Discourse DB Analysis

The following information was obtained by making queries on the RDF data produced by Discourse DB (you can see the RDF data here), and performing further computation on the results. The entire operation was performed using Perl. The action is done by two Perl scripts: the first gets the necessary raw data from the RDF file through SPARQL queries, using the RDF::Query library, and saves it into several text files; the second reads in the contents of those text files, does the necessary computation and and analysis on the data, and generates the HTML file you're reading now (including this text). You can see copies of these two scripts here and here, respectively. The decision was made to have Perl do the heavy lifting, instead of getting these values directly through complex SPARQL queries, because SPARQL, as flexible as it is, is also much slower and more resource-intensive than a regular Perl script. However's SPARQL's role in retrieving the data is invaluable: although this page exists on the discoursedb.org domain, the queries and analysis could have been run from anywhere in the world.

A short introduction to the Discourse DB naming system: a topic is a political issue, such as a bill, law or military conflict. A position is a possible course of action relating to a topic. A stance is a view on a position: either "for", "against" or "mixed". An opinion is any one combination of a position and a stance. Finally, an item is an editorial, column or post published in a reputable newspaper, magazine or blog.

All information is specific to Discourse DB. Data was last updated on July 3, 2009.

- Yaron Koren

Most-written-about topics:

Topic Number of items
Post-invasion Iraq 418
Iranian nuclear crisis 136
Military Commissions Act of 2006 100
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict 75
North Korean nuclear crisis 64

Most-written-about positions:

Position Number of items
Post-invasion Iraq / Coalition troops should pull out 212
Post-invasion Iraq / United States should increase troop levels 84
Iranian nuclear crisis / United States should attack Iran 54
Iranian nuclear crisis / United States should negotiate with Iran 52
Military Commissions Act of 2006 / Act should be passed 49

Most popular opinions:

Position Stance Number of items
Post-invasion Iraq / Coalition troops should pull out against 128
Post-invasion Iraq / Coalition troops should pull out for 72
Colombia-United States Free Trade Agreement / Agreement should be ratified for 38
Post-invasion Iraq / United States should increase troop levels for 38
Iranian nuclear crisis / United States should negotiate with Iran for 36

Most controversial positions:

Position # for # mixed # against
Post-invasion Iraq / Iraq should be split up 9 8 13
Post-invasion Iraq / Iraq Study Group's recommendations should be followed 14 13 21
Post-invasion Iraq / United States should increase troop levels 38 13 33
Post-invasion Iraq / United States should negotiate with Iran 18 4 17
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy / Judge Taylor was right to rule program unconstitutional 7 3 9

Least controversial positions:

Position # for # mixed # against
North Korean nuclear crisis / China should pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions 24 0 0
Post-invasion Iraq / United States should fight more ruthlessly 15 0 0
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict / France should commit more troops 11 0 0
Darfur conflict / China should pressure the Sudan to end the conflict 11 0 0
Peru-United States Free Trade Agreement / Agreement should be ratified 21 0 1

Most-frequently-appearing individual authors:

Author Number of items
Charles Krauthammer 27
Ralph Peters 25
Nat Hentoff 17
William Kristol 14
George F. Will 13

Most-frequently-appearing editorial boards:

Author Number of items
The Washington Post editorial board 72
The New York Times editorial board 68
The Wall Street Journal editorial board 46
The Washington Times editorial board 38
Los Angeles Times editorial board 33

Most-aligned authors: The two authors who agree on the most opinions are Los Angeles Times editorial board and The Washington Post editorial board, with 20 opinions in common, on the following positions:

Most-aligned individual authors: The two individual authors who agree on the most opinions are Robert Kagan and William Kristol, with 5 opinions in common, on the following positions:

Most-at-odds authors: The two authors who disagree on the most opinions are The New York Times editorial board and The Wall Street Journal editorial board, with 21 divergent opinions, on the following positions:

Most-at-odds individual authors: The two individual authors who disagree on the most opinions are Charles Krauthammer and Wesley Clark, with 5 divergent opinions, on the following positions: