantify public opinion and then investigates its effects on Chinese exports to trading partners during 2007–2019. The empirical results show that, after the control of possible reverse causality, negative China-related public opinion is associated with decreased exports. This relationship could be nurtured through three channels namely consumer preference, economic policy uncertainty and political conflicts. Further analysis reveals that the observed relationship is especially prevalent in developed markets and non-participatory countries of the Belt and Road Initiative as well as for industrial and capital-intensive products. In addition, it is found that political relation is positively associated with exports and plays a mitigating role in the negative relationship between public opinion and exports. Our findings have important policy implications. Policy makers are encouraged to think outside the box and exploit soft power of country image to promote exports.