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Word Counting

Concordance

Reading / Viewing

Word Counting Basics

Creative Inspiration

Text Analysis

TF-IDF

Bayesian Text Classification

Reading

Part of the challenge of understanding algorithmic oppression is to understand that mathematical formulations to drive automated decisions are made by human beings. While we often think of terms such as “big data” and “algorithms” as being benign, neutral, or objective, they are anything but.

Assignment

Choose a text or data source and count word frequencies following the examples above. Design your own creative output. This need not be visual (sonify word counts?) nor does it require code (knit your own word frequency scarf!) Some things to consider:

  • Use a language other than English!
  • What happens if you compare different texts according to word frequency?
  • Can you look at frequency of how words appear next to each other?

Reflect on your process of word counting and consider the following questions:

  • Did you discover anything new about the text by counting words?
  • What is lost from word counting?
  • Challenge the assumption that algorithms for analyzing text (such as word counting) are neutral.

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Emoji Key for Video Tutorials, Readings, and more

  • 🚨 Watch this video tutorial! (this is technical info needed for the examples). Of course if you alreaddy know this material, you can skip.
  • 🔢 This is found in a group, maybe pick just one to check out!
  • 🍿 Additional video if you have a particular interest and want to do a deeper dive.
  • 📕 Required reading! Let's make sure we all have read this.
  • 📚 Optional additional reading for a deeper dive.
  • 💻 Code examples here!
  • 🔗 Extra reference material / link