Some of you may have noticed a bit of a preoccupation I have with categorization schemes. I have also been doing some research on the workings of search engines and how to index words. I've also been interested in random word generation and the like...
I keep coming finding my self attracted to Fabrica while I endulge in these interests and follow my path of zen learning. And it makes complete sense... These guys are doing some really interesting work on how we use language... how ideas get clumped together... how we navigate a text based information world...
I first came across them when searching for the most common words used in the english language for the purposes of seeding my search "noise word" list. Then again drawn back when I considered creating a simple search tool of my own which would require a table of words and their frequencies... And now I find them again just by happenstance. They have developed a tool that I had once imagined...
i.e. A tool to show what messages are outshouting other messages. Particularly in the mainstream media... Does the media really cover what matters? What chance do real public and social concerns have of capturing the imagination of people to the point where they do something, if they aren't being heard? How can you tell what is on the radar and what doesn't have a hope...
10x10 is just that tool... a way of seeing what is blinking brightest on the radar screen.
The sites (including WordCount) use flash - but not just for the sake of using it - but using it in a way that represents the data in a way that couldn't be achieved using standard HTML (well not easily or effectively anyway).
And a quick scan of the result produced by 10X10 shows you just how well behaved the media is... just how well the media promotes the agenda of the US. What to make people feel affraid? Want to keep them affraid? The media is doing a good job. Look at the top 100 words used? Liberal Media??? BAH... The media couldn't be more status quo if it tried.
This is nothing new to the readers of Chomsky or Parenti, but it might be an eye opener for everyone else.
andre
Note: Fabrica popped up on my radar screen once again as I visited a site that I read regularly... Check out WORDLAB.
Posted by andre at November 8, 2004 03:28 AM