ABSTRACT

This study assesses the potential of topic models coupled with machine translation for comparative communication research across language barriers. From a methodological point of view, the robustness of a combined approach is examined. For this purpose the results of different machine translation services (Google Translate vs. DeepL) as well as methods (full-text vs. term-by-term) are compared. From a substantive point of view, the integratability of the approach into comparative study designs is tested. For this, the online discourses about climate change in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States are compared. First, the results show that the approach is relatively robust and second, that integration in comparative study designs is not a problem. It is concluded that this as well as the relatively moderate costs in terms of time and money makes the strategy to couple topic models with machine translation a valuable addition to the toolbox of comparative communication researchers.

摘要

这项研究评估了主题模型与机器翻译相结合的潜力，从而可以跨语言障碍进行比较性交流研究。从方法论的角度，检查了组合方法的鲁棒性。为此，比较了不同机器翻译服务（Google翻译与DeepL）和方法（全文与逐项）的结果。从实质的角度，测试了该方法在比较研究设计中的可集成性。为此，比较了德国，英国和美国有关气候变化的在线话题。首先，结果表明该方法相对可靠，其次，比较研究设计中的集成不是问题。