Sentiment Analysis
The process of evaluating media coverage and public conversation to determine whether the tone toward a brand is positive, negative, or neutral.
Definition
Sentiment analysis in PR is the systematic evaluation of media coverage, social media conversations, reviews, and public commentary to determine the overall emotional tone toward a brand, product, campaign, or topic. Coverage is typically categorized as positive, negative, or neutral, with more sophisticated analyses measuring degrees of sentiment and specific emotional associations.
Modern sentiment analysis uses a combination of AI-powered natural language processing (NLP) tools and human review. Automated tools can process thousands of mentions quickly, while human analysts provide nuance — understanding sarcasm, cultural context, and subtle editorial framing that algorithms may miss.
Why It Matters
Volume of coverage alone does not tell the full story — 100 negative articles are worse than 10 positive ones. Sentiment analysis provides the qualitative dimension that transforms raw mention counts into actionable intelligence about brand perception and reputation health.
Tracking sentiment over time reveals whether PR strategies are shifting perceptions in the desired direction. A crisis communication effort might show high mention volume with initially negative sentiment that improves to neutral and positive over weeks — validating the response strategy. Without sentiment analysis, this crucial context is invisible.
Examples in Practice
After a product launch, sentiment analysis reveals that while 80% of coverage is positive overall, mentions in one specific market segment are 60% negative due to pricing concerns — prompting targeted messaging to address the issue.
A quarterly sentiment report shows that a client's sentiment improved from 55% positive to 78% positive after a thought leadership campaign, providing concrete evidence of PR impact.
During a crisis, real-time sentiment tracking shows that public sentiment shifted from 70% negative to 55% neutral within 48 hours of issuing a transparent apology and corrective action plan — confirming the crisis response strategy is working.