Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia

Sarah Goodwin; Simon D Angus; Lachlan O’Neill; Nancy Van Nieuwenhove; Ben Wu; Yingqi Zhang; Tim Dwyer

doi:10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007

Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia

Sarah Goodwin, Simon D Angus, Lachlan O’Neill, Nancy Van Nieuwenhove, Ben Wu, Yingqi Zhang, Tim Dwyer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Despite the widely held belief that public discourse shapes and informs public policy, tracking and analysing the dynamics of public discourse over long time-frames remains a significant challenge. Myriad factors such as editorial policies, news sensationalism, election cycles, societal priorities, and political agendas can all impact the attention given, and treatment of, a range of important societal issues such as systematic disadvantage. Here, we introduce and describe 'Discourse of the Past', an interactive visualisation created for both public touch-screen exhibition and online. The visualisation presents an AI-Assisted analysis of hundreds of thousands of op-ed news articles and speeches from the major Australian mastheads and federal parliament respectively. By focusing on 23 population groups and 33 issues, we provide a rich, dynamic picture of how disadvantage is experienced in Australia and by whom. Users can discover a series of findings, such as: how News and Parliament have their own agenda and how each changes its focus over time; how some issues are more recurrent than others; how coverage and discourse intensity change relative to cycles and events; and how both discourses contribute to a better understanding of how disadvantage is lived in Australia.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023
Editors	Eric Alexander, Alejandro Benito-Santos, Angus Forbes, Florian Heimerl, Houda Lamqaddam, Yangjinbo Zhang
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	7-12
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9798350381627
ISBN (Print)	9798350381634
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007 https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007
Publication status	Published - 2023
Event	IEEE Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities 2023 - Hybrid, Melbourne, Australia Duration: 22 Oct 2023 → 22 Oct 2023 Conference number: 8th https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/10353067/proceeding (Proceedings) https://vis4dh.dbvis.de/#:~:text=23%20October%202023%20%2D%20IEEE%20VIS%202023&text=The%20VIS4DH%20workshop%20brings%20together,years%20can%20be%20found%20here. (Website)

Publication series

Name	Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023

Conference

Conference	IEEE Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities 2023
Abbreviated title	VIS4DH 2023
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Melbourne
Period	22/10/23 → 22/10/23
Internet address	https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/10353067/proceeding (Proceedings) https://vis4dh.dbvis.de/#:~:text=23%20October%202023%20%2D%20IEEE%20VIS%202023&text=The%20VIS4DH%20workshop%20brings%20together,years%20can%20be%20found%20here. (Website)

Keywords

Human-centered computing
Visualization
Visualization design and evaluation methods

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Goodwin, S., Angus, S. D., O’Neill, L., Van Nieuwenhove, N., Wu, B., Zhang, Y., & Dwyer, T. (2023). Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia. In E. Alexander, A. Benito-Santos, A. Forbes, F. Heimerl, H. Lamqaddam, & Y. Zhang (Eds.), Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023 (pp. 7-12). (Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023). IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007, https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007

Goodwin, Sarah ; Angus, Simon D ; O’Neill, Lachlan et al. / Do words matter : visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia. Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023. editor / Eric Alexander ; Alejandro Benito-Santos ; Angus Forbes ; Florian Heimerl ; Houda Lamqaddam ; Yangjinbo Zhang. Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2023. pp. 7-12 (Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023).

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title = "Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia",

abstract = "Despite the widely held belief that public discourse shapes and informs public policy, tracking and analysing the dynamics of public discourse over long time-frames remains a significant challenge. Myriad factors such as editorial policies, news sensationalism, election cycles, societal priorities, and political agendas can all impact the attention given, and treatment of, a range of important societal issues such as systematic disadvantage. Here, we introduce and describe 'Discourse of the Past', an interactive visualisation created for both public touch-screen exhibition and online. The visualisation presents an AI-Assisted analysis of hundreds of thousands of op-ed news articles and speeches from the major Australian mastheads and federal parliament respectively. By focusing on 23 population groups and 33 issues, we provide a rich, dynamic picture of how disadvantage is experienced in Australia and by whom. Users can discover a series of findings, such as: how News and Parliament have their own agenda and how each changes its focus over time; how some issues are more recurrent than others; how coverage and discourse intensity change relative to cycles and events; and how both discourses contribute to a better understanding of how disadvantage is lived in Australia.",

keywords = "Human-centered computing, Visualization, Visualization design and evaluation methods",

author = "Sarah Goodwin and Angus, {Simon D} and Lachlan O{\textquoteright}Neill and {Van Nieuwenhove}, Nancy and Ben Wu and Yingqi Zhang and Tim Dwyer",

note = "Funding Information: The authors wish to thank the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) for funding this research. We thank our colleagues and members of the Embodied Visualisation Group / the Immersive Analytics Lab (Monash Faculty of Information Technology), the SoDa Laboratories (Monash Business School), PRF, BehaviourWorks Australia, the Monash Data Futures Institute, and Grumpy Sailor for their prior work, time and contributions to this research. We also thank all participants of the initial creativity workshop and feedback sessions. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 IEEE.; IEEE Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities 2023, VIS4DH 2023 ; Conference date: 22-10-2023 Through 22-10-2023",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007",

language = "English",

isbn = "9798350381634",

series = "Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023",

publisher = "IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",

pages = "7--12",

editor = "Eric Alexander and Alejandro Benito-Santos and Angus Forbes and Florian Heimerl and Houda Lamqaddam and Yangjinbo Zhang",

booktitle = "Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023",

address = "United States of America",

url = "https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/10353067/proceeding, https://vis4dh.dbvis.de/#:~:text=23%20October%202023%20%2D%20IEEE%20VIS%202023&text=The%20VIS4DH%20workshop%20brings%20together,years%20can%20be%20found%20here.",

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Goodwin, S , Angus, SD , O’Neill, L, Van Nieuwenhove, N, Wu, B, Zhang, Y & Dwyer, T 2023, Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia. in E Alexander, A Benito-Santos, A Forbes, F Heimerl, H Lamqaddam & Y Zhang (eds), Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023. Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 7-12, IEEE Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities 2023, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 22/10/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007, https://doi.org/10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007

Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia. / Goodwin, Sarah ; Angus, Simon D ; O’Neill, Lachlan et al.
Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023. ed. / Eric Alexander; Alejandro Benito-Santos; Angus Forbes; Florian Heimerl; Houda Lamqaddam; Yangjinbo Zhang. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2023. p. 7-12 (Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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Goodwin S , Angus SD , O’Neill L, Van Nieuwenhove N, Wu B, Zhang Y et al. Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia. In Alexander E, Benito-Santos A, Forbes A, Heimerl F, Lamqaddam H, Zhang Y, editors, Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2023. p. 7-12. (Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 8th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities, VIS4DH 2023). doi: 10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007, 10.1109/VIS4DH60378.2023.00007

Do words matter: visualising historical policy and media narratives around opportunity and disadvantage in Australia

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