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Healthcare Reform Effort Falters as NarrativeTracker Projected

Social Media and Internet Analysis Presage Future Directions in Healthcare Reform

DALLAS & AUSTIN, Texas – September 28, 2010 – The Healthcare Reform effort has faltered in the public mind as projected by the Healthcare NarrativeTracker™ Index (HNTI™) over the last several months. The results of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index were reported over the previous four months in a series of joint announcements by OpenConnect, the Dallas-based leader in process intelligence and analytics solutions, and Austin-based Global Language Monitor, the media analytics company.

For more information about GLM’s Narrative Tracking and Business Intelligences call 1.512.815.8836 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.

“It seems that healthcare reform was never really ‘Paid For’ as promised to the American people. The unfortunate reality is one of sharply rising premiums, severely reduced options for coverage and continued out-of-control spending,” said Edward M.L. Peters, CEO of OpenConnect. “The only way to solve this problem is through a comprehensive cost improvement program that focuses on all sectors of the healthcare industry. Saving just $.04 on every healthcare dollar would yield more than enough savings to make this program truly ‘Paid For’ without raising taxes, reducing benefits or cutting reimbursements for services.”

Since being launched earlier this spring, the Healthcare Narrative Tracker Index has found:

  • Growing concern regarding out-of-control cost increases. Analyses now show that the original cost projections have risen even more steeply as insurance companies race ahead to enact changes in their plans and rises in the price of premiums ahead of implementation.
  • Increasing national concern about the inability to keep one’s current insurance. This in spite of the president’s oft-stated assertion that “if you like your current health insurance plan, you will be able to keep it.”

Though the President’s statement is technically true, it is now evident that many of those same plans are now being altered, eliminated, or priced out of reach of their current customers. Therefore, according to HNTI, the president’s statement is viewed with deep suspicion.

  • Sharply rising concern about adding to the deficit. President Barack Obama repeatedly asserted during the healthcare debate that the overhaul legislation would bring down fast-rising health care costs and save money – and not add a penny to the deficit.
  • At a recent press conference, President Obama offered some caveats when asked about the apparent discrepancy between his promises and the current reality of rising premiums and prices. For example, Medicare’s Office of the Actuary confirmed that healthcare costs would continue to rise, at least through 2019. However, the Congressional Budget Office has recently reaffirmed its earlier finding that the Healthcare Reform effort will reduce the deficit in the long-run. Nevertheless, in contradiction to these statements, the HNTI has been ahead of the curve in tracking public perception as well as the future trajectory of the issue.

In a related development, the US Census Bureau announced earlier this week that the number of uninsured Americans grew to 50.7 million in 2009, now 16.7% of the population, rising from 46.3 million and 15.4% in 2008. Also noted was the decline in number of insured through their employer, falling from 176.3 million to 169.7 million in 2009. If this trend continues through 2010 and into 2011, it will only exacerbate the problem of funding the Healthcare Reform effort, since there will be significantly fewer people to help fund the mandate.

“The value of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index clearly extends to its predictive ability,” said Dave Hill, long-time industry observer and principle of Mesabi Associates, the Massachusetts-based technology consulting firm. “Including social media in the mix of Internet and electronic and print media sources provides a very clear (and accurate) snapshot of what the people are actually thinking. The predictive element only adds to the Healthcare NarrativeTracker’s power.”

The Healthcare NTI is based on the national discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter). In addition to the NTI, the NarrativeTracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the narratives being tracked.

In a separate release tracking the Top Political Buzzwords of the Mid-term elections, the Global Language Monitor has found that Healthcare Reform-related buzzwords have fallen sharply and now rank at No. 21 on the list, while No. 13 Deficit Spending, No. 15 Out-of-control Spending, and No. 17 Healthcare Mandate are in ascendance.

Top Political Buzzwords: Negative Narrative Entangles President and His Party

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.Top Political Buzzwords Six Weeks Out

. Narrative Tracking-based Election Forecast:

..Opposite of 2008

..Hillary Clinton Ascendant as No. 8

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AUSTIN, Texas, September 24, 2010. The Global Language Monitor (GLM) today announced that the Top Buzzwords of the Mid-term Elections portray a strongly negative narrative that has increasingly entangled the president and his party with six weeks remaining before the Mid-term elections. The Top Ten Buzzwords include Narrative, Lower Taxes, Obama as a Muslim, Conservative, Climate Change, Liberal, Recession (linked to Obama), Hillary Clinton related to Obama, Tea Partiers, and Obama as Aloof, Detached, or Professorial.

These are a dramatic departure from the top buzzwords immediately preceding the 2008 Presidential election where the Top Buzzword was Change, blame for the recession was clearly assigned to George W. Bush, Raising Taxes was No. 27, and the Surge was still a Top Ten issue as was the price of gasoline. Obamamania was the No. 3 Word of 2008 (after Change and Bailout); Obamamania now stands at No. 63. One consistency: Nuclear Iran was No. 31; now Nuclear Iran is No. 33.

Austin-based Global Language Monitor has been analyzing political buzzwords since the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003.

“The Top Political Buzzwords reflect a strongly negative narrative that the president and his party have six weeks to overcome,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. “Typically an opinion swing of this magnitude can be directly attributable to outside events, not of one’s personal doing.”

Election Forecast:  In an additional analysis, the Global Language Monitor has forecast the results of the Mid-term Elections based on the number of citations received, relating to Liberal/Progressive, Conservative  and Independent labels.  Liberal and Progressives were measured together and separately.  Based on the analysis concluded earlier this week, the results are projected to largely inversely mirror the results of 2008, where Obama won some 53% of the vote to McCain’s 46% with 1% other.  With the Independents splitting evenly or slightly in favor of the Republicans, the 2010 results would range from 53% to 56% Republicans to 44% to 47% for the Democrats.  Of course there are still six weeks before the election with game-altering ‘October Surprises’ a very real possibility.

Some seventy political buzzwords were tracked; the analysis was concluded on September 22, 2010.

The Top Political Buzzwords Six Weeks Out include:

1.  Narrative  – Idea of the narrative is a strong No. 1

2.  Lower Taxes – 600% higher than Raise Taxes (No. 10)

3.  Obama Muslim Connection - Two weeks before 2008 Election it was No . 6

4.  Conservatives – Stand at 43% of sample citations

5.  Climate Change – Always one of Top 5

6.  Liberal - Liberal/Progressives stand at 33% of Citations

7.  Recession (linked to Obama) – Over 4x the number that link to GWB (No.20)

8.  Hillary Clinton – Hillary Ascendant

9.  Tea Partiers – Very strong for a recent phenomenon

10. Obama Aloof, detached, Professorial – Reached peak in reaction to his handling the Gulf Oil Spill

11. Raise Taxes – Only 16% of lower taxes (No. 2)

12. Progressive – 74% of Liberal citations; Liberal/Progressives stand at 33% of Citations

13. Deficit Spending – Close to Out-of-Control Spending (No.15)

14. Independents – Independents stand at 20% of citations

15. Out-of-control Spending — Spending is widely viewed as out-of-control

16. Sarah Palin – Apparently, opposition only makes her stronger

17. Healthcare Mandate – Nearly triple the concern for HC Reform (No. 21)

18. Change you can believe in – Not so much, these days

19. Iraq War – Far from top of Mind

20. Recession (linked to Bush) – Warning to Dems, this is fading from view

21. Healthcare reform – Comes in just a bit higher than the Gulf Oil Spill

22. BP Gulf Oil Spill —  The BP SpillCam was the No. 1 Television Word (Teleword) of the Year

23. Anti-incumbent — It’s not just a matter of anger; lower than pundits have it

24.  Obama “oil spill” response — Major factor in negativity of overall narrative

25. Al Qaeda – Low ranking reflected by several polls, also

26. George Bush — Not much value in running a ‘Not Bush’ Campaign

27.  Wall Street Bailout – Bush, Bailout, Pelosi and Limbaugh, Cheney (and Reid) line up closely

28.  Grand Zero Mosque – More than 110 times the number of citations for 51 Park Place

29. Nancy Pelosi — Off the radar nowadays

30. Rush Limbaugh – Interesting pairing at Nos, 29 and 30, no?

Other highlights include:

· Afghanistan stands at No. 37

· Obama is now linked to Katrina more often than Bush

· Transparency now stands at No. 43

· Birther seems to receive much more media than deserved (No. 49)

· Sarah Palin’s malapropism Refudiate is No. 55

· Shovel Ready is down to No. 64.

Top Political Buzzwords of Past Elections

  • The Top Political Buzzwords of the 2008 Elections included: Change, Climate Change, the price of Gasoline, Recession, Experience, and Obama as a Muslim
  • The Top Political Buzzwords for the 2006 Midterm Elections included: Throes, Quagmire, Credibility, Global Warming, and Insurgency
  • The Top Political Buzzwords from the 2004 Elections included: Swift Boats, Flip Flop, Quagmire, Fahrenheit 911, Misleader, and Liar!

About Narrative Tracker

The Narrative Tracker is based on the national discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter). In addition to the NTI, the NarrativeTracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the narratives being tracked.

NTI by its very nature is non-biased. When we take a statistical snapshot there is no adjustment for ‘underrepresented’ groups, there are no assumptions about probability of turnout, the proportions of newly registered voters, traditional models, or expanded modularity’s. In other words, it is what it is.




‘Refudiate’: Why Sarah Palin’s Twitter flub may outlast her

By John Austin | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Pundits jumped on Sarah Palin when she recently tweeted that people should “refudiate” plans for a New York City mosque near Ground Zero.

“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” Palin tweeted.

The tweet was quickly deleted, and refute replaced refudiate, but the clips of Palin using the word on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show have not gone away. Nor has the flap over how the former governor and vice presidential candidate let her linguistic slip show.

Still, while Palin is no Shakespeare — a famous coiner of words — it may be wrong to misunderestimate refudiate too quickly.

“In English, the tradition is words bubble up from the people,” said Paul J.J. Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor in Austin. “If it’s used, it’s accepted as a word.”

George W. Bush’s notorious use of misunderestimate is a good example of how what’s called a portmanteau word can find acceptance.

Like an old-fashioned portmanteau traveling case that opens into two compartments like a book, portmanteau words such as refudiate combine two other words in form and meaning.  [Read More.]




