Word Cloud: President Obama State of the Union Address 2011
What did the president say last night? From the pundit’s reaction it was a pretty bland speech with typical political references to innovation and investment but light on specifics. In light of how the country has changed I figured I’d go back to what I did last year and look at it using a word cloud.
2011 State of the Union Word Cloud:
2010 State of the Union Word Cloud:
Last year the president focused a lot on “jobs” and “work”. You see those terms appeared again thrown in there along with “business” and “businesses”. It was a main theme from his last speech and with the economy only slightly improved it continues to weigh heavily on the minds of Americans.
One difference seems to be a discussion around education. You see “students”, “schools”, “children”, and “education” as fairly big words in the cloud. Education and investment in students was a big theme last night.
Also present in this year’s speech that wasn’t there last year a prevalence of words like “innovation”, “energy”, “technology”, and even “internet”. This is related to the above words and, I suspect, closely tied to two other major words in the cloud, “government” and “spending”. You also see “deficit” appear, but many believe this was a speech that called for cuts, but not at the abandonment of investment in research and innovation to propel the country ahead.
What words jump out at you? One last thing I noticed, the president appears to have received less “laughter” from the audience than he did last year, though before I stripped out “Applause” it was just as prevalent as 2010. The State of the Union never fails to get Congress clapping.
Thanks to Wordle for the cool word cloud tech.
Mike Santoro is President of Walker Sands Communications. He works to define integrated marketing and media communications strategy and oversees the tactical execution of marketing campaigns, communications pieces, web development, and PR outreach for the firm's top clients.
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