Finding and tracking subjects within an ongoing debate

This paper describes a new algorithm for finding and tracking different subjects within an ongoing debate. The algorithm finds blocks of co-occurring terms, representing subjects, including blocks for which the term co-occurrence pattern forms a ring topology. We used short online debate forum data and longer summary bulletins to assess the extent to which the algorithm could correctly detect subjects, according to the judgements of human evaluators. The results show that it could normally detect subject-shifting and track different subjects over time in online debate forums and with adjustments could find subjects in bulletins, but could not track the subjects in the bulletins because the interlinking between subjects was too dense in the longer documents.     

A comparison of feature selection methods for an evolving RSS feed corpus

Previous researchers have attempted to detect significant topics in news stories and blogs through the use of word frequency-based methods applied to RSS feeds. In this paper, the three statistical feature selection methods: χ², Mutual Information (MI) and Information Gain (I) are proposed as alternative approaches for ranking term significance in an evolving RSS feed corpus. The extent to which the three methods agree with each other on determining the degree of the significance of a term on a certain date is investigated as well as the assumption that larger values tend to indicate more significant terms. An experimental evaluation was carried out with 39 different levels of data reduction to evaluate the three methods for differing degrees of significance. The three methods showed a significant degree of disagreement for a number of terms assigned an extremely large value. Hence, the assumption that the larger a value, the higher the degree of the significance of a term should be treated cautiously. Moreover, MI and I show significant disagreement. This suggests that MI is different in the way it ranks significant terms, as MI does not take the absence of a term into account, although I does. I, however, has a higher degree of term reduction than MI and χ². This can result in loosing some significant terms. In summary, χ² seems to be the best method to determine term significance for RSS feeds, as χ² identifies both types of significant behavior. The χ² method, however, is far from perfect as an extremely high value can be assigned to relatively insignificant terms.     

Media Production

Michael Murray's The Videotape Book: A Basic Guide to Portable TV Production (New York: Taplinger, 1975—$9.95),

Rudy Bretz's Handbook for Producing Educational and Public-Access Programs for Cable Television (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Educational Technology Publications, 1976— price not given, paper)

Paul Yerbic's Les Animations Simples Pour la Vidéo Éducative (Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, Les Cahiers de Direct, 19 Avenue de Messine, 75008 Paris, France—25 French francs, paper)

Marlin Skiles' Music Scoring for TV & Motion Pictures (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1976—$12.95)

Arthur Wimer and Dale Brix's Workbook for Radio and TV News Editing and Writing (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm C. Brown, 1975—$7.95, paper).

Judith L. Burken's Introduction to Reporting (Dubuque, Iowa: C. Brown, 1976—price not given, paper).     

General Mass Communications

Rudy Bretz' A Taxonomy of Communication Media (Educational Technology Publications, 140 Sylvan Ave., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632, $4.95)

Donald F. Theall's The Ledium is the Rear View Mirror: Understanding McLuhan (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, $2.65 paperback)

John Hohenberg's Free Press/Free People: The Best Cause (Columbia University Press, $9.95)

Robert Cirino's Don't Blame Me: How the News Media Use Bias, Distortion and Censorship to Manipulate Public Opinion. (Diversity Press, Box 45764, Los Angeles 90045, $2.95 paperback)

Barbara J. Love (ed.) Foremost qomen in Comunications: A Biographical Work on Accomplished Women in Broadcasting, Publishing, Advertising, Public Relations, and Allied Professions. (Foremost American Publishing co./R.R. Bowker, $25.00)

Robert L. Breeden (chief ed.) Those Inventive Afcricans (National Geographic Society, Washington D.C. 20036, $4.25)

Black Comnunicator (Suite 405, 1730 11 St. NU, Washington D.C., 20036, $5.00 annually)

Arthur R. Miller's The Assault on Privacy: Coaputers, Data Banks, and Dossiers (University of Michigan Press, $7.95)

George Katona, Burkhard Strumpel and Ernest Zahn's Aspirations and Affluence (McGraw-Hill, $12.95)     

Literature of broadcasting: Books in review

BEST TELEVISION PLAYS. Ed. by Gore Vidal. New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1956. 250 pp. 35c.

TELEVISION PLAYS BY PADDY GHAYEFSKY. By Paddy Chayefsky. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1955. 268 pp. $1.50 (paperback).

TOP TV SHOWS OF THE YEAR, 1954–55. Ed. by Irving Settel New York: Hastings House, 1955. 269 pp. $5.50.

TELEVISION SCRIPTS FOR STAGING AND STUDY. By Rudy Bretz and Edward Stasheff. New York: Hill and Wang, Inc., 1953. 332 pp. $4.95.

TELEVISION'S IMPACT ON AMERICAN CULTURE. By William Y. Elliott. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press 1956. 382 pp. $4.95.

MASS COMMUNICATIONS. By Erik Barnouw. New York: Rine‐hart and Company, Inc., 1957. pp. 280. $4.00.

CONSUMER RESEARCH WITH PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES. By Dietz Leonhard. Shenandoah, Iowa: World Publishing Co., 1955. 151 pp.

ON HUMAN COMMUNICATIONS: A Review, a Survey and a Criticism. By Colin Cherry. New York: The Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1957. 333 pp.

TELEVISION TECHNIQUES, revised edition, by Hoyland Bettinger, revised by Sol Cornberg. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. 236 pp. $3.75.

TV MEASUREMENT FOR THE SPONSOR. By American Research Bureau, Inc., 1956. 53 pp. (Free.)

FOUR THEORIES OF THE PRESS. By Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1956. 153 pp. $3.50.