CA21129 - What are Opinions? Integrating Theory and Methods for Automatically Analyzing Opinionated Communication (OPINION)

OPINION will establish the field of textual opinion research, a critical upgrade for the emerging field of computational communication science. For the first time bringing together researchers studying opinionated text across and beyond Europe, the Action aims to provide the much-needed conceptual grounding, methodological integration and training to significantly advance the use of computational methods for studying digital text. OPINION convenes early- and mid-career researchers from 30 European countries, Israel, Russia and the US, integrating cutting-edge expertise from different disciplines (notably, communication science, computational linguistics, IT) while networking the many, hitherto largely disconnected language communities of textual researchers. The Action will develop united conceptual foundations and research agendas, as well as versatile computational measurement strategies for the study of opinionated text, while advancing computational skills and building a community of computational textual opinion researchers. Thereby, OPINION turns the linguistic and political-cultural fragmentation of European digital discourses into a key asset toward the development of a truly multilingual, culturally sensitive field of computational text analysis. This bid comes at a critical moment, challenging the primacy of US-focused, corporate-driven, English-language computational text research, establishing a powerful counterweight of collaborative academic research and tool development committed to open science principles and inclusive training. OPINION will provide research and industry with the robust tools needed to analyze digital text; equip politicians with the perspectives needed to regulate online deliberation spaces; aid citizen initiatives in maneuvering political landscapes; and create dialogue with tech giants about the impact of the algorithmic affordances on public deliberation and democracy.