“Refudiating” Word Games: What would Edwin Newman Think?

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What would have the late newsman and grammar guru Edwin Newman thought about airwaves and cyberspace filled with “refudiate” and “guido?”

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By JERE HESTER, Sep 16, 2010
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It’s hard to refudiate that we lost one of our great TV journalists and guardians of the language with the recent death of NBC’s Edwin Newman.

In fact, it’s impossible to refudiate – because “refudiate” isn’t a word.

We imagine that Newman, who displayed a strong sense of humor in his TV commentaries, writings and appearances on David Letterman’s old morning show and “Saturday Night Live,” might have gotten a rueful chuckle out of Sarah Palin’s tweeted mash-up of “refute” and “repudiate.”

Newman, whose death at age 91 was reported Wednesday, famously asked in “Strictly Speaking,” his 1974 bestseller on the state of language, “Will America be the death of English?”

GLM Comment:  In fact the exact opposite has occurred — American English has spurred the English to a new level, from Old English, to Middle English, to Modern English to what might be deemed, in contemporary fashion, English 2.0.

Recent evidence doesn’t bode well for the mother tongue. The folks at Merriam-Webster this month named “refudiate” the Word of the Summer – and reported that the non-word spurred many searches on its online dictionary.

Meanwhile, The Global Language Monitor last week released its annual list of the popular “telewords” (which isn’t really a word itself). Placing No. 3 on the group’s “Top Words from Television” list for the 2009-2010 TV season was “guido.”

That anti-Italian slur became a catchword, thanks to the cast of “Jersey Shore” – a place, at least on MTV, where young people foolishly acting out stereotypes are celebrated and rewarded. (In other signs of the times, The Monitor’s top two entries were “BP Spillcam” and “dysfunctional.”) [Read More.]




Politics Now Driven by Competing Narratives

Clarence Page’s (Chicago Tribune, contributor to PBS News Hour, etc.)  take on this new phenomenon.

GLM Comment:  The Global Language Monitor has been tracking political buzzwords since 2003.  See

our latest news on Political Narratives at our NarrativeTracker pages.

With less than two months to go until the November midterm elections, a clear winner is beginning to emerge in the race to declare the year’s biggest political buzzword.

Hey, buzzwords matter. Who could forget — no matter how much we might like to – such hits from years past as “chad,” “Swift Boat” and “lipstick” as it might be smeared on a pig or a pitbull?

On Tuesday, the website Global Language Monitor, based in Austin, which has been monitoring words on thousands of news, blogs and social network sites since 2003, announced the No. 1 political buzzword so far this year – beating out “climate change,” “Obama Muslim,” “lower taxes” and even “tea partiers” – is (drum roll please) “the narrative.”

The Narrative? “It’s been running strong since last spring,” GLM President Paul J.J. Payack told me in a telephone interview.

That confirmed my suspicion. I don’t even have a computerized algorithm like Payack does, but I, too, had begun to notice in my fanatical surfing of political media that the word “narrative” was popping up with increasing frequency.

For example, Steve and Cokie Roberts observed in a recent column, “For a growing number of Americans, President Barack Obama’s narrative no longer defines who he is.”

Columnist Maureen Dowd similarly wondered back in June how such a gifted storyteller as Obama could “lose control of his own narrative.”

E.J. Dionne, writing in The New Republic, notes Obama has decided to “confront a deeply embedded media narrative that sees a Republican triumph as all but inevitable.”

In fact, “narrative” was popping up so much in reference to Obama as he grappled with crises like the Gulf oil spill that a Washington Post reporter was inspired to lead one feature with, “Sing to me of the Obama narrative, Muse.”  [Read More.]




Top TeleWords of the 2009/2010 Season

BP SpillCam, Dysfunctional Families,

and All-things Jersey

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Seventh Annual Analysis by the Global Language Monitor

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Austin, Texas, USA. September 10, 2010. The Global Language Monitor today announced that the BP Spillcam has topped dysfunctional, Guido, realityand nice as the Top Words from Television for the 2009-2010 season. Rounding out the Top Ten were rude, “drama at 10:00,” ‘Chicago-style politics,’ cross-over, and ambush marketing. The awards are annually announced at the beginning of the Fall television season in the US.  This is the seventh annual analysis by Austin-based GLM.

“The Top TeleWords of 2010 encompassed an unintended ‘up-close-and-personal’ view to an unparalleled natural disaster, resonating sitcoms detailing the contradictions, foibles (and joys) of  post-Modern life, a Super Bowl victory for the still recovering city of New Orleans, and more Guidos and Guidettes and one might encounter in a lifetime.” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM.

The Top Telewords of the 2010 season with commentary follow:

1. BP Spillcam — Provocative, engaging, riveting television delivered to all three screens (and possibly the worst PR nightmare of all time).

2. Dysfunctional – Modern Family: Would you expect otherwise from a series that sprang from the mind of Rev. Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd)?

3. Guido — Jersey Shore elevates Guidos and Guidettes into the mainstream; but one of several reality shows feeding viewers interest in all-things Jersey.

4. Reality – When Webster defined reality as ‘truth or fact, not merely a matter of amusement,’ he was obviously unaware of reality TV.

5. Nice – The word ‘nice’ is associated with Betty White over 1.1 million times on Goggle. Nice and vicious, dear.

6. Rude — Simon Cowell departs American Idol after a seven-year run; even the Queen has referred to Cowell as ‘caustic’.

7. “Drama at 10:00” – As Jay Leno said of the Late Night kerfuffle with Conan O’Brien, NBC ‘wanted it and they got it’.

8. Chicago-style politics – No we are not talking about Rahm Emanuel and the White House but rather The Good Wife.

9. Cross-over (as in crossover hit) – Nineteen-time Emmy nominee Glee’s cast album rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Chart.

10. Ambush Marketing – As advertisers begin to balk at the price of Olympic sponsorships, some are to ‘ambush marketing’ as was widely demonstrated during the Vancouver Winter Games.

11. Bressus: Fan-bestowed nickname for New Orleans Saints Super Bowl winning-quarterback’s nickname — the most watched Super bowl in years.

12. Asperger’s Disease – Temple Grandin’s lesser-known challenge in the eponymously titled biopic from HBO.

13. Lady Gaga –Stephani Germanotta is visible everywhere on global television over the course of the season.

14. The Pacific (War) — Most older folks are surprised to learn that the Pacific War was a different conflict than WWII.

 

The Top Telewords of previous years:

2009 – ObamaVision — All Obama, all the time, everywhere, followed by Financial Meltdown and the death of Michael Jackson.

2008: Beijing (from the Olympics), ObamaSpeak, followed by ‘facts are stubborn things’, ‘it is what it is,’ and Phelpsian.

2007: “Surge” from the Iraq War political and military strategy, “That’s Hot®” Paris Hilton’s popular expression that is now a registered trademark, and “D’oh!” from The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie.

2006: ‘Truthiness’ and ‘Wikiality’ from the Colbert Show followed by ‘Katrina’, ‘Katie,’ and ‘Dr. McDreamy’.

2005: ‘Refugee’ from the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, followed by ‘Desperation’ from Desperate Housewives and ‘Camp Cupcake’ from the on-going Martha Stewart follies.

2004: “You’re Fired!” edged “Mess O’ Potamia” followed by “Girlie Men,” “God,” and “Wardrobe Malfunction”.




Obama Turns Page on His Winning Rhetorical Style — and the Iraq War

Analysis of Obama’s ‘Turn the Page’ Oval Office address

AUSTIN, TX, September 7, 2010 – President Barack Obama, in his second Oval Office address announced the “American combat mission in Iraq has ended [and] Operation Iraqi Freedom is over”.    The seventeen-minute long speech, Obama acknowledged President George W. Bush, but neither thanked him for his role as former Commander-in-Chief nor credited him with the ‘Surge,’ other than as a reference to the current operations in Afghanistan.  The Surge, the change in military tactics during the height of the conflict, is widely credited with changing the course of the war.  The analysis was performed by the Global Language Monitor.  GLM has been analyzing presidential speeches since the turn of the century.

Not surprisingly, the President’s tone was sober, direct, and matter of fact, even workmanlike.  There were small rhetorical flourishes, such as referring to “our troops are the steel in our ship of state”.  He clearly proclaimed his devotion and admiration for the troops at the same time distancing himself from the war, its causes and execution. His emphasis was on ‘Turning the page’.

His address contained about half the number of passive constructions (7% vs. 13%) as his previous Oval Office address in June.  His sentences were some 5% shorter while the length of his paragraphs increased some 20%, which allowed him to more fully express his thinking.

When compared to other presidents’ addresses over the last several decades, this speech compared most closely from a ‘hearability’ or ‘readability’ point of view to President Reagan’s “Tear Down this Wall” speech;  however, rhetorically this was not the case.

As for grade-level (using the standard Flesch-Kincaid metrics), this speech was on with Obama’s more recent efforts (between ninth and tenth grades).  As noted previously, Obama has moved away from the rhetorical style of his most widely praised oratorical efforts, the ‘Yes We Can’ victory speech in Grant Park and his 2004 Democratic Convention effort in Boston).  (The actual numbers are 9.5 and 7.4 and 8.3 respectively.)  In doing so, he seems to have abandoned his earlier formula that resulted in the direct emotional impact of his campaign oratory.

[Note:  this article clocked in at a 12.3 grade reading level.]

In May 2003, President Bush gave his now infamous ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech declaring an ‘End To Major Combat In Iraq’.  However, during the speech, he never actually uttered ‘Mission Accomplished’.  Those words were on the ship returning to the San Diego Naval Base, as is the tradition, from overseas duty.   Fortunately for President Obama, his backdrop was the Oval Office and pictures of his wife and family.




Not a Recession but a Global Economic Restructuring …

Summary:  What we are experiencing is not a recession, neither great nor small, but rather a global transference of wealth, power and prestige on an unprecedented level.  (This article, which appeared in a slightly differing form earlier this year, is written by Paul JJ Payack and Edward ML Peters.)

Austin, Texas, September 7, 2010 — Originally alluded to as a ‘Financial Tsunami’ or ‘Financial Meltdown,’ the major global media continue to call our current economic condition  ‘The Great Recession’.  In the beginning, most comparisons were being made to the Great Economic Depression of the 1930s, more familiarly known, simply, as ‘The Depression’ in the same way that many still refer to World War II as ‘The War’.  But even these comparisons frequently ended up referring to the recession of 1982, yet another so-called ‘Great Recession’.

