Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research: Toward a valid and reliable methodology

Maier, Daniel; Waldherr, Annie; Miltner, Peter; Wiedemann, Gregor; Niekler, Andreas; Keinert, Alexa; Pfetsch, Barbara; Heyer, Gerhard; Reber, Ueli; Häussler, Thomas; Schmid-Petri, Hannah; Adam, Silke (2018). Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research: Toward a valid and reliable methodology. Communication methods and measures, 12(2-3), pp. 93-118. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/19312458.2018.1430754

	Text Maier et al_2018_Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (2MB)
Preview	Text Maier et al_2018_Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB) | Preview

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models are increasingly being used in communication research. Yet, questions regarding reliability and validity of the approach have received little attention thus far. In applying LDA to textual data, researchers need to tackle at least four major challenges that affect these criteria: (a) appropriate pre-processing of the text collection; (b) adequate selection of model parameters, including the number of topics to be generated; (c) evaluation of the model’s reliability; and (d) the process of validly interpreting the resulting topics. We review the research literature dealing with these questions and propose a methodology that approaches these challenges. Our overall goal is to make LDA topic modeling more accessible to communication researchers and to ensure compliance with disciplinary standards. Consequently, we develop a brief hands-on user guide for applying LDA topic modeling. We demonstrate the value of our approach with empirical data from an ongoing research project.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

5950 since deposited on 02 May 2018
1527 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item