One curious side-effect of the work to digitize books and historical texts is the ability to search these databases for words, when they first appeared and how their frequency of use has changed over time.
The Google Books n-gram corpus is a good example (an n-gram is a sequence of n words). Enter a word or phrase and itll show you its relative usage frequency since 1800. For example, the word Frankenstein first appeared in the late 1810s and has grown in popularity ever since.
By contrast, the phrase Harry Potter appeared in the late 1990s, gained quickly in popularity but never overtook Frankenstein or Dracula, for that matter. That may be something of surprise given the unprecedented global popularity of J.K. Rowlings teenage wizard.
And therein lies the problem with a database founded on an old-fashioned, paper-based technology. The Google Books corpus records Harry Potter once for each novel, article and text in which it appears, not for the millions of times it is printed and sold. There is no way to account for this level of fame or how it leaves others in the shade.
Today that changes, thanks to the work of Thayer Alshaabi at the Computational Story Lab at the University of Vermont and a number of colleagues. This team has created a searchable database of over 100 billion tweets in more than 150 languages containing over a trillion 1-grams, 2-grams and 3-grams. Thats about 10 per cent of all Twitter messages since September 2008.
The team has also developed a data visualization tool called Storywrangler that reveals the popularity of any words or phrases based on the number of times they have been tweeted and retweeted. The database shows how this popularity waxes and wanes over time.
In building Storywrangler, our primary goal has been to curate and share a rich, language-based ecology of interconnected n-gram time series derived from Twitter, say Alshaabi and co.
Storywrangler immediately reveals the story associated with a wide range of events, individuals and phenomenon. For example, it shows the annual popularity of words associated with religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter. It tells how phrases associated with new films burst into Twittersphere and then fade away, while TV series tend to live on, at least throughout the series lifetime. And it reveals the emergence of politico-social movements such as Brexit, Occupy #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
The storylines can also be compared with other databases to provide more fine-grained insight and analysis. For example, the popularity of film titles on Twitter can be compared with the films takings at the box office; the emergence of words associated with disease can be compared with the number of infections recorded by official sources; and words associated with political unrest can be compared with incidents of civil disobedience.
Thats useful because this kind of analysis provides a new way to study society, potentially with predictive results. Indeed, computer scientists have long suggested that social media can be used to predict the future.
These storylines have social and cultural significance too. Our collective memory lies in our recordings in our written texts, artworks, photographs, audio and video and in our retellings and reinterpretations of that which becomes history, say Alshaabi and colleagues.
Now anyone can study it with Storywrangler. Try it, its interesting.
As for Harry Potter, Frankenstein and Dracula, the tale that Storywrangler tells is different from the Google Books n-gram corpus. Harry Potter is significantly more popular than his grim-faced predecessors and always has been on Twitter. In 2011, Harry Potter was the 44th most popular term on Twitter while Dracula has never risen higher than 2653rd. Frankensteins best rank is 3560th.
Of course, fame is a fickle friend and an interesting question is whether Harry Potter will fare as well as Frankenstein two hundred years after publication. Storywrangler, or its future equivalent, would certainly be able to help.
Ref: Storywrangler: A massive exploratorium for sociolinguistic, cultural, socioeconomic, and political timelines using Twitter. arxiv.org/abs/2007.12988
Go here to read the rest:
How Data Mining Visualizes Story Lines in the Twittersphere - Discover Magazine
- Why This Underrated Dracula Movie With 25% On Rotten Tomatoes Is Doing So Well On Netflix 10 Years Later - Screen Rant - July 17th, 2024
- If it's Dracula then...: Marvel Fans Believe One 'The Boys' Star Will Be the Perfect Villain in 'Blade' Amid Mia Goth ... - FandomWire - June 1st, 2024
