Food for Thought
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Carl DiSalvo
Abstract
This project explores public opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in news and social media outlets, and tracks elected representatives’ voting records on issues relating to SNAP and food insecurity. We used machine learning, sentiment analysis, and text mining to analyze national and state level coverage of SNAP in order to gauge perceptions of the program over time across these outlets. Preliminary results indicate that the majority of news coverage is negative, more partisan news outlets have more extreme sentiment, and that clustering of negative reporting on SNAP occurs the South. Our final results and tools will be displayed in an on-line application that the ACFB Advocacy team can use to inform their communication to relevant stakeholders.
Disciplines
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics | Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces | Other Computer Sciences
Food for Thought
This project explores public opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in news and social media outlets, and tracks elected representatives’ voting records on issues relating to SNAP and food insecurity. We used machine learning, sentiment analysis, and text mining to analyze national and state level coverage of SNAP in order to gauge perceptions of the program over time across these outlets. Preliminary results indicate that the majority of news coverage is negative, more partisan news outlets have more extreme sentiment, and that clustering of negative reporting on SNAP occurs the South. Our final results and tools will be displayed in an on-line application that the ACFB Advocacy team can use to inform their communication to relevant stakeholders.