Introduction to the Predictive Analytics and Big Data Mini-track

In the first paper by Wozniak and Cogburn, large volume of text-based data related to the all remarks given by the three Secretaries of State, namely Secretary Clinton, Secretary Rice, and Secretary Albright, are analyzed. The paper is using the ASSANA methodology-Accelerating Social science Analysis for a New Age, which is a tool developed by the authors to conduct analysis of large-scale, unstructured, text-based data. Two research questions were examined mainly in this research: what the most critical keywords of each secretary are during their tenure and what the similarities are amongst those keywords and phrases. After revealing answers for each of the two questions, authors point out that main limitation of the study to be further investigated in future research is to conduct a context analysis. Although some keywords and phrases are revealed to be important due to their number of times used, these researchers are skeptical about the fact that the context that they are used in may differ and hence deserves further investigation.