- Director Karyn Kusama Explains Why She Thinks Her Dracula Film 'Mina Harker' Fell Apart So Suddenly - Bounding Into Comics - May 20th, 2024
- Hugh Jackman's 2004 Horror With 24% On RT Is The Biggest Missed Opportunity In Dracula Movie History - Screen Rant - May 20th, 2024
- Disk Called Dracula's Chivito Has The Largest Collection Of Planet-Making Materials Ever Found - IFLScience - May 20th, 2024
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film) - Wikipedia - May 9th, 2024
- Dracula by Bram Stoker | Project Gutenberg - May 9th, 2024
- As Seen on Bram Stokers Dracula: A Vampires Self-Portrait in the Style of Drer - artnet News - May 9th, 2024
- Dracula new trailer: Are Keanu Reeves and Jenna Ortega starring in the movie? - The Economic Times - May 9th, 2024
- Dracula Trailer: Is the Keanu Reeves Movie Real or Fake? Will Jenna Ortega Appear? - ComingSoon.net - May 9th, 2024
- Upcoming Dracula Movie Is Doomed Based On New $28 Million Horror Film With 83% RT Score - Screen Rant - May 9th, 2024
- Why this year's hurricane season could be 'extremely active'; Dracula debuts at the NOLA ballet - WRKF - May 9th, 2024
- V Rising: Here's what to expect when you enter Dracula's frozen domain of Mortium - PlayStation - April 22nd, 2024
- Dracula: I Never Read.... Books - Sound&Vision - April 22nd, 2024
- V Rising Ruins of Mortium Trailer Brings the Fight to Dracula - PlayStation LifeStyle - April 22nd, 2024
- Keanu Reeves refused to hurl abuse at Winona Ryder when making Dracula - LADbible - April 22nd, 2024
- Our oppressive tax system can be analogized to Dracula - Washington Times - April 22nd, 2024
- Vlad The Impaler, Inspiration For Dracula, May Have Cried Tears of Blood: Study - NDTV - March 24th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC): Does the Reward Outweigh the Risks? - InvestorsObserver - March 24th, 2024
- Abigail's 1936 Inspiration Teases An Appearance By 1 Classic Horror Character (Not Dracula) - Screen Rant - March 24th, 2024
- Off The Telly - 4. "She is basically the sister of Dracula" - BBC - March 24th, 2024
- Is Dracula Token (DRC) Heading the Right Direction Thursday? - InvestorsObserver - March 16th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC), High Volatility and Rising Sunday: Is it Time to Cash Out? - InvestorsObserver - March 16th, 2024
- 'Dracula A.D. 1972': when the iconic vampire met the hippies - Far Out Magazine - March 16th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC) Do the Risks Outweigh the Rewards Wednesday? - InvestorsObserver - March 8th, 2024
- Luc Besson to Direct Dracula, Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz Will Lead Retelling of Bram Stokers Gothic Classic - Variety - February 19th, 2024
- Luc Besson to Direct Dracula, Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz Will Lead Retelling of Bram Stokers Gothic ... - IMDb - February 19th, 2024
- New Dracula Movie Is In Development With Different Retelling Of Bram Stoker's Story - Screen Rant - February 19th, 2024
- Caleb Landry Jones to Re-Team With Luc Besson on Dracula Origin Story - Hollywood Reporter - February 19th, 2024
- Caleb Landry Jones And Christoph Waltz To Star In Luc Besson's Dracula - Empire - February 19th, 2024
- New Dracula Feature Will Delve Into The Vampire Lord's Origins - Horror News Network - February 19th, 2024
- In This Moment to Launch the Godmode Tour with Kim Dracula - Knotfest - February 19th, 2024
- Dracula's Chivito: New protoplanetary disk discovered with Pan-STARRS - Phys.org - February 19th, 2024
- In 'Dracula: Blood Hunt,' the Lord of Vampires Takes the Daughter of Blade Under His Wing - Marvel.com - February 19th, 2024
- Embrace The Darkside! Richmond Ballet Redefines Valentine's with Dracula - rvamag.com - February 19th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC) What Does the Chart Say Sunday? - InvestorsObserver - February 19th, 2024
- Dracula's Chivito Is This Year's Best Name For A Newly Found Astronomical Object - IFLScience - February 19th, 2024
- From Billie Holiday to Dracula, is there anyone Zahra Newman cant play? - Sydney Morning Herald - February 19th, 2024
- Review: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Presents a New Take on 'Dracula' From a Female Perspective - Cincinnati CityBeat - February 11th, 2024
- A 103-Year-Old Lost Film Was Actually The First Dracula Movie, Not The Movie People Think Is The First - Screen Rant - February 11th, 2024
- February 2020 (version 1.43) - Visual Studio Code - February 3rd, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC), High Volatility and Falling Friday: Is it Time to Cash Out? - InvestorsObserver - February 3rd, 2024