The difficulty here stems from the fact that this economic crisis is difficult to express in words because it does not resemble any economic crisis of the past — but rather a crisis of another sort.

In On War, one of the most influential books on military strategy of all time, the Prussian career soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780 – 1831) stated one of his most respected tenets, “War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means,” which is frequently abbreviated to “War is diplomacy carried out by other means’ and by other rules than those of the political and financial norm of the recent past.

We believe that the reason the “Great Recession” label doesn’t fit now is because what we are experiencing is not a recession, neither great nor small, but rather a global transference of wealth, power and prestige on an unprecedented level, carried out ‘by other means’ and by other rules than those of the political and financial norm of the recent past.

This fact is entrapping two US presidents, from radically diverging political viewpoints, in the same dilemma:  describing an economic phenomenon, that doesn’t play by the old rules.  Therefore the difficulty experienced by President Bush as he struggled to describe how the US economy was not in a recession since the GDP had not declined for two consecutive quarters, the traditional definition of a recession, even though jobs were being shed by the millions and the global banking system teetered on the brink of collapse.  Now we have President Obama, attempting to describe how the US economy is emerging out of a recession, though the collateral damage in terms of the evaporation of wealth, mortgages, and jobs remains apparently undaunted and unabated.

The regional or global transfer of wealth, power and influence, the destruction of entire industries and the so-called collateral (or human) damage are all hallmarks of what is now being experienced in the West.

If you carefully disassemble the events of the last decade or two, one can see them as the almost inevitable conclusion of a nameless war that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the embrace of a form of the free-market system by China, India and the other rising states, an almost unprecedented transfer of wealth from the Western Economies to the Middle East (Energy) and South and East Asia (manufactured good and services), and the substantial transfer of political power and influence that  inevitably follows.

It currently appears that the Western Powers most affected by these transfers cannot adequately understand, or even explain, their present circumstances in a way that makes sense to the citizenry, let alone actually reverse (or even impede) the course of history.  In fact the larger realities are playing out while the affected societies seemingly default to the hope that they ultimately can exert some sort of control over a reality that is out of their grasp and control.

The good news here is that the transfers of wealth, power and influence has proven relatively bloodless but nonetheless destructive for the hundreds of millions of those on the front lines of the economic dislocations.

And it is in this context that the perceived resentment of the Islamic and Arab states should be more clearly viewed.  This is especially so as they watch helplessly as the new global reality and re-alignments unfold.

In conclusion, it can be argued that the difficulty in naming the current economic crisis is the fact that is not an economic crisis at all but rather a transformational event involving the global transfer of wealth, power and influence, the destruction of entire industries along with the associated collateral (or human) damage.

[Read More.]




Evacuee, Apocalypse & Hiroshima: Katrina Continues to Impact Language

Katrina Continues to Impact Language, Media and Politics

 

AUSTIN, Texas.   (August 30, 2010) – Katrina had a deep and lasting impact on how America looks at catastrophes and crises in the early 21st century.  And Katrina’s influence is becoming all the more pervasive as the effects of the crisis linger and the reality of the magnitude of the destruction continues to come to light.  An exclusive analysis by the Global Language Monitor (GLM) using it analytical resources, underscores how some five years after the event, Katrina continues to have an out-sized impact on our cultural landscape.  Last year, GLM ranked the Top Stories in the Global Media during the first decade of the 21st century.  Katrina ranked No. 8.

Background:  It is often said that the war in Viet Nam was the first war to be broadcast directly into American living rooms (back when people still gathered for dinner together and watched network news broadcasts).  We watched in horror at the mass destruction of the Towers falling a quarter of a century later, many of us on our computer screens.  But it was the unfolding of the inundation of New Orleans after the levees gave way that provided us with any number of up-close-and personal tragedies that would unfold (and float) before our disbelieving eyes.

Among the most prominent example of Katrina’s continuing cultural impact include:

  1. Refugee vs. Evacuee – At the time GLM’s analysis found that the term for the displaced, refugees, appeared 5 times more frequently in the global media than the more neutral, evacuees.  At the term, refugee was cited as racially insensitive.  Never endorsed by the AP Stylebook, currently the word refugee is used in the media some fifty times more than evacuee.
  2. “Heckova job, Brownie!” – GLM named this paraphrase of President Bush’s actual remark, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job” as the most memorable phrase of 2005.  The phrase, according to a Reuter’s report at the time, “became a national punch line for countless jokes and pointed comments about the administration’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster”.  Even now variations of the phrase are used to criticize less-than-stellar efforts, such as when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote, “Heck of a job, Barry” (her nickname for President Obama) in her Dec. 29th, 2009 column.
  3. Apocalyptic Imagery — The Southeast Asia Tsunami that killed over 200,000 people occurred nine months before Katrina, so audiences were somewhat familiar with horrific images of exotic locales as scenes of mass destruction.  However, the thought of the devastation unfolding in a major, revered US city, with the world watching the only remaining superpower, apparently unable to mobilize the necessary resources to stop the ongoing destruction and loss of life proved more than the press could handle.  Immediately, the global press echoed with apocalyptic imagery.  The Times in London led with: “Devastation that could send an area the size of England back to the Stone Age” and continued describing “a paranoid post-apocalyptic landscape … where corpses lie amid a scene of Biblical devastation, any semblance of modern society has gone.”
  4. The Hiroshima Analogy – Katrina hit landfall shortly after the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.   AP cited Mississippi governor Haley Barbour “Struggling with what he calls Hurricane Katrina’s nuclear destruction … [showing] the emotional strain of leading a state through a disaster of biblical proportions”.  However, the analogy continues to be used in light of the lingering effects of a drawn-out and, some would argue, less-than-successful recovery effort.  There are still 55,000 uninhabitable buildings half of which the new mayor has pledged to remove by 2014; many still lack essential services; the levees remain in questionable condition, and most importantly, some 20-to-25% of the population has failed to return.

5.  Storm and Scientific Terminology — The public has a much better understanding of the specific terminology surrounding hurricanes and tropical storms.  This would include:

  • Saffir-Simpson Scale, which predicts the destructive power of a hurricane,
  • Category or Hurricane Scale that measures the strength of a hurricane’s strength, from low to high (1 to 5).  Katrina peaked at Category 5 but at landfall fell to Category 3.
  • Storm Surge, the wall of water pushed in from of a hurricane.  Katrina’s was about 30 feet, the highest on record.
  • Levee, the massive, supposedly impermeable earthen walls, meant to hold back storm surges.  New Orleans has some 350 miles of levees.  An unfortunate fact about levees, once they let water in, they can actually prevent it from going out.
  • Naming System for Hurricanes, which has been in place for some fifty years.   They names are alphabetically sorted, alternating men’s and women’s names. The list was exclusively female until 1979. Names are recycled every 6 years. Influential hurricanes have their names retired.  Katrina was obviously retired.

6.  The name Katrina, according to the Social Security Administration, has fallen sharply in popularity.  In 2004 Katrina was the 274th most popular names for girls born in the US; in 2009 it ranked at 815.

For historical coverage of Hurricane Katrina from the Global Language Monitor, go here.




Top 10 States for Top Colleges Spring 2010

 

Spring 2010 Edition

 

Key:  State Rank, School Rank (c0llege or university), Name of School

Rankings:

No. 1 New York (44)

7 Vassar College

8 Union College

9 Cooper Union

10 Columbia University

10 Hamilton College

11 United States Military Academy

12 Colgate University

12 Cornell University

13 Sarah Lawrence University

16 Pratt Institute

17 Bard College

21 New York University

24 Skidmore College

25 University of Rochester

30 Barnard College

35 SUNY—Purchase

39 Juilliard School

44 Alfred University

47 Ithaca College

52 Siena College

61 Syracuse University

87 Fordham University

101 Hobart College

104 Hartwick College

104 Rochester Inst. of Technology

105 Manhattanville College

109 Hofstra University

112 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

113 Yeshiva University

116 SUNY—Stony Brook

118 United States Merchant Marine Academy

122 Fashion Institute of Technology

123 Kaplan University

126 CUNY-City College

129 SUNY—Geneseo

130 Binghamton University

132 University at Buffalo—SUNY

135 CUNY-Brooklyn

137 School of Visual Arts

143 Clarkson University

143 St Lawrence University

144 Eugene Lang College of New School U.

150 CUNY-Baruch

162 CUNY-Hunter College

164 CUNY-Queens

No. 2 California (29)

3 Pomona College

4 University of California—Los Angeles

5 Stanford University

13 University of California—San Diego

14 University of California–Berkeley

21 Harvey Mudd College

23 Occidental College

25 Claremont McKenna College

27 University of California — Davis

35 California Institute of Technology

40 University of California—Santa Cruz

43 University of Southern California

58 University of California—Santa Barbara

61 Pitzer College

64 Scripps College

70 California Institution of the Arts

72 University of California—Irvine

95 University of California—Riverside

98 Chapman University

102 Santa Clara University

106 University of Redlands

107 University of San Diego

108 California College of the arts

114 Pepperdine University

125 University of the Pacific

144 Mills College

146 Westmont College

156 Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo

158 University of San Francisco

161 Loyola Marymount University

No. 3 Massachusetts (25)

2 Harvard University

2 Williams College

6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

6 Wellesley College

15 College of the Holy Cross

28 Boston University

36 Mount Holyoke College

37 Babson College

49 Boston College

50 Amherst College

52 Tufts University

54 Emerson College

69 Bentley College

80 Simmons College

81 Northeastern University

86 Berklee College of Music

86 University of Massachusetts—Amherst

94 Hampshire College

100 Brandeis University

130 New England Conservatory of Music

133 Smith College

135 Olin College

142 Wheaton College MA

146 Clark University

149 Worcester Polytechnic Institute

No. 4 Pennsylvania (22)

