Formalizing the Social Aspects of Topic Modeling: Focus on the Social Positioning of Researchers

Topic modeling is a comprehensive and dynamic approach offering an outstanding exploration platform. It is a set of robust algorithms that empowers researchers to extract latent themes from large corpora and offer them the means to unearth hidden patterns and insights within extensive collections of data, spanned over a long period. The extracted themes, however, are conditioned on the researcher's social positioning and social awareness. This social positioning and social awareness are the prime aspects for interpreting the data and reaching a real understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. A researcher's perspective and understanding of the world influence the themes they discover. In social sciences, the primary aspect of research is validity, ensuring the findings represent the true nature and essence of the topic being studied which contributes to interpretation. Consequently, this meticulous approach improves the overall robustness of the study. The above-mentioned aspects concerning the social positioning and social awareness of the issue may play a vital role in the validation and interpretation of the data.