Research & Analysis
Reveal the hidden patterns in language.
Linguistic research and analysis uncover how framing, sentiment and focus shape understanding and action, providing a clear evidence base for more effective communication.
What lies beneath?
Language analysis reveals patterns in framing, meaning and motivation that often escape conscious awareness. These patterns shape how people think, feel and act. Understanding them helps sharpen the impact of your communication.
Using specialised linguistic tools and conceptual frameworks, we examine sentiment, categorisation, cognitive processing and shifts in spatial, social or temporal focus. These insights show how people make sense of key issues and where your language can connect and clarify more effectively.
By combining statistical analysis with linguistic techniques, we build a strong evidence base to inform policy communication, stakeholder engagement and strategic messaging.
If you want to go beyond assumptions and understand how your language is really working, this is the place to begin.
Image: Ux Indonesia on Unsplash
Recent research
Doing Values Differently
An analysis of values-in-speech using a novel mixed-methods design combining traditional content analysis, computational linguistic tools and statistical modelling.
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The emergence and success of the Community Independents movement has attracted keen academic and media interest. Attention has been directed towards the candidates’ inferred political ideology, as well as the movement’s community engagement models, participatory processes and campaigning style, all of which differ from traditional party-based approaches.
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Less attention has been directed towards the role of values, and in particular how the Community Independents and their Liberal Party predecessors convey these through speech. Hence, the values-driven difference is recognised and indeed celebrated in the Community Independents context, but the linguistic elements that determine that difference remain enigmatic. The study addresses this gap through traditional and emerging tools of linguistic inquiry. It employs computerised text analysis capacities to examine nearly 240,000 words from 180 speeches to determine numeric patterns in speech and yield original insights into how values and related variables such as pro-sociality are encoded and expressed. Finally, it performs a range of statistical analyses to explore similarities and contrasts in the values-in-speech patterns of the Community Independents and their Liberal Party predecessors.
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Interested to learn more about this research or approach?
Please email.
Current research
Making sense of resilience. How do disaster management agencies and disaster affected communities conceptualise ‘resilience’?
‘Resilience’ is a prolific concept in the Australian disaster management context. However, the polysemic nature of ‘resilience’ means key speech communities may conceptualise and experience resilience differently. The disconnection this creates, may lead to miscommunication between groups with implications for the effectiveness and cohesiveness of recovery efforts.
This project uses two methods of linguistic enquiry to explore how disaster management agencies and disaster affected communities conceptualise ‘resilience’.
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Interested to learn more about this research or this approach? Please email.
Recent research
Connection Needs Analysis for a rural Victorian Shire
Local focus on a global problem
Social connection is emerging as one of the most important issues of our time.
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It's a current focus of international attention through the World Health Organisation’s Commission on Social Connection, and national attention through programs such as Ending Loneliness Together.
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Exploring connection needs
The Rural City of Wangaratta Grit & Resilience Program Consortium commissioned Words for Change to conduct a ‘Connection Needs Analysis’ to increase their awareness and understanding of social connection needs and dynamics in the RCOW.
The Analysis explored the question, ‘what is needed to create a culture ofconnection and inclusion in Wangaratta?’
Interested to learn more about this research or this approach?
Please email.
Synthesis
In addition to primary research, we synthesise and summarise clear messages from complex multi-domain topics suited to the needs of your audience and the purpose of your project.
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For an example, please see the booklet on right. This brief for this project was to synthesise liveability in the Melbourne Water context, synthesising and distilling information across technical, policy and public documents.