16 Pennsylvania State University

18 Bucknell University

19 University of Pennsylvania

40 Lafayette College

42 Carnegie Mellon University

43 Haverford College

45 Juniata College

53 University of Pittsburgh

57 Dickinson College

65 Bryn Mawr College

71 Ursinus College

84 Drexel University

90 Villanova University

95 Swarthmore College

97 Muhlenberg College

98 Franklin and Marshall College

107 Curtis Institute of Music

110 Lehigh University

115 Allegheny College

124 Elizabethtown College

131 Gettysburg College

145 Susquehanna University

No. 5 Illinois (13)

3 University of Chicago

28 Wheaton College IL

29 Augustana College

39 Northwestern University

48 University of Illinois—Urbana – Champaign

59 Knox College

66 School of the Art Institute of Chicago

75 Augustana College

75 Loyola University Chicago

89 Depaul University

90 Illinois Wesleyan University

105 Lake Forest College

120 Illinois Institute of Technology

No. 6 Ohio (11)

33 Ohio State University—Columbus

60 Kenyon College

67 Oberlin College

79 Case Western Reserve University

89 Denison University

100 Wittenberg University

108 University of Dayton

109 Cleveland Institute of Music

114 College of Wooster

126 Baldwin – Wallace College

152 Miami University—Oxford

No. 7 Virginia (10)

5 University of Richmond

22 Virginia Tech

23 University of Virginia

41 Virginia Military Institute

42 Washington and Lee University

82 Sweet Briar College

119 College of William and Mary

120 University of Mary Washington

121 Hampden – Sydney College

121 James Madison University

No. 8 Texas (10)

7 University of Texas—Austin

59 Texas A&M University

63 Austin College

85 Baylor University

91 Rice University

105 Southern Methodist University

127 Texas Christian University

140 Southwestern University

154 University of Dallas

165 Trinity University

No. 9 North Carolina (8)

18 Duke University

22 Davidson College

32 University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

68 Presbyterian College

78 North Carolina State University—Raleigh

88 Wake Forest University

133 Elon University

136 Guilford College

No. 10 Minnesota (8)

1 Carleton College

24 University of Minnesota

34 Macalester College

55 St Olaf College

92 Minneapolis College of Art and Design

129 Gustavus Aldolphus

139 Capella University

148 University of Minnesota Morris

 




NY Named Top State for Top Colleges for 2010

Calif, Mass, Pa, Ill, Ohio, Va, Texas, NC and Minn follow

AUSTIN, Texas. (August 26, 2010) — New York state has been named the Top State for Top Colleges followed by California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois.  Ohio, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Minnesota rounded out the Top Ten.  The list was assembled by the Global Language Monitor in its twice yearly TrendTopper Media Buzz analysis of the nation’s Top 300 Colleges and Universities.

“The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings is a democratic, self-generating ratings system, since it captures the brand equity associated with each of these fine institutions.  We survey social media such as Twitter, as well as the Internet, blogosphere, and the global print and electronic media.” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor.  “As such, we remove the biases inherently built into each of the other published rankings.  For example, US News recently announced that it has changed a key component to their rankings thereby lowering the value of year-by-year comparisons.”

The Top Ten States with the Most Top Colleges are listed below.  Listings include Ranking, the number of top schools in parentheses, the Top University and College, National Best of Class Institutions and Top Surprises for each state.

Asterisks (*) indicate National Best-in-Class

State Rank
No. 1 New York (44)
Top College Vassar College
Top University Columbia University
Top  Academy United States Military Academy *
Top Music School Juilliard School *
Top Design School Pratt Institute *
Top Surprise NY as the No. 1 State

No. 2		 California (29)
Top College Pomona College
Top University University of California—Los Angeles
Top Surprise Stanford & UC San Diego top Berkeley

No. 3		 Massachusetts (25)
Top University Harvard University
Top College Williams College
Top Business College Babson College *
Top Engineering School Massachusetts Institute of Technology *
Top Catholic School College of the Holy Cross *
Top Surprise Amherst falls out of Top 10

No. 4		 Pennsylvania (22)
Top University Pennsylvania State University
Top College Bucknell University
Top Surprise Penn State over U of Pennsylvania

No. 5		 Illinois (13)
Top University University of Chicago
Top College Wheaton College
Top Christian College Wheaton College *
Top Surprise Northwestern University at No. 39

No. 6		 Ohio (11)
Top University Ohio State University—Columbus
Top College Kenyon College
Top  Surprise Oberlin College Slips

No. 7		 Virginia (10)
Top College University of Richmond
Top University Virginia Tech
Top Surprise VT over UVA

No. 8		 Texas (10)
Top University University of Texas—Austin
Top College Austin College
Top Surprise UT breaks into the Top Ten

No. 9		 North Carolina (8)
Top  University Duke University
Top College Davidson College
Top Surprise UNC falls out of Top Ten

No. 10		 Minnesota (8)
Top College Carleton College *
Top University University of Minnesota
Top Surprise Capella now No. 2 Internet School

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The complete listings of all the states can be found here.

The Global Language Monitor publishes the TrendTopper Media Buzz College and University Rankings.  twice a year, with spring and fall editions.  Many institutions of higher education, including Harvard, Boston College, and Vanderbilt have used the rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions.




Widespread Concern about Keeping One’s Insurance & Rising Costs

According to Healthcare NarrativeTracker™

Social Media and Internet Citations More than Double in 90 Days

DALLAS & AUSTIN, Texas (August 17, 2010) — The Healthcare NarrativeTracker™ has found a sharply rising national concern about keeping one’s insurance and rising healthcare costs in light of the regulations associated with the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The new results of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™) were reported earlier today by OpenConnect, the leader process intelligence and analytics solutions, and The Global Language Monitor, the media analytics company.

The NTI has found that the number of social media and Internet citations are significantly diverging among those who cite healthcare price and premium increases vs. those citing lower costs and premiums decreasing. For example the price and premium percentage increase is now nearly double the percentage (188%) for price and premiums decreasing.

In addition, the analysis indicates that the number of social media and Internet citations regarding ‘keeping one’s insurance’ vs. ‘losing one’s insurance’ have also diverged significantly, especially over the last ninety days, with the citations for ‘losing one’s insurance’ increasing some 1160% over the period.

“The numbers in the Healthcare NarrativeTracker are widely supported by the polls, the surveys, and the media,” said Edward M.L. Peters, CEO of OpenConnect and author of The Paid-for Option, which describes how only through the application of innovation and technology can productivity be achieved in the healthcare industry. “The predictive element of the Healthcare NTI has correctly foreshadowed this shift in public sentiment; it will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the run-up to the mid-term elections.”

On August 3, voters in Missouri overwhelmingly (71%) supported a state measure barring the federal government from penalizing those who do not acquire health insurance – a key measure for funding the Obama Healthcare Reform plan. Other evidence indicates that support for Healthcare reform is flagging. According to the Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll “shows erosion in the intensity of support. Last month, 23 percent of Americans held ‘very favorable’ views of the law. This month, that figure is 14 percent, with most of the falloff coming among Democrats (Republicans and independents already being skeptical).” Other polling reinforces these views.

The Healthcare NTI™ is based on the national discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter). In addition to the NTI, the NarrativeTracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the narratives being tracked.

The Healthcare NTI is released monthly. The first analysis completed in May 2010 detailed the various narratives surrounding Massachusetts Healthcare reform, a healthcare model which has been adopted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the national healthcare reform bill.

About OpenConnect:   OpenConnect is the leader in process intelligence and analytics solutions that automatically discover workforce, process and customer variations that hinder operational efficiency. Armed with this information, executives can make the quick and incremental improvements that will increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, reduce cost, and raise profitability. With a rich history of developing innovative technology, OpenConnect products are distributed in more than 60 countries and used by more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information on OpenConnect, visit www.oc.com.

About the Global Language Monitor:   Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the Blogosphere, Social Media as well as the Top 25,000 print and electronic media sites

For more information, call 1.925.367.7557, email editor@GlobalLanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

 

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Top Global Fashion Capitals by Region 2010

Major influence of Fashion Night Out Cited

Miami leads Rio, Barcelona, Sydney & Bali in Swimwear

 

Austin, Texas.   August 16, 2010 New York, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Dubai, Mumbai were announced as the Top Fashion Capitals by their respective regions in the Global Language Monitor’s annual analysis.  Earlier GLM announced that New York had regained the title of World Fashion Capital of 2010, after being bested by Milan in 2009.  In addition, GLM announced that Miami beat Rio, Barcelona, Melbourne & Bali in the Swimwear category.

“The importance of the emerging regional fashion capitals demonstrate a major global re-alignment in the multi-trillion dollar global fashion industry,” said Bekka Payack, the Manhattan-based fashion correspondent for the Global Language Monitor.  “The success of Fashion Night Out is but another example of the proliferation of the fashion culture worldwide.”

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.Tour the Top 22 Fashion Capitals of Four Seasons

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The Top  Fashion Capitals by Region along with their place in the entire ranking are listed below.

Region, Fashion Capital, Overall Ranking

Asia:

  1. Hong Kong (2),
  2. Shanghai (12),
  3. Tokyo (14),
  4. Singapore (15),
  5. Bangkok (35)
  6. (Seoul) nominated

 

Australia and Oceania:

  1. Sydney (7),
  2. Melbourne (11),
  3. Bali (32)

 

Europe:

  1. London (3),
  2. Paris (4),
  3. Milano (6),
  4. Barcelona (9),
  5. Madrid (10),
  6. Amsterdam (17),
  7. Berlin (18),
  8. Rome (22),
  9. Stockholm (33),
  10. Copenhagen (34)
  11. (Frankfurt) nominated
  12. (Antwerpen) nominated

 

North America:

  1. New York (1),
  2. Los Angeles (5),
  3. Miami (8),
  4. Las Vegas (16),
  5. Chicago (37),
  6. Toronto (38),
  7. Dallas (40),
  8. Atlanta (40)
  9. (Vancouver) nominated
  10. (San Francisco) nominated

 

India:

  1. Mumbai (28),
  2. New Delhi (30)

Latin America:

  1. Sao Paulo (13),
  2. Rio de Janeiro (19),
  3. Buenos Aires (24),
  4. Mexico City (29)
  5. Santiago (31)

Middle and Eastern Europe:

  1. Moscow (20),
  2. Prague (26),
  3. Vienna (27),
  4. Warsaw (36),
  5. Krakow (39)

Middle East and Africa:

  1. Dubai (21),
  2. Cape Town (23),
  3. Johannesburg (25)

The Fashion Capitals for Swimwear along with their place in the entire ranking are listed below.

