A HYBRID APPROACH TO STANCE DETECTION AND SENTIMENT ANALYSIS USING BERT AND VADER IN REDDIT DISCUSSIONS ON THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT

Abstract

The social media platforms, such as Reddit, are used for sharing public opinions. Reddit hosts public views and information and exchanges among people online. We implemented a hybrid approach for stance detection and sentiment analysis using Advanced Natural Language Processing tools, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), and Valence Aware Dictionary and sentiment Reasoner on Reddit data on the topic of the Israel and Palestine conflict. We examined sentiments in Reddit discussions to understand public opinion dynamics in this political context. The findings indicate a significant proportion of neutral stances about the issue, which highlights the complexity of public discourse. These results may be helpful for political analysts and policymakers to gauge public sentiment and inform diplomatic strategies.

Keywords

Sentiment analysis, Stance detection, Text analysis, Reddit comments, social Platform