- Is Dracula Token (DRC) Heading the Right Direction Wednesday? - InvestorsObserver - February 3rd, 2024
- The Weekly Pull: Detective Comics, Resurrection of Magneto, Universe Monsters: Dracula, and More - ComicBook.com - January 26th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC) Do the Risks Outweigh the Rewards Monday? - InvestorsObserver - January 26th, 2024
- Dracula Token (DRC) Falls 47.02% Wednesday: What's Next for This Bearish Rated Crypto? - InvestorsObserver - January 26th, 2024
- The Real History That Went Into Bram Stoker's Dracula | TIME - January 18th, 2024
- Dracula writer Bram Stoker revealed as a humble minute taker for actor charity - The Guardian - January 18th, 2024
- 'Abigail' Trailer Dracula's Daughter Is on the Hunt - Collider - January 18th, 2024
- Which 'Dracula' Movie Is the Most Book-Accurate? - Collider - January 9th, 2024
- Arundel Playhouse celebrates a successful 2023 and kicks off 2024 with 'Dracula: The Bloody Truth' - SussexWorld - January 9th, 2024
- THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER Almost Featured Van Helsing and a Werewolf-Like Dracula GeekTyrant - GeekTyrant - January 1st, 2024
- The strong Dracula Open Youth & Junior Tournament will take place in Romania on February 11-19 - Asian Boxing Confederation - January 1st, 2024
- Is Dracula Token (DRC) Heading the Right Direction Tuesday? - InvestorsObserver - January 1st, 2024
- Defining Dracula: A Century Of Vampire Evolution : NPR - December 23rd, 2023
- Was Dracula a Real Person? | Britannica - December 12th, 2023
- Dracula, a Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really Is Easy, Entertaining, and Empowering - Portland Mercury - December 12th, 2023
- Dracula: The women fight back - Oregon ArtsWatch - December 12th, 2023
- Dracula parrots: what are they and do they feed on blood? - BBC Discover Wildlife - December 12th, 2023
- Wonka | How Hook and Dracula informed the look of this autumn's musical - Filmstories - December 12th, 2023
- Dracula and rabbits and the tooth fairy...oh my! Omaha dentists trade in their traditional scrubs, making the experience less frightening - KETV Omaha - November 2nd, 2023
- Week in theater: Dracula flies into Denver, Sweeney Todd in Longmont and holiday productions are on the horizon - Boulder Daily Camera - October 16th, 2023
- When Keanu Reeves & Winona Ryder Accidentally Got Hitched On The Sets Of Bram Stokers Dracula & They Didnt Realize It Was For Real - Koimoi - February 10th, 2023
- Nina Price and Dracula Will Be the Villains of #Blade #MarvelStudios - Latest Tweet by Marvel Updates - LatestLY - January 1st, 2023
- A Dracula where the women fight back - The Boston Globe - October 19th, 2022
- Owners infuse Romanian history to Dracula-themed wine bar in downtown St. Pete The Crow's Nest at USF St. Petersburg - The Crow's Nest - October 19th, 2022
- Meet Dracula authors great-grand nephew tonight! - wnky.com - October 19th, 2022
- Cape Cod theater: Halloween season with 'The Addams Family,' Dracula - Cape Cod Times - October 19th, 2022
- "A Tale of Two Villains: Theme and Symbolism in Dracula and the Harry Potter Saga" Available Now from Histria Books - openPR - October 19th, 2022
- Netflix Added 36 New Movies and Series This Week - What's on Netflix - October 19th, 2022
- The Vampire and Its Cultural History Exponent - Exponent - October 19th, 2022
- Corin Hardy Releases The Schedule For His Halloween Horrorthon 2022 - Empire - October 19th, 2022
- Shows like Interview with the Vampire: 8 titles to sink your teeth into next - Android Authority - October 19th, 2022
- 2022: The Year of Dracula, Vampire Interviews, Nosferatu, Renfield and more - PW-Philadelphia Weekly - October 11th, 2022
- Bram Stokers Dracula review Gary Oldman is Pierrot from hell in blood-red 90s take - The Guardian - October 11th, 2022
- Cary Elwes on Bram Stokers Dracula at 30: Gary Oldman spent most of the time sleeping in a coffin - Yahoo Movies UK - October 11th, 2022
- The Best New Horror Comics in October 2022: Werewolf by Night, Creepshow, Dracula, and More! - Den of Geek - October 11th, 2022
- Ranking The Horror Movie Sequels That Sent Their Monsters To Space - Den of Geek - October 11th, 2022
- I picked up a book for 1 at a charity shop I was stunned when I found out its true value... - The US Sun - October 11th, 2022
- Abbyr Shen Reesht - Say That Again 9th October 2022 - Abbyr Shen Reesht - Say That Again - Manx Radio - October 11th, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero