Wegman, EdwardGarrity, Michael James2016-09-282016-09-282016https://hdl.handle.net/1920/10448Online blogging continues to be a popular way for people to share and discuss their opinions with others in the community. Blogospheres also provide a forum where authors can follow other bloggers as well as recommend and leave comments on individual posts. Over time, certain authors become more popular with high numbers of recommendations and comments, leading to an increased influence on connected bloggers’ sentiment and opinion within the network. Given the large number of users and issues being discussed in any blogosphere, it is extremely difficult to easily gauge patterns and trends in public sentiment and opinion, as well as any level of influence certain bloggers may have.120 pagesenCopyright 2016 Michael James GarrityComputer scienceStatisticsEpidemic ModelInfectious DiseaseInfluenceOpinionSentiment AnalysisText MiningDissertation