Using Sentiments in Political Campaigns: Comparing Obama's 2008 and 2012 Presidential Election Speeches

Abstract

Using Sentiment Analysis, this study investigates the use of sentiments in the presidential election speeches delivered by the Democratic nominee Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential election campaigns. The study answers three questions: (1) are Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential election speeches generally subjective or objective?; (2) is the overall semantic orientation of the speeches positive or negative?; (3) how strong are the sentiments used in the speeches? A lexicon-based sentiment analysis approach is adopted to analyse the data in three rounds. The speeches are investigated (1) for subjectivity (objective-subjective classification); (2) for semantic orientation or polarity (positive-negative classification); (3) for magnitude (based on numerical scales). In each round, the analysis is carried out in three stages: (a) an overall ration analysis (b) a time-series analysis; (c) a state-bound basis. Thus, in this study, Obama's use of sentiments is detected both temporally and spatially. The analysis yields the following results: (1) Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential election speeches are objective overall; (2) the overall semantic orientation of the speeches is positive; (3) the speeches are sentimentally below medium strong.