By Estelle Jung<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Topic\nModeling Reflection<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For my topic modeling assignment, 128\ndocuments were used in total. The documents were from the two volumes of The Spanish Regime in Missouri<\/em> by Louis\nHouck. At first, I tried to use 20 topics, but Mallet gave me the same weight\nof 0.25 for each topic. After changing the number of topics to 15, I ended up\nwith various weights which is what we wanted. Thus, 15 seems to be the optimal\nnumber of topics for this example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that there were two coherent\ntopics apparent in this assignment based on the data from the Keys spreadsheet.\nTopic 13 had the highest weight of 0.69804. The top words of topic 13 included\n\u201corder,\u201d \u201cmade,\u201d \u201ctime,\u201d \u201cgreat,\u201d \u201cmake,\u201d \u201cpart,\u201d \u201clordship,\u201d \u201cmen,\u201d \u201cletter,\u201d \u201cgovernment,\u201d\n\u201cindians,\u201d \u201cgood,\u201d \u201cpresent,\u201d \u201cgive,\u201d and \u201cgovernor\u201d which suggests that the\nwords surrounding this topic related to the relationships that were developing\nbetween the Spanish and the Natives. For instance, words like \u201cgovernment,\u201d\n\u201cgovernor,\u201d and \u201corder\u201d suggest that the Spanish were established authority and\ndictated the rules for the \u201cindians\u201d through the exchange of \u201cpresent(s)\u201d and\ncorrespondence of officials with \u201cletter(s).\u201d Moreover, the top words \u201cmade\u201d\nand \u201cmake\u201d imply that the Natives were forced to succumb to the hands of the\nSpanish. Furthermore, it is important to note that Topic 4 was a prominent\ntopic in this data spreadsheet with a weight of 0.65304. The terms \u201cdon,\u201d\n\u201cluis,\u201d \u201csan,\u201d \u201cyears,\u201d \u201corder,\u201d \u201croyal,\u201d \u201cpost,\u201d \u201cgeneral,\u201d \u201cpedro,\u201d\n\u201cvillage,\u201d \u201ccarlos,\u201d \u201cLouisiana,\u201d \u201clordship,\u201d \u201cprovince,\u201d \u201ccaptain,\u201d and\n\u201cgrace\u201d were present in this topic. It can be concluded that these top words\nsuch as \u201cgeneral,\u201d \u201croyal,\u201d and \u201cdon,\u201d have some meaning attached to the large\ninfluence of Spanish military and governing officials. In other words, both\nTopic 13 and Topic 4 address the prevalence of Spanish rule over the Natives in\nthe Upper Louisiana region. This theme is seen through the selection of top\nwords that describe the names or titles of Spanish leaders and words that\ndepict the interactions between both groups of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, I was unable to turn\nmy topic modeling data into a visual representation on Tableau due to technical\ndifficulties. The issue was that my composition and keys file would not join\ntogether based on the Topic ID. I have both the composition file and the keys\nfile formatted correctly, but when I upload both documents onto Tableau, they\nare unable to merge together into one document. If this problem could be\nresolved, I would have a graphical representation of which topics stand out\napart from others. I believe that a good topic model is definitely possible for\nthis set of documents. In fact, topic modeling will be necessary for answering\nmy research questions for the final project because it is a type of text-mining\ntool. This method reveals a group of words that best represent the information\nor background of a collection of documents. Topic modeling makes understanding\nthe bulk of two volumes easier because it breaks down the text into overarching\nthemes. Along with the other alternative methodologies like Recognito, Gephi,\nand Voyant Tools, Mallet and Tableau offer a different approach in which the\nuser has access to identifying the key points in a considerable amount of text.\nPersonally, I want to explore the advantages of topic modeling for the final\nproject because I will be able to tell what the main argument or focus of the\nauthor is based on the top words of each topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, I have to fix the error in\nTableau so then I can move on to the next step of transforming my topic\nmodeling data into a visual diagram for better analysis. Breaking down both volumes\nof my primary source into multiple topics will help other students and\nhistorians understand the intentions of the Spanish in the Upper Louisiana\nregion. By examining the motives of the Spanish, we can then investigate\nreligious, political, social, and cultural interactions between the Spanish and\nthe Natives \u2013 the driving forces behind a larger historical narrative of conquest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Estelle Jung Topic Modeling Reflection For my topic modeling assignment, 128 documents were used in total. The documents were from the two volumes of The Spanish Regime in Missouri by Louis Houck. At first, I tried to use 20 topics, but Mallet gave me the same weight of 0.25 for each topic. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asandersgarcia.humspace.ucla.edu\/courses\/earlyamhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}