 

Swimwear Fashion Capital Rank, Overall Ranking

  1. Miami (8)
  2. Rio de Janeiro (19)
  3. Barcelona (9)
  4. Sydney (7)
  5. Bali (32)

These exclusive rankings are based upon GLM’s Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

In 2010, the Top Fashion Capitals List was expanded to forty from thirty to reflect the various emerging and diverse players affecting the industry.





Top Global Fashion Capitals by Region 2010

Major influence of Fashion Night Out Cited

Miami leads Rio, Barcelona, Sydney & Bali in Swimwear

 

Austin, Texas.   August 16, 2010 New York, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Dubai, Mumbai were announced as the Top Fashion Capitals by their respective regions in the Global Language Monitor’s annual analysis.  Earlier GLM announced that New York had regained the title of World Fashion Capital of 2010, after being bested by Milan in 2009.  In addition, GLM announced that Miami beat Rio, Barcelona, Melbourne & Bali in the Swimwear category.

“The importance of the emerging regional fashion capitals demonstrate a major global re-alignment in the multi-trillion dollar global fashion industry,” said Bekka Payack, the Manhattan-based fashion correspondent for the Global Language Monitor.  “The success of Fashion Night Out is but another example of the proliferation of the fashion culture worldwide.”

.

.

.Tour the Top 22 Fashion Capitals of Four Seasons

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.

.

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The Top  Fashion Capitals by Region along with their place in the entire ranking are listed below.

Region, Fashion Capital, Overall Ranking

Asia:

  1. Hong Kong (2),
  2. Shanghai (12),
  3. Tokyo (14),
  4. Singapore (15),
  5. Bangkok (35)
  6. (Seoul) nominated

 

Australia and Oceania:

  1. Sydney (7),
  2. Melbourne (11),
  3. Bali (32)

 

Europe:

  1. London (3),
  2. Paris (4),
  3. Milano (6),
  4. Barcelona (9),
  5. Madrid (10),
  6. Amsterdam (17),
  7. Berlin (18),
  8. Rome (22),
  9. Stockholm (33),
  10. Copenhagen (34)
  11. (Frankfurt) nominated
  12. (Antwerpen) nominated

 

North America:

  1. New York (1),
  2. Los Angeles (5),
  3. Miami (8),
  4. Las Vegas (16),
  5. Chicago (37),
  6. Toronto (38),
  7. Dallas (40),
  8. Atlanta (40)
  9. (Vancouver) nominated
  10. (San Francisco) nominated

 

India:

  1. Mumbai (28),
  2. New Delhi (30)

Latin America:

  1. Sao Paulo (13),
  2. Rio de Janeiro (19),
  3. Buenos Aires (24),
  4. Mexico City (29)
  5. Santiago (31)

Middle and Eastern Europe:

  1. Moscow (20),
  2. Prague (26),
  3. Vienna (27),
  4. Warsaw (36),
  5. Krakow (39)

Middle East and Africa:

  1. Dubai (21),
  2. Cape Town (23),
  3. Johannesburg (25)

The Fashion Capitals for Swimwear along with their place in the entire ranking are listed below.

 

Swimwear Fashion Capital Rank, Overall Ranking

  1. Miami (8)
  2. Rio de Janeiro (19)
  3. Barcelona (9)
  4. Sydney (7)
  5. Bali (32)

These exclusive rankings are based upon GLM’s Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

In 2010, the Top Fashion Capitals List was expanded to forty from thirty to reflect the various emerging and diverse players affecting the industry.





New York Regains Fashion Capital Crown from Milan

Top Global Fashion Capitals 2010

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Barcelona and Madrid Move into the Top Ten; Rome Plummets

Hong Kong overcomes both London and Paris

Austin, Texas. August 12, 2010. New York has regained the title of World Fashion Capital of 2010, after being bested by Milan in 2009 according to the Global Language Monitor’s annual survey. Topping the list for 2010 are New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Los Angeles. Milan, Sydney, Miami Barcelona and Madrid followed. This was the first time the two Iberian cities were ranked in the Top Ten.

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Top movers included Hong Kong, Madrid and Melbourne. In the battle for the Subcontinent Mumbai again outdistanced Delhi, while Sao Paulo continued its leadership over Rio, Buenos Aires and Mexico City in Latin America.

Top newcomers to the expanded list included No.17 Amsterdam, Nos. 23 and 25 Cape Town and Johannesburg, No. 27 Vienna and No. 32, Bali.

See the MSNBC Slideshow

In perhaps a harbinger of things to come, this is the first analysis where the traditional Big Five (New York, Paris, Milan, and Rome) did not dominate the global fashion scene.

“As the global fashion industry adjusted to the new economic reality, New York rebounded to the No. 1 spot it has now held for six of the last seven years,” said Rebecca Payack, the Manhattan-based fashion correspondent for the Global Language Monitor.

“This year’s list of the Top Fashion Capitols, shows the global fashion industry to remain in flux, with the relative decline of some of the previously leading players and formerly regional players emerging as significant new influences.”

The world ‘rag’ business is estimated to be over three trillion USD. Regional rankings are provided below.

This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere.




The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets..

The Top Fashion Capitols List was expanded to forty from thirty to reflect the various emerging and diverse players affecting the industry..

The Top Fashion Capitals of 2010, change from the 2009 rankings, and commentary follow.

1. New York (+1) – Reclaims the top spot which it sees as its rightful place.

2. Hong Kong (+5) – The highest ranking ever for an Asian city.

3. London (+2) – The first time, the No. 2 ranking goes to anyone other than the Classic Four (New York, Paris, London and Milan).

4. Paris (-1) – No. 1 in our hearts by No. 4 in the eyes of the media.

5. Los Angeles (+1) – Film is playing an ever more important place in the world of fashion.

6. Milano (-5) – Milan Fashion Week was widely considered a disappointment.

7. Sydney (+2) – Sydney and Melbourne are both energizing the fashion world from Oz.

8. Miami (+5) – strength in swimwear propels Miami into the Top Ten.

9. Barcelona (+5) – Once again, take the top spot in Iberia.

10. Madrid (+11) – Impressive leap into the Top Ten.

11. Melbourne (+14) – Sydney strides ahead; Melbourne even moreso.

12. Shanghai (+2) — Hong Kong and Shanghai both outpace Tokyo.

13. Sao Paulo (-5) – No. 1 in Latin America, again.

14. Tokyo (-2) – Maintaining a relatively strong message while slipping a bit.

15. Singapore (+5) – Strong fashion infrastructure helps it keep pace.

16. Las Vegas (-6) – Hard economic times make a dent in Vegas’ standing.

17. Amsterdam (NL) – Move on to the list for the first time.

18. Berlin (+1) – Hard work helps it main spot in the Top Twenty.

19. Rio de Janeiro (-1) – Strong Latin presence yet slips further behind Sao Paulo.

20. Moscow (+2) – Back in the Top Twenty where it belongs.

21. Dubai (-10) – Transformation of Burg Dubai into Burj Khalifa mirrors the local fashion industry’s trajectory for the year.

22. Rome (-18) – Steepest decline for the survey, ever.

23. Cape Town (NL) – Nice debut for a city known for its multicultural beauty

24. Buenos Aires (0) – Remains No. 3 in Latin America reflecting its glorious past.

25.   Johannesburg (NL) – A big year for South Africa with two debuts in the Top Twenty-five.

26.  Prague (+3) – Proud city further strengthens its fashion credentials.

27. Vienna (NL) – Strong debut for the capital of the old Hapsburg Empire.

28. Mumbai (-12) – Mumbai falls out of the Top Twenty, but Delhi falls further.

29. Mexico City (+1) – Tops in Central America, again.

30. New Delhi (-13) – Though strengthening its fashion infrastructure, falls further behind Mumbai

31. Santiago (-8) – Making fashion strides while slipping a bit.

32. Bali (NL) – Solid debut for the Indonesian Archipelago.

33. Stockholm (-7) – Once more, tops in Scandinavia.

34. Copenhagen (NL) – Debuts right behind Stockholm.

35. Bangkok (-8) – Falling further behind in the fashion race.

36. Warsaw (NL) – Moves into the top tier in 2010.

37. Chicago (NL) – The Second City makes the list for the first time.

38. Toronto (NL) – Toronto edges Montreal for the top Canadian entry.

39. Krakow (-11) – Maintains a rather unique and creative niche in the industry.

40. (Tie) Dallas (NL) – There are more than cowboys in this emerging regional capital.

40. (Tie) Atlanta (NL) – More than CNN is making an international impact from Hot ‘Lanta.

Nominated:  Antwerpen, Caracas, Frankfurt, Medellin, Seoul

 

PQI

The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI)

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The Global Language Monitor’s proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) is the basis of our analytical engine.

The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, throughout Social Media as well as accessing proprietary databases (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, etc.).

Once a keyword base index is created (including selected keywords, phrases, ‘excluders’ and ‘penumbra’ words), ‘timestamps’ and a ‘media universe’ are determined.

The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: Long-term trends, Short-term changes, Momentum, and Velocity.   As such it can create ’signals’ that can be used in a variety of applications.

Outputs include: the raw PQI, a Directional Signal, or a Relative Ranking with 100 as the base.

If you are interested in taking a closer look at the methodology underlying the PQI, see the slide show below.

A more detail look is available upon the signing of a NDA (non-disclosure agreement).  We will then take you through the methodology in detail as we have done with numerous technology organizations, government agencies, and media organizations.  If you would like to pursue this option, please send email to info@languagemonitor.com or call +1512.815.8836.

For more information, go here.

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The New York Times: The Power of Words features the Global Language Monitor and the PQI.

The Power of Words

Sunday, January 29, 2006.  This analysis measured the likihood of a real estate Bubble  in New York City.

Click here.




College Rankings Top 150 – Summer/Spring 2010

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings are a way of seeing the schools through the eyes of the world at large. It is a democratic, self-generating ratings system, since it captures the brand equity associated with each of these fine institutions,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor.  “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings actually removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.

Summer/Spring 2010

Top 150 Colleges

Rank

1 Carleton College

2 Williams College

3 Pomona College

4 Middlebury College

5 University of Richmond

6 Wellesley College

7 Vassar College

8 Union College

9 Cooper Union

10 Hamilton College

11 United States Military Academy

12 Colgate University

13 Sarah Lawrence University

14 Colorado College

15 College of the Holy Cross

16 Pratt Institute

17 Bard College

18 Bucknell University

19 Reed College

20 Drew University

21 Harvey Mudd College

22 Davidson College

23 Occidental College

24 Skidmore College

25 Claremont McKenna College

26 United States Naval Academy

27 DePauw University

28 Wheaton College IL

29 Augustana College

30 Barnard College

31 United States Air Force Academy

32 Furman University

33 Morehouse College

34 Macalester College

35 SUNY—Purchase

36 Mount Holyoke College

37 Babson College

38 Colby College

39 Juilliard School

40 Lafayette College

41 Virginia Military Institute

42 Washington and Lee University

43 Haverford College

44 Alfred University

45 Juniata College

46 Calvin College

47 Ithaca College

48 University of Puget Sound

49 Spelman College (GA)

50 Amherst College

51 Rhode Island School of Design

52 Siena College

53 Wesleyan University

54 Emerson College

55 St Olaf College

56 Bates College

57 Dickinson College

58 University of Northern Iowa

59 Knox College

60 Kenyon College

61 Pitzer College

62 Grinnell College

63 Austin College

64 Scripps College

65 Bryn Mawr College

66 School of the Art Institute of Chicago

67 Oberlin College

68 Presbyterian College

69 Bentley College

70 California Institution of the Arts

71 Ursinus College

72 Bowdoin College

73 College of Charleston

74 Kalamazoo College

75 Augustana College

76 Connecticut College

77 Willamette University

78 Agnes Scott College

79 Rollins College

80 Simmons College

81 Fisk University

82 Sweet Briar College

83 Rowan University

84 Centre College

85 Coe College

86 Earlham College

87 Berklee College of Music

88 Wofford College

89 Denison University

90 Illinois Wesleyan University

91 Beloit College

92 Minneapolis College of Art and Design

93 Goucher College

94 Hampshire College

95 Swarthmore College

96 Berry College

97 Muhlenberg College

98 Franklin and Marshall College

99 Rhodes College

100 Wittenberg University

101 Hobart College

102 Lewis and Clark

103 Berea College

104 Hartwick College

105 Manhattanville College

106 Lake Forest College

107 Curtis Institute of Music

108 California College of the Arts

109 Cleveland Institute of Music

110 New College of South FL

111 Sewanee—University of the South

112 Birmingham Southern college

113 Linfield College

114 College of Wooster

115 Allegheny College

116 Wabash College

117 United States Coast Guard Academy

118 United States Merchant Marine Academy

119 Corcoran College of Art and Design

120 University of Mary Washington

121 Hampden – Sydney College

122 Fashion Institute of Technology

123 Hood College

124 Elizabethtown College

125 Millsaps College

126 Baldwin – Wallace College

127 St Michael’s College

128 Gustavus Aldolphus

129 SUNY—Geneseo

130 New England Conservatory of Music

131 Gettysburg College

132 Hendrix College

133 Smith College

134 Whitman College

135 Olin College

136 Guilford College

137 School of Visual Arts

138 Trinity College

139 Southwestern University

140 St. John’s College

141 College of New Jersey

142 Wheaton College MA

143 St Lawrence University

144 Eugene Lang College of New School U.

145 Susquehanna University

146 Westmont College

147 Lawrence University

148 University of Minnesota Morris

149 Hillsdale College

150 Bennington College

The Global Language Monitor publishes the TrendTopper Media Buzz College and University Rankings.  twice a year, with spring and fall editions.  Many institutions of higher education, including Harvard, Boston College, and Vanderbilt have used the rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions.

The complete report, including short term and long term change, rankings by state, and complete PQI index  is available for $998. For more information, call 1.925.367.7557 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu




University Rankings Top 150 in the U.S. – Spring/Summer 2010

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings are a way of seeing the schools through the eyes of the world at large. It is a democratic, self-generating ratings system, since it captures the brand equity associated with each of these fine institutions,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor.  “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings actually removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.

Summer/Spring 2010

Top 150 Universities

Rank

1 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

2 Harvard University

3 University of Chicago

4 University of California—Los Angeles

5 Stanford University

6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

7 University of Texas—Austin

8 Princeton University

9 Yale University

10 Columbia University

11 Washington University in St. Louis

12 Cornell University

13 University of California—San Diego

14 University of California–Berkeley

15 University of Wisconsin—Madison

16 Pennsylvania State University

17 University of Washington

18 Duke University

19 University of Pennsylvania

20 Johns Hopkins University

21 New York University

22 Virginia Tech

23 University of Virginia

24 University of Minnesota

25 University of Rochester

26 Michigan State University

27 University of California — Davis

28 Boston University

29 Purdue University

30 University of Connecticut

31 University of Florida

32 University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

33 Ohio State University—Columbus

34 University of Kentucky

35 California Institute of Technology

36 Indiana University—Bloomington

37 University of Arizona

38 Rutgers, the State University of NJ

39 Northwestern University

40 University of California—Santa Cruz

41 Arizona State University

42 Carnegie Mellon University

43 University of Southern California

44 University of Colorado—Boulder

45 University of Georgia

46 University of Iowa

47 Georgia Institute of Technology

48 University of Illinois—Urbana – Champaign

49 Boston College

50 Georgetown University

51 University of Notre Dame

52 Tufts University

53 University of Pittsburgh

54 Emory University

55 University of South Carolina—Columbia

56 Vanderbilt University

57 University of Delaware

58 University of California—Santa Barbara

59 Texas A&M University

60 Dartmouth College

61 Syracuse University

62 University of Phoenix

63 Brown University

64 American University

65 Iowa State University

66 University of Missouri—Columbia

67 University of Miami

68 University of New Hampshire

69 George Washington University

70 University of Kansas

71 University of Oregon

72 University of California—Irvine

73 University of Oklahoma

74 University of Maryland—College Park

75 Loyola University Chicago

76 Tulane University

77 Washington State University

78 North Carolina State University—Raleigh

79 Case Western Reserve University

80 Kansas State University

81 Northeastern University

82 Auburn University

83 University of Alabama

84 Drexel University

85 Baylor University

86 University of Massachusetts—Amherst

87 Fordham University

88 Wake Forest University

89 DePaul University

90 Villanova University

91 Rice University

92 Brigham Young University—Provo

93 University of Vermont

94 Howard University

95 University of California—Riverside

96 Clemson University

97 Colorado State University

98 Chapman University

99 University of Tennessee

100 Brandeis University

101 University of Arkansas

102 Santa Clara University

103 Marquette University

104 Rochester Inst. of Technology

105 Southern Methodist University

106 University of Redlands

107 University of San Diego

108 University of Dayton

109 Hofstra University

110 Lehigh University

111 St Louis University

112 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

113 Yeshiva University

114 Pepperdine University

115 Gonzaga University

116 SUNY—Stony Brook

117 Tuskegee University

118 University of Denver

119 College of William and Mary

120 Illinois Institute of Technology

121 James Madison University

122 Howard University (DC)

123 Kaplan University

124 Stetson University

125 University of the Pacific

126 CUNY-City College

127 Texas Christian University

128 Fairfield University

129 Loyola University New Orleans

130 Binghamton University

131 Catholic University of America

132 University at Buffalo—SUNY

133 Elon University

134 Seattle University

135 CUNY-Brooklyn

136 New Jersey Institute of Technology

137 Stevens Institute of Technology

138 Colorado School of Mines

139 Capella University

140 Morgan State University

141 Truman State University

142 Evergreen State

143 Clarkson University

144 Mills College

145 University of Tulsa

146 Clark University

147 Rose-Hulman

148 Quinnipiac University

149 Worcester Polytechnic Institute

150 CUNY-Baruch

152 Miami University—Oxford

153 Michigan Technological University

154 University of Dallas

155 University of Missouri—Rolla

156 Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo

157 Dillard University (LA)

158 University of San Francisco

159 Florida A&M University

160 Xavier University of Louisiana

161 Loyola Marymount University

162 CUNY-Hunter College

163 The Citadel

164 CUNY-Queens

165 University of Utah

The Global Language Monitor publishes the TrendTopper Media Buzz College and University Rankings.  twice a year, with spring and fall editions.  Many institutions of higher education, including Harvard, Boston College, and Vanderbilt have used the rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions.

The complete report, including short term and long term change, rankings by state, and complete PQI index  is available. For more information, call 1.925.367.7557 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu




Top 300 US Colleges and Universities by Internet Media Buzz

Michigan Again Bests Harvard as Top University

…

UCLA, Texas break into Top Ten

…

Carleton Beats Williams and Pomona on College List


Austin, Texas, July 29, 2010 – The University of Michigan again edged out Harvard atop the Global Language Monitor’s TrendTopper Media Buzz list of the nation’s Top 300 Colleges and Universities.  Notably UCLA and the University of Texas moved into the Top Ten for the first time.  In the College category, Carleton College beat Williams and Pomona to notch the Top Spot for the first time.  In the Fall 2009 edition, Wellesley came in No. 1.

“The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings are a way of seeing the schools through the eyes of the world at large. It is a democratic, self-generating ratings system, since it captures the brand equity associated with each of these fine institutions,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor.  “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings actually removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.”

The Top 25 Universities by TrendTopper MediaBuzz include the following.


 Summer/Spring 2010
Rank
1 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
2 Harvard University
3 University of Chicago
4 University of California—Los Angeles
5 Stanford University
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7 University of Texas—Austin
8 Princeton University
9 Yale University
10 Columbia University
11 Washington University in St. Louis
12 Cornell University
13 University of California—San Diego
14 University of California–Berkeley
15 University of Wisconsin—Madison
16 Pennsylvania State University
17 University of Washington
18 Duke University
19 University of Pennsylvania
20 Johns Hopkins University
21 New York University
22 Virginia Tech
23 University of Virginia
24 University of Minnesota
25 University of Rochester

.

For University Rankings Nos. 26 to 162, go here.

The Top 25 Colleges by TrendTopper MediaBuzz include the following.

Summer/Spring 2010
Rank
1 Carleton College
2 Williams College
3 Pomona College
4 Middlebury College
5 University of Richmond
6 Wellesley College
7 Vassar College
8 Union College
9 Cooper Union
10 Hamilton College
11 United States Military Academy
12 Colgate University
13 Sarah Lawrence University
14 Colorado College
15 College of the Holy Cross
16 Pratt Institute
17 Bard College
18 Bucknell University
19 Reed College
20 Drew University
21 Harvey Mudd College
22 Davidson College
23 Occidental College
24 Skidmore College
25 Claremont McKenna College

.

For College Rankings Nos. 26 to 150, go here.

The Top Specialty schools listed in their categories as well as overall rank include:

  • Top Engineering Schools:   MIT (6 overall, university), The Cooper Union (9 overall, college), Harvey Mudd (21 overall, college), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) (35 overall, university), and Carnegie Mellon University (42 overall, university).
  • Top Online/For Profit Schools: the University of Phoenix  (63 overall, university), Kaplan University (124 overall, university) and Capella University (140 overall, university)
  • Top Christian School:  Wheaton College, IL (16 overall, college)
  • Top Military Academies: the United States Military Academy (11 overall, college), the United States Naval Academy (26 overall, college), and the United States Air Force Academy (31 overall, college), United States Coast Guard Academy (118 overall, college), and United States Merchant Marine Academy (119 overall, college).
  • Top Art and Design Schools:  Pratt Institute (16 overall, college), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) (51 overall, college), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (66 overall, college), California Institution of the Arts (70 overall, college), and Minneapolis College of Art and Design (92 overall, college).
  • Top Music Schools: the Julliard School (39 overall, college), Berklee College (87 overall, college), the Curtis Institute, (108 overall, college), the Cleveland Institute of Music (110 overall, college), and the New England Conservatory of Music (131 overall, college).
  • Top Business School:  Babson College (37 overall, college).

The Global Language Monitor publishes the TrendTopper Media Buzz College and University Rankings.  twice a year, with spring and fall editions.  Many institutions of higher education, including Harvard, Boston College, and Vanderbilt have used the rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions.

The complete report, including short term and long term change, rankings by state, and complete PQI index  is available for $998. For more information, call 1.925.367.7557 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu

Obama Narrative 2.0

Out-of-touch moves into No. 1 position over Deficit Spending; Oil Spill tops Health Care Reformer

Austin, Texas, July 24, 2010 – As the political calendar inexorably heads toward the Mid-term elections, the focus on President Obama’s competing ‘narratives’ continue to play out in the media.

Since his Oval Address on the Oil Spill, Obama’s personal narrative is being shaped by forces largely out of his control, such as the on-going Gulf drama.  These are how the five most prevalent competing narratives compare, according to Austin-based Global Language Monitor (GLM).  GLM has been monitoring the language of politics since 2003.

The ranking of the President’s five most prominent narrative arcs include:

  1. Obama as out-of-touch or aloof – This is up 1200% since the beginning of the year; this is the converse of Hope and Change.
  2. Obama and the deficit — Words linking Obama to deficit have increased some 2500% since the beginning of 2010.
  3. Obama and the Oil Spill — A very fast mover now ahead of Obama as Health Care reformer.  Could the completion of the relief well turn this around?
  4. Obama as HealthCare Reformer –   Losing steam quickly for the president’s signature achievement.
  5. Obama as the Chicago-style pol — A continued, steady rise in linking Obama to old-style Chicago politics.

“At this point, all five narratives in play are problematic for the president,” said Paul JJ Payack, GLM’s president and chief word analyst. “With the Mid-terms some hundred days away, the president needs a series of (possibly unexpected) positive events to stem this tide.”

Obama Narrative 2.0, the underlying storyline that will largely define the president in the run-up to the Mid-term elections and, possibly, for time remaining in his term.   The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet, as well as the leading print and electronic databases.

The NarrativeTracker Index  (NTI), the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving any particular topic. Because the NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.

NTI tracks the ‘narrative’ of a subject, as well as projecting future trajectories for the narrative.    The result has several advantages over traditional polls:  1) Immediacy; 2) The lack of any bias that tends to creep into traditional polling, e.g., when individuals answer questions with what they think are the ‘correct’ answers rather than their true opinions; and 3) NTI lets policy and decision makers focus on the true issues driving perceptions and concerns rather than being driven by false and phantom concepts.  In addition, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative.

NTI is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters.

The NTI is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.




World Cup 2010’s Dubious Linguistic Achievement

Vuvuzela accepted into English language lexicon

Austin, TX July 12, 2010 – The World Cup 2010 was an historical affair in many regards, the a first for the African continent; a first for the South African people and, of course, a first for Spain.

Another perhaps unintended consequence of World Cup 2010 is the acceptance of the word, vuvuzela, into the English language lexicon according to the qualifying criteria established by Austin-based Global Language Monitor.

The vuvuzela are the seemingly ubiquitous brightly colored plastic horns, said to have the potential to inflict lasting hearing loss because of the loudness and pitch of a typical vuvuzela (B flat below middle C, according to the BBC).

“Vuvuzela appears certain to achieve a place (or at least some notoriety) within the ranks of the English language.  Vuvuzela has already appeared some 2450 times in a recent search of the New York Times archive,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor.  “That is quick a few citations for the ‘first draft of history; even a quick Google search yield  over 6,000,000 hits on the term.”

The thresholds to cross into the English Lexicon include 25,000 citations meeting criteria for breadth of geographic dispersion along within a depth of media formats including the Internet, blogosphere and social media along with various formats of print and electronic media.  Since 2003, the Global Language Monitor has been recognizing new words or neologisms once they meet these criteria.

The word vuvuzela, itself of uncertain origin.  Some think it is related to the summoning horn, the kudu, for African villages.  Others speculate it to be derived from an onomatopoeic Zulu word for the sound ‘vu-vu’, or a word for noise making, while many believe it to be ‘township slang’ for shower (of noise).

English gets a new word – thanks to SA

Jul 18, 2010 12:00 AM | By Sashni Pather

The World Cup was historic in a few ways: a first for the African continent, South Africa’s people and for Spain.

WHAT A HOOT: Vuvuzela has won global recognition

Read More



Healthcare NarrativeTracker Detects Growing Concern about Containing Costs

Keeping Costs Low vs. Rising Costs

..

DALLAS & AUSTIN, Texas, July 7, 2010 — The Healthcare NarrativeTracker™ has detected a growing wave of concern throughout the nation about containing rising Healthcare costs. The catalyst stems from the new regulations being now written to implement The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At this point the affordability issue is coalescing around the President Obama’s oft-stated pledge that you can keep current Health Insurance plans if you so choose.  As M.I.T. health economist Jonathan Gruber recently stated, “It’s unclear that companies will want to have the same insurance plan in 2014 that they have in 2010.”

These facts have not gone unnoticed by the public and are considered by many to be a significant turnaround from earlier analyses, where people took at face value the President’s oft-stated words: “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan, period.” Obama declared in a speech to the American Medical Association last June, “No one will take it away, no matter what.” In fact, the New York Times recently reported that the government calculates that while 70 percent of small-business plans will remain grandfathered in 2011 that number will drop to 34 percent in 2013. Apparently, even the routine changes that occur every year as employers search for better products can be defined as changing the plan enough to obviate the provision that allows you to keep your current insurance, potentially leading to increasing costs for employer and employee alike.

Subsequent analysis of the Internet, blogosphere, the print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) has shown that the public is aware of this shift. The results of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™) were reported by OpenConnect, the leading company in event-driven intelligence solutions, and The Global Language Monitor, the media analytics company.

“Policies need to be evaluated by the effect they will have on the cost incurred with their implementation. The economics of healthcare reform need to be based on changes that help pay for themselves rather than make the problem worse. Only by realizing the type of efficiencies that have kept America in the forefront of world economic growth for the past century and a half will we be able to keep costs under current projections. All that is necessary is to summon the courage to make the tough choices ahead,” said Edward M.L. Peters, CEO of OpenConnect and author of The Paid-for Option, which details the methodology that has proven effective in the healthcare industry.

The Healthcare NarrativeTracker has detected rising concern about price increases perceived to be associated with the implementation of yet-to-be written regulations. The public is well-aware of the overall trillion dollar cost of the program, as well as associated costs, such as the so-called ‘Doc Fix’ not directly counted with the Healthcare Reform effort budget.

In the first three months of this year, conversations about keeping the price of insurance low were exceeded by conversations with those concerned about the rising costs of their healthcare by some 40%.

In the same manner, in the first three months of this year, conversations about keeping one’s insurance were surpassed by those about losing their insurance by some 54%. For the first six months of this year, the conversations about keeping one’s insurance were surpassed by those about losing their insurance by some 43% but with volume of the conversations increasing over 11,200%.

In summation, the media discussion resonating throughout the Internet, blogosphere and social media is driving the online discussion and conversations. This is particularly true when such narratives are being driven by articles such as those written by Dr. Marc Siegel who concludes, “the regulations impose a major vise on private insurance, restricting a company’s ability to increase cost sharing (such as coinsurance, deductibles and out-of pocket limits) as well as copayments (“more than the sum of medical inflation plus 15 percentage points or $5 increased by medical inflation”). So it is unlikely that many insurers will be able to remain viable without raising premiums (not restricted by the regulations) or slashing services.”

The NarrativeTracker Index is the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform. Because the Healthcare NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the NarrativeTracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.

The NTI is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

The Healthcare NTI is released monthly. The first analysis completed in May 2010 details the various narratives surrounding Massachusetts Healthcare reform, a healthcare model which has been adopted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the national healthcare reform bill.




How to Describe the Disaster? (LOE)

How to Describe the Disaster?

Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please 

For information on how to listen to audio on our website, click here.

Air Date: Week of July 2, 2010
The BP oil disaster is a failure of technology and lexicology. The words that we use to describe the Gulf of Mexico disaster don’t begin to define the scope of the catastrophe. Is it a spill? A gusher? Host Jeff Young tracks the flow of words with Paul Payak from the Global Language Monitor.

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YOUNG: Millions – maybe billions – of words have been written about BP’s runaway oil well. Yet words still fail us—we still lack the right term for what’s happening in the Gulf. So we turn to Paul JJ Payack for guidance. He’s President of the Global Language Monitor in Austin, Texas, where he tracks changes in the language, including the words most often used to describe the oil in the Gulf.PAYACK: Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, the top word is oil spill, which is sort of a disappointment. Many times when you have new events in a language, the language leads the event. You can actually… there are new words that pop up in profusion.YOUNG: Uh huh.

PAYACK: And, in this case, we haven’t seen that many new words. What we’ve seen is the old way to describe an oil spill. The Exxon Valdez has a crash, spills the oil out, and that’s a spill. But this is different; this is a lot different than a spill.

YOUNG: Because a spill connotes a fixed amount that spilled from a container into where you don’t want it. That’s not what’s happening here at all.

PAYACK: In our case, we’re not talking about a spill, we’re talking about an oil field that’s estimated at 3, 4, 5 billion barrels erupting, but we still refer to it as a spill.

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The Internet’s Fury Scorned

Obama Oval Office speech analysis provokes unprecedented response


Austin, Texas, July 2, 2010.  The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a great many terrible, sad and historical events, with a few, unfortunately fleeting moments of great joy sprinkled between the dirges.  We have done our best to analyze the impact of these events on the global print and electronic media as well as on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere, and now the emerging social media.

After analyzing political speeches for a decade now, as well as all 55 Presidential Inaugural Addresses and transcripts of historical interest (including Washington’s Farewell Address, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, FDR’s ‘Live in Infamy’ radio address, Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech) you would think that we had seen and heard everything by now.

However, it wasn’t until our analysis of the President’s Gulf Spill Oval Office address, that we experienced the full force of the Internet’s fury scorned.

And this for an analysis that we considered basically non-newsworthy.

President Obama had given yet another address to the nation.  GLM used the same standardized, widely available, language tools that we used to name Obama’s Grant Park  ”Yes, we can!” victory address as one that ranked with the greatest of presidential orations.  Now these same standardized, time-tested tools are being conveniently criticized as of questionable repute.

We were told that our analysis was either ‘bashing Obama’ or ‘excusing Obama’. At the same time, we were either ‘insulting the people’ or ‘insulting the President’. Finally, it was suggested that we were rather transparently calling for the President to ‘dumb down the rhetoric’ so that one and all might understand  the superior intelligence of ‘his highness’.  Whoa!

Apparently, many readers never got over the headline, missing the actual analysis and what the numbers told us about the speech. Our concern was that our initial headline, Obama Oil Spill Speech Echoes Elite, Aloof Ethos might be considered demeaning to the President.  Wrong.  It was considered demeaning to everyone on the Left and the Right.

For general information on the readability tests used by GLM, click here.

For scientific literature about readability tests, enter Flesch or readability into the ERIC database.

We were surprised to learn that offense was, apparently,  taken in equal proportions by both the Right (Language Expert: If You Didn’t Like Obama’s Oil Spill Speech, It’s Probably Because You’re Stupid) and the Left (Obama Oil Spill Speech Criticized By CNN’s Language Analyst For Not Being Moronic Enough) of the political spectrum.   Nevertheless, we were quite amused by The ColbertReport’s send-up of our (and CNN’s) report, which somehow struck a middle chord.

It was also enlightening to see a significant proportion of this criticism to be ad hominem attacks, focusing on ourselves rather than our analysis.  (Read FAQ about GLM and Paul JJ Payack here.)

This past December, we encountered fierce criticism from the Chinese government dailies because  we named ‘The Rise of China” as the No. 1 news story of the decade.  (You can follow the narrative arc of this controversy here. )  But the criticism that accompanied the Obama Gulf Spill speech, was a good bit nastier, indeed.

Our analyses of the three preceding US Presidential elections were praised from many quarters from the New York Times to Nicholas Kristof to NPR to the worldwide media.  During the preceding ten years, few alleged political motivation, or denounced the standard language-measurement tools as inherently flawed. In fact, as long as readers basically agreed with the more predictable outcomes, there were few complaints.  Here were some of those results:  Ross Perot scored the lowest we’ve ever recorded, John F, Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were stars, both Bushes settled in the middle of the middle school years, and Obama’s ‘Yes, we can!’ speech had nearly equivalent numbers to Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream’ speech and Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address’.   So far, so good.  We did have a few outliers, such as Sarah Palin achieving quite a high score during her debate with Joe Biden, which was duly noted by New York Magazine and quite easy to explain.

Here’s what we attempted to communicate:

1.  Obama’s speech, though deserving a ‘solid B’ did not live up to his past efforts.

2.  Obama’s most well-regarded speech came in a at 7.4 grade level.  This is not talking down to the American people.  This is communicating clear and concisely to his audience.  This is Obama at his best, communicating with a deft combination of vision, passion and rhetoric.

In fact, our headline for that effort read: Obama’s “Yes, We Can” Speech Ranked with “I have a Dream,” “Tear Down this Wall,” and JFK Inaugural. Rather high praise, indeed.

Our commentary read:

Obama’s “Yes, We Can” speech delivered Tuesday night in Chicago’s Grant Park ranked favorably in tone, tenor and rhetorical flourishes with memorable political addresses of the recent past including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s   “I have a Dream” speech, “Tear Down this Wall,” by Ronald  Reagan and John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.

“As is appropriate for a forward-looking message of hope and reconciliation, words of change and hope, as well as future-related constructions dominated the address,” said Paul JJ Payack President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor.  “Evidently, Obama is at his best at connecting with people at the 7th to 8th grade range, communicating directly to his audience using simple yet powerful rhetorical devices, such as the repetition of the cadenced phrase ‘Yes, we can’, which built to a powerful conclusion.”

Well-regarded, indeed (and well-deserved).

3.   GLM and our predecessor site, yourDictionary.com have analyzed every presidential inaugural since that of George Washington.  The idea was, and continues to be, to look at the presidents’ words in the total historical context of the American presidency.

In 2001, we were quoted as saying,

Our goal was to spot trends that are all to easily overlooked in the political (and all too partisan) passions of the moment” [and continued that our] analysis included patterns of word usage choices, the use of such grammatical constructions as passive voice, the length of words and sentences, the number of paragraphs, and other parameters of language to gauge the content [including] the well-regarded Flesch-Kincaid Reading Scale.

4.  The use of Industry-standard language analytics.  The Fogg Index, the Flesch Test, the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Scale, and many others, are used in all forms of publishing from technical manuals to ensuring proper comprehension levels for textbooks used for various ages and classes.  This has been true for more than fifty years.

The reason we choose to use the standard tests and analytical tools was a simple one:  to enable the same set of measurements over any period of time.  And also that these analyses could be replicated by scholars and historians and journalists the world over.

5.  We use our proprietary tool, the Predictive Quantities Indicator or PQI to measure media analytics, narrative tracking, and TrendTopper Media Buzz, as such we do not use the PQI for this task.

By the Way, here are a few historical precedents;

  • Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796 — 12.0.
  • Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858 — Stephen Douglas’ seven speeches averaged a 12th-grade level 11.9; Lincoln’s averaged 11.2.
  • President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration of war in December 1941 — 11.5.
  • Nixon-Kennedy Debates, 1960 — The first nationally televised debates:  Kennedy, 9.6 ; Nixon, 9.1.
  • Carter-Ford Debates, 1976 — Carter, 10.4; Ford, 11.0.
  • Carter-Reagan debate  – Carter, 12.0; Reagan, 10.7.
  • Reagan-Mondale debates — Reagan, 9.8;  Mondale, 8.7.
  • Dukakis-Bush debates of 1988 — Dukakis, 8.9; Bush, 6.7 grade.
  • Bush-Clinton-Perot debates of 1992 — Carter, 8.5, Bush, 6.5, Perot, 6.3.
  • Bush-Gore debate of 2000 — Bush, 7.1, Gore, 8.4.
  • Cheney-Lieberman, V.P. Debate — Lieberman, 9.9; Dick Cheney, 9.1.

And for good measure, Hamlet’s ‘To Be or Not to Be Soliloquy’, Shakespeare, c. 1600, comes in at 10.6.

Now Kathleen Parker has considerably upped the ante when applied readability statistics in her premise about Barack Obama as the first ‘feminine president’ ….




How Obama lost control of the oil-spill narrative

WORD OF MOUTH:  Colleen Ross

Colleen Ross


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The usual key to staying on top in the murky world of politics is to control the narrative. And, by all linguistic accounts, Barack Obama’s control of the oil spill narrative has slipped away.

Lonely warrior. Barack Obama counting tar balls on a Louisiana beach in May 2010. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

In his first prime-time address from the Oval Office recently, Obama attempted to take back the reins by employing warrior-like language.

In his best Churchill impression, he spoke about “the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens,” going on to vow that “we will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes.”

The president then talked about creating a battle plan as well as the need to develop energy independence and to “fight for the America we want for our children.”

Click Here to Listen to Colleen Ross’ Podcasts

The president then talked about creating a battle plan as well as the need to develop energy independence and to “fight for the America we want for our children.”

In fact, Obama’s rhetoric around America’s biggest environmental disaster has intensified in recent weeks.

Accused of not being angry enough at the company that has still not managed to fully plug a gushing oil well, “No Drama” Obama, as he was once known, is using tougher language and framing the oil spill as an environmental 9/11.

He also uttered the now oft-quoted explanation of why he’s spending so much time talking to experts: So he can “know whose ass to kick.”

Oil-spill enabler

But in this unfolding drama, with a wavering protagonist, a motley crew of characters and a slick, unrelenting enemy, one is compelled to shout in frustration: “Words, words, words!”

Duelling narratives

(An unscientific, comparison)

BP: Use remotely operated underwater vehicles to try to reactivate blowout preventer.

Political narrative: Remotely control response, i.e. let Coast Guard handle it.

BP: Introduce small tube into burst pipe to slow flow.

Political narrative: Introduce oil spill commission and temporarily stop offshore drilling

BP: Drill relief wells, this is going to take awhile.

Political narrative: Drill home the need for relief/compensation (this is going to take awhile)

Therein lies the problem, says language analyst Paul Payack. Words alone mean nothing if they are not backed up by action and, as a result, Obama has lost control of what he wants to say.

“He who wins control of the narrative controls the story in terms of political capital,” says Payack. And at the moment, Obama isn’t doing so well, which could hurt his party in the November mid-term elections.

According to Payack, the most important storyline currently defining the president is “Obama as oil spill enabler.”

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