The overall goal of “An Epidemiology of Information” is to show how technology can expand the study of history. This connects to digital humanities with the use of this technology, specifically computational methods like topic modeling and sentiment analysis, to explore this historical data on the 1918 pandemic.
The project also has a goal to improve textual analysis with different methods. The project aims to take traditional readings and, with the help of tools, analyze the texts. The project achieved this with use of topic modeling, dynamic temporal segmentation and tone analysis which all work together to allow researchers to see change in trends and themes over time in texts. It connects to digital humanities because it shows how digital tools can reveal shifting trends and themes over time in historical texts, offering deeper, data-driven insights into historical events that go beyond what traditional close reading alone could achieve.
The project doesn’t directly address their audience, but can be directed towards and help researchers. It provides them with advanced tools and methods to analyze large datasets of historical texts as well as reveal connections and patterns in different texts.