Wordled Speeches Case Study

Wordle is interesting to look at, but more importantly it boils down the content of a story or a speech to get to the essence of what it's about. I know I've heard commentary after some State of the Union speeches about how many times the president used certain words, and that gives the viewer/reader a better idea of the president's priorities. Personally, it's an artistic way to look at what's important to me or what's on my mind most of the time. I did a similar text analysis through a facebook application that shows the most used words in your statuses. "Rays" was number one for me, which kind of makes sense because two seasons ago, when they went to the World Series, I had a Rays related status for about a month or more leading up to the big event. It was still surprising, though.

To be honest, though, I don't really see a long-term or daily use for text analysis in journalism. It has all the markings of a fad technology that's cool for the moment, but will soon fade away. Maybe someone could come up with a use for it, but whatever results will not be simple text analysis. It will have to have a greater purpose other than entertainment. You'd have to get past the mildly interested "huh" reaction and go for the "wow."