Analysis of Obama's ISIL Speech on Sept. 10

Quantified Perception’s Analysis of President Obama’s Speech on the Islamic State

A quick profile and word-phrase analysis of President Obama’s speech tonight revels the following:

The transcript of the speech is assessed by the QPL CopyRater as “ESFP”, the type described by Myers-Briggs proponents as “Entertainer” or “Performer.” While a single speech cannot be interpreted as defining the speaker, other ESFP types include Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. Let’s say the speech was a noteworthy success in outreach communications. QPL describes text of this type as “Smooth, witty, charming” with “broad appeal.” The speech was properly aimed at middle America, not at politicians. Obama was on point, on target, and on message.

Examining the most common words in the transcript, we see the following:

Unsurprisingly, the most common word is “America” or a variation of that.

The next most common word is “will,” with 27 occurrences, 20 of which refer things we will do.

 

Next, some political messaging: Iraq is the main focus for the speech, with ISIL referenced slightly less than Iraq. Syria is important to the discussion, but  “Syria” and variants are used 12 times – indicating a conscious assignment that Syria is not the largest issue in this speech.

“They” is used 11 times, including 5 times in the first 380 words, setting up “The Evil Them” as the faceless danger.

“But” is used 8 times, making the speech more assertive or aggressive than is strictly normal. “But” is used to reinforce a point subject to argument.

The other top twenty- words in the transcript confirm the martial theme of the text.

Phrases used three times or more in the speech gives a bit more insight.

President Obama invoked the assumptive consensus with “we will” by far the most common phrase. The phrase is both inclusive and affirmative – “will” cannot be mistaken for “might” or “may.”

Unity is the message in “our country,” “our military,: and “our own.” We are in this together.

He invoked global support by referring to “the world” seven times.

“These terrorists” parallels the use of the word “they” to objectify without specificity, as in “’They’ are out to get us.”

Add a dash of patriotism, stir well, and generate support for the President’s plan.

Conclusion:

President Obama and his speechwriters crafted a well tuned, well targeted message that effectively reinforces his position and should inspire broad support, based upon the semantics and language alone. With an issue as complex and polarizing as going to war – even a limited one – make that necessary but not sufficient for closing the deal with the American people. Give Mr. Obama four stars for the speech language.

DHA $11 Billion EHRS - Quantiifed Perception analysis of DHA web

With billions coming from the Defense Health Agency (DHA) acquisition for electronic health records, Quantified Perception has performed a preliminary analysis of the DHA and Military Health System (MHS) web sites.

Quantified Perception, LLC (QPL) provides semantic and text analysis for acquisition support. This analysis relies on QPL’s Text Analysis Profiler (TAP) software. The current analysis is based on DHA web pages and published documents. The aggregated documents include nearly 11,000 words.

The Semantic Profile of the aggregated documents shows the typical government document type of ESTJ (using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator terminology), but the profile shows lower than typical “T” (Thinking) vector for decision making. This indicates more emphasis on “F” (Feeling) language. This generally indicates that DHA is promoting their agency more than simply reporting on it in their web page and other documents.

Word and Phrase Analysis

QPL includes many common and expected words and phrases in this analysis to provide a reference point for comparing language. 

The top three most common words include “health” and “care”, as you might expect, but both are exceeded in usage by “innovation.” Companies interested in bidding for the EHRS should consider innovation to be a significant factor in their solutions. “Acquisition” and “policy” are also included in the top ten most frequently used words, another indicator of the significance DHA puts on current acquisition planning activities. Note than “ideas”, “innovators”, and “innovations” are also included in the top twenty most common terms. Other significant terms in the top twenty words include “procedures,”. “culture,’” and “information.”

Phrase

Count

innovation	130
health	126
care	101
service/s	51
medical	47
program/s	45
support	40
acquisition	39
policy	38
provide/s	37
medicine	35
procurement	31
contract/ing	29
ideas	28
innovators	28
work/ing	27
procedures	26
innovations	25
culture	24
information	24

Phrases

Phrases of two to five words continue the emphasis on innovation, as highlighted below. Other phrases considered significant by QPL are bolded.

A strong sense of community is reflected in “communities of interest,” and “everyone in military medicine,” while an aloofness and superiority is also reflected in terms like ”better and more relevant,” “stronger, better and more.” The innovation theme is reiterated with “research and development” and “medical modeling and simulation.”

Phrase	Count
health care	31
health system	25
innovation program	20
mhs innovation	20
military medicine	20
acquisition policy	14
policies procedures	10
innovation efforts	9
service members	9

Phrase	Count
culture of innovation	19
communities of interest	13
mhs innovation program	10
combat casualty care	8
research and development	7

Phrase	Count
everyone in military medicine	8
medical modeling and simulation	7
better and more relevant	5
who are eminent authorities	5
our culture of innovation	4
patient centered medical home	4
reporting and monitoring device	4
tactical combat casualty care	4

Phrase	Count
members who are eminent authorities	5
stronger better and more relevant	5
anesthesia reporting and monitoring device	4
culture of innovation in government	3

As you plan your strategy for marketing and responding to DHA, be sure to emphasize innovation, community, and providing the best solutions.

For the complete word and phrase frequency tables, contact Quantified Perception at info@qpllc.com.