Monday, April 26, 2021

Big data analysis examines #MeToo statements

person with #MeToo written on blue tape across mouth

New research uses big data analysis to examine what men have said in response to #MeToo allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment against them.

In 2017, the #MeToo movement burst into the public consciousness thanks to a viral hashtag. The same year, Charlotte Alexander of Georgia State University founded the Legal Analytics Lab to explore patterns in legal documents using big data analysis.

“Sexual harassment law requires people to display a level of empathy.”

Recently, Alexander and her team assembled hundreds of statements that people—many of them powerful men—made in response to #MeToo allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. They then applied text-mining techniques to study the language used in the statements.

“I was interested in how people defend themselves in the court of public opinion,” says Alexander, chair in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business and associate professor in the College of Law. An essay on the work appears in the Texas Law Review.

Here, Alexander discusses the project and how it’s connected to her larger goal of using data analysis to make the legal system more transparent for everyone:

The post Big data analysis examines #MeToo statements appeared first on Futurity.



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