Submission Date

7-21-2023

Document Type

Paper

Department

Mathematics

Second Department

Computer Science

Faculty Mentor

Hugo M. Montesinos-Yufa

Comments

Presented during the 25th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 21, 2023 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

This study examines the change in connotative language use before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. By analyzing news articles from several major US newspapers, we found that there is a statistically significant correlation between the sentiment of the text and the publication period. Specifically, we document a large, systematic, and statistically significant decline in the overall sentiment of articles published in major news outlets. While our results do not directly gauge the sentiment of the population, our findings have important implications regarding the social responsibility of journalists and media outlets especially in times of crisis.

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Open Access

Available to all.

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