Data Analytics on the 2016 Presidential Debate – Making Sense of the Numbers
Jig
March 28, 2016
More than any other elections since the restoration of democracy in the Philippines in 1986, the 2016 National Elections would be pivotal to the future of the Republic. What happens after 9 May 2016 will have consequence reaching farther than just what happens for the next six years.
Also, the Philippines today also has a well-developed digital infrastructure that allows for the creation of massive amounts of data, plus the means to monitor and mine this information in search of trends.
This was why Pointwest’s budding Data Management and Analytics Group decided to do this exercise. In 2015, the team – composed of new graduates from the country’s top colleges and universities – managed to place in the upper 6% of a Kaggle Competition, which is regarded as the “Olympics of Data Science.”
The 2nd Leg of the Presidential Debate
Fast forward to 20 March 2016 in UP Cebu. Pointwest and its Data Analytics team analyzed netizen responses to the Second Presidential Debate, to contribute to the discussion on the 2016 National Elections. Pointwest believes that objectively visualizing the massive amount of information available could help the Filipino people in understanding the current political situation.
At the same time, Pointwest’s Data Analytics team wanted to see more of what it could do. Fresh from its success in the Kaggle Competitions, the young data analysts and their mentors were eager to stretch their analytical muscles, taking on the challenge of making sense of Philippine politics and the Filipino political psyche using numbers, code and analytical tools.
In the following days, Pointwest will be showcasing the results of the analysis done by the Data Science team of the Tweets made during the second leg of Pilipinas Debates 2016. Through articles and infographics, we hope to show you a side of the story the cameras didn’t capture, unfolding with the numbers being generated by each Tweet.
In a sense, the numbers tell a story. We just ran a bit of analysis to make it Your Story — every Tweet, Like, Emoji, Comment, and Post (or Repost) — in the aggregate.
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Founded in 2003 by pioneers of the Philippine Global Sourcing industry, Pointwest creates value for its list of satisfied clients — including top Fortune 100 and local companies — with world-class IT and BPM services backed by international-standards methodologies and innovative practises.
