September 11th Attack:
Reuters News
(Special Edition)
Kevin Dooley & Steve Corman
Arizona State University
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
“Special Edition”
• The following slides show a set of CRA maps of Reuters news
reports on the terrorist attack, collated at three hour intervals
beginning a 9 a.m. on September 11th.
• These are the same maps that were previously distributed, but
in this edition we have annotated them with our interpretations
of what they are showing about the coverage.
• At this point this is just a descriptive analysis, intended to show
that CRA can capture crucial details of the coverage and how it
varies over time.
• We have mostly restricted comments to concepts shown on the
high level maps, which only represent about 1-3% of all the
concepts in the full text for a given period. In a couple of cases
we have drilled deeper with maps of particular words.
• Finally, note that the data presented only runs the first 2 days—
part of the value of CRA is to extend the identification of such
patterns across larger amounts of textual data.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Source of Data
• Data set: Every story released by the news
agency Reuters concerning the September 11
attack on the U.S., beginning at 9:00 AM EST
• Stories were stripped of titles, headers, and
by-lines
• Stories were separated into 3 hour blocks,
and each story in that block was combined
into a single text
• The text was appropriately cleaned and
subjected to CRA analysis
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Reading a CRA Map
• CRA = Centering Resonance Analysis
– Text analysis method
– Based on theory of discourse
– Identifies influential words as those that connect other concepts
together
• The CRA Method
– Identifies noun-phrase(NP) tokens (words making up NPs)
–
–
–
–
Constructs connections between these words
Represents the connections as a network
Analyzes words via their structural position in the network
We call words with an important structural position in the network
influential
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
The CRA Maps Shown Here
• The “maps” here are visual representations of the
CRA networks for each 3 hour time period.
• Each period yields between 1000-3000 selected
words. This is too many to visualize, so the “toplevel” maps here show only the 30 or so most
influential words for each period.
• Green nodes (towards the bottom) are the most
influential, blue nodes are next, and then white
nodes are next--but all nodes shown are relatively
influential.
• Connections between nodes indicate the concepts
are discursively linked.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.11.01
9AM-Noon
Other highly
Planeinfluential
and attack are the
(green)
words
appearwords. This
most influential
showing
the main
means
they are most
locations.
Using just the the first three
responsible for “tying
hours’ text, CRA analysis
together” the other words.
shows the essential elements
of the story in the most
central positions.
From the outset,
the events are
Bin
Laden also9.11.01
framed as an attack
Tuesday
appears in the first
on the United
States. three hours of the
story, before there
is any public
evidence about
who was involved.
9AM-Noon
Please examine the
CRA map and then
click for annotations.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.11.01
Noon-3PM
Bin Laden is again linked to the
attack. More details are coming in
as the detailed subnets for the
word bin_laden show (click the
following links to open web pages
with the subnets). During the last
time period he was described
simply as a Saudi-born guerilla
leader. During this time period he
is associated with a Saudi
dissident group, and there are
indications that he is a suspect
that was targeted in an American
cruise missile attack in
Afghanistan.
Indications of
concern with the
possibility of attacks
on other buildings…
Also indications of a
government
response.
Please examine the
CRA map and then
click for annotations.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
…including
embassies, which
have been
previous terrorist
targets.
9.11.01
3PM-6PM
A secondary theme
in the news centers
on the logistics of
recovery efforts.
For the first
time “war”
becomes highly
influential,
indicating that
it is becoming
another
organizing
concept for
sense-making
about the
tragedy.
In late afternoon of day 1, Bin
Laden has dropped off the radar
screen and the Palestinians are
influencing the news. This is partly
due to news about the Palestinian
president, noticeable here in the
high-level map. But the subnet for
the word palestinian shows that a
much richer set of connections is
being made, including ties to
possible terrorist suspects, and to
the relationship between the U.S.,
Israel, and the Palestinians.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.11.01
6PM-9PM
…but after the
war framing
last time, the
military is
coming into the
picture
Continuing a trend
started last period,
the Pentagon is
more influential in
the news than the
World Trade Center.
The subnet for the
word pentagon
indicates the focus
here was on damage
to the building and
not yet on war
planning…
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.11.01
9PM-Midnight
A dangerous rescue
and recovery scene
A marked increase this
period in personalization
of the tragedy
Suggestion
of
official intelligence
linking Bin Laden to
the attacks
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
Midnight-3AM
Number killed
gains influence
Evidence of widening
Government
institutional impact First fallout:
concern over
response
oil prices andgets
the stock
more
specific
market. Special attention to
the Japan market and
airline shares
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
3AM-6AM
Bin Laden and
Afghanistan now
both appear on the
Discussion of the use
high-level map and
of force begins to
are linked.
assume a central
position in discourse.
Early Wednesday Former
President Clinton is
more central in the news
than current President
Bush.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
6AM-9AM
At the close of the first 24
hour period the secondary
coverage is focused on the
aftermath.
In this context Mayor
Giuliani first appears
as a highly influential
concept.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
9:00AM-Noon
In this period, there
is not much new.
However, Bin Laden,
the Taliban, and
Afghanistan are now
mutually linked.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
Noon-3PM
Once again, Palestinians The FBI makes its first
replace Bin Laden on the appearance on the high
level map. It took them
high level map.
only 24 hours to find and
make public the Florida
connection.
Airports, flights, and
related financial
concerns are assuming
a large role in the news.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
3PM-6PM
Most of the highly
influential words last
Wednesday afternoon
focus on airport security,
airlines, and flights
Wednesday, suggesting
a concern with security
and disruption of the
system.
U.S. oil supply is an issue
in this period, probably
reflecting Arab states’
assurances that supplies
would not be cut.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
6PM-9PM
Wednesday evening brings a
secondary focus on apparent
media coverage of the disaster…
…especially
television
coverage of the
collapse of the
WTC Towers.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
9.12.01
9PM-Midnight
…and on efforts to
prevent further
crimes like theirs.
The link to
flight schoolsWednesday night
develops. the U.S. response
is a very
influential path.
Passenger who
called his wife from
the 4th plane.
News begins to focus
squarely on the
hijackers…
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Dynamics
• We have identified four types of word dynamics in
CRA graphs over time. We don’t yet have appropriate
theoretical terms for these yet, but the working
descriptions are:
– Context: randomly varying (non-zero) influence over first
48 hours…provides a constant context for text
– Emergent: either because of real time response, or
sensemaking
– Cyclical: Emerge, disappear, and emerge again
– Immediate: important to telling of real time story, but not
critical to sensemaking; this would include terms like fire,
smoke, etc. (we have not included graphs of these)
• The following slides show examples of the first three
dynamics.
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Example of Context Concepts
0.35
0.25
world_trade_center
0.2
attack
0.15
united_states
0.1
0.05
21
09
12
15
09
12
9
09
12
3
09
12
21
09
11
15
09
11
9
0
09
11
Influence
0.3
Time
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Example of Emergent Concepts
0.4
passenger
0.25
response
0.2
0.15
airport
hijacker
0.1
0.05
Time
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
0912 21
0912 18
0912 15
0912 12
0912 9
0912 6
0912 3
0912 0
0911 21
0911 18
0911 15
0911 12
0
0911 9
Influence
0.35
0.3
0.2
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
plane
21
09
12
15
09
12
9
09
12
3
09
12
21
09
11
15
09
11
9
president_bush
09
11
Influence
Example of Cyclical Concepts
Time
Copyright © 2001Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.