Sentiment analysis of the user comments with the theme of migration posted as interactive content on the Hospodárske noviny website
Sentiment analysis of the user comments with the theme of migration posted as interactive content on the Hospodárske noviny website

Summary/Abstract: This paper reflects on the current discourse on migration in the Slovak digital environment. Given the need to examine the perception of migrants, and using the analysis of comments and posts, it captures social events. It views migration from the perspective of online readers of the Hospodárske noviny daily who send their feedback through interactive tools and actively respond to the media news and stories labeled with the "migrants” tag. The new authentic digital content is thereby considered a specific type of content – the so-called "user-generated content” (UGC). From the reader's perspective, it is one of the ways to show interest in the posts and/or news articles and express one's opinion. On the other hand, UGC also belongs to some of the highly influential tools that can affect the thinking and perception of other readers of UGC. Because UGC is largely involved in shaping the attitude of the online public and formation of public opinion, this type of digital content needs to be analyzed and steered in the desired way through an effective impact on users and/or contributors of digital content. The aim of our research is to find out how the active online readers of Hospodárske noviny view migrants in their non-anonymous comments. Using the content analysis method, and implementing the analysis of sentiment in the non-anonymous user comments (linked with their profiles on Facebook), we analyze (A) the specifics of online readers of the Hospodárske noviny daily and (B) the polarity of user comments posted by the online readers as a specific type of UGC. The sentiment of comments was measured with ternary classification, dividing the individual items into classes of positive (+1), neutral (0) and negative (-1) sentiment in the "men" and "women” category. The data were collected on the hnonline.sk website in the period 1.1.2019-5.1.2019. The data collection period was defined as one calendar year – 2018 – but descriptive statistics was also used on the comments added in 2017 to provide a broader insight into the perception of migration by the active readers. All in all, we collected 148 non-anonymous comments in 2018, out of which ¾ were male and ¼ were female. We characterized the active readers as persons involved in the communication process by posting comments to the articles tagged with the "migrants" tag and publicly adding unique user comments. The research results also suggest that active readers include men with accentuated negative emotional attitudes towards migrants who express their opinions in the comments on average once in every two news articles tagged with the "migrants” tag. The most important finding of the study is that a sizable group of active visitors of HNonline.sk perceived migrants very negatively. We also noted a difference in the user reactions between men and women. While women had a greater tendency for impartiality of opinion on the subject, men acted as the proponents of a more articulated and polar opinion on the positive - negative scale, with a proclivity to negative opinions. One of the possible explanations is that men (forming the majority of the Hospodárske noviny readership) are exposed to the digital media content more frequently, and the media that portray the migrants and refugees significantly negatively and stereotypically (Štefančík & Lenč, 2012; Mesežnikov & Bútorová, 2018; Žúborová & Borárosová, 2016; Hlinčíková, et al., 2014) have a strong impact on the formation of their opinion. The results also show that a significant affirmation of the negative opinion on the subject of migration was observable during the course of the analysis, which is demonstrated by an increasing frequency of negative comments. The number of female comments with a negative sentiment increased by 2.5% in 2018, and the number of male comments with a negative polarity rose up to 15%. Conversely, the number of neutral comments during the analysis period decreased (in males by 17.6% and in females by 1.9% of the total number of analyzed comments). It is also important to note that men contribute to the discussion more often than women, and therefore are more significantly involved in shaping the attitude of the rest of the readers in some way, both in terms of frequency and opinion on a matter. This also indicates that the attitude of male readers of Hospodárske noviny is more intense and articulated and therefore potentially more resistant to change. The prevalence of negative comments may impact the perception of migrants by other recipients who show an interest in the views of the active readers of this daily. On the other hand, the active contributors may potentially be affected by the media image of migrants. The study also suggests that the individual impacts should be examined to come to a better understanding of the issue and analyze the causal or correlational nature of these relationships. Overall, the conclusions of our research on the negative perception of Slovak recipients against the migrants and refugees are consistent with other research studies (e.g. Mesežnikov & Bútorová, 2018; Žúborová & Borárosová, 2016; Lee & Nerghes, 2018; Spálová & Szabo, 2018) focusing on the research of migration and its perception by specific social and target groups. The present paper suggests that society is facing a difficult task to shape a more favorable attitude of the majority population to migrants for their easier integration into society. The changes in the current state of perception of migrants by the readers will be all the more demanding because of the great impact of active media readers and contributors on the development and shaping of attitudes.

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