Web comment-based trend analysis on deep geothermal energy

In this paper we present the initial results of a national trend analysis — an approach that allows collecting and investigating location- and time-specific acceptance factors from user-generated content. For this purpose, an annotation scheme is adapted that is originally developed for sentiment analysis and opinion detection. By applying this annotation scheme, German Web comments of a newspaper and a news-site are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The analysis focuses on the investigation of acceptance drivers of deep geothermal energy. Thereby, it is assumed that the public opinion — positive, negative or neutral — is location-and time-dependent. In contradiction, media often draw an adulterated picture of citizen opinions. Our initial assumption of opposed opinions on deep geothermal energy in public and media was confirmed by the conducted trend analysis.