NEWS FOCUS: The death of Ion Iliescu. Sentiment analysis and online trends

The demise of Romania's first post-decembrist president has functioned as a defining media event of the last period, generating an exceptional volume of digital content and engagement on social media platforms. According to the data identified and analyzed by NewsVibe, an AI media monitoring platform, since the beginning of August there have been more than 13,300 mentions of Ion Iliescu in Romanian digital sources, as well as more than 500 mentions in the international sources monitored.

Public discourse covered a broad spectrum of perspectives, including historical assessments of his impact, reviews of his political achievements, as well as critical, at times vehement, reassessments of his political legacy. NewsVibe data shows that on the day of his death alone, there were more than 4,000 mentions online, with an estimated impact of nearly 20 million views.

We analyze the volume, intensity and thematic directions of this content published in the digital environment, using innovative methods from computational linguistics, identifying the emotional spectrum of reactions, the narrative structure of public discourse and the dominant conceptual associations.

Graphic NewsVibe. Evolution in the number of mentions of Ion Iliescu and their total impact between August 1-11

Top keywords mentioned

The main entities invoked in the context of mentions of the former president are PSD and USR, the parties involved in a very visible dispute over the funeral, as well as Palatul Cotroceni, an important venue for the ceremonies as the seat of presidential power. The personalities most often referred to were Nina Iliescu (his wife), Nicușor Dan (through reports and comments about his non-attendance at the funeral) and Sorin Grindeanu, the current leader of PSD. Government and Ilie Bolojan were also frequently mentioned political-institutional actors.

Grafic NewsVibe. Top entities mentioned in the context of mentions of Ion Iliescu, August 1-11

Evaluating the tone of communication

The NewsVibe platform has created an advanced sentiment analysis system that uses artificial intelligence, specially trained algorithms, and LLM language models to detect nuances of tone - favorable, unfavorable, or neutral - in the context of references to entities relevant to an online conversation.

Graphic NewsVibe. Top entities mentioned in positive (in green) or negative (in red) context in references to Ion Iliescu, between August 1-11

Data derived from automated sentiment analysis indicates a ratio of almost 2 to 1 in favor of positive connotations associated with the name Ion Iliescu, compared to negative ones, a ratio essential to properly understand the real dynamics of online debates, beyond superficial impressions.

Another name that has been mentioned through predominantly positive terminology is Nina Iliescu (wife of the former president), as well as institutions such as NATO, European Union or Romanian Orthodox Church, visible in particular thanks to the message of condolences sent by Patriarch Daniel, with appreciations related to the support and "respect" of the former leader towards the BOR. God was also frequently invoked, both as part of formulas included in public messages (e.g., "God rest his soul" or "God will judge him"), as well as through references to the famous televised electoral confrontation of 1996 ("Do you believe in God, Mr. Iliescu?").

In the case of personalities such as Sorin Grindeanu and Nicușor Dan, the names appear with both positive and negative connotations (the latter - significantly more frequent in the case of both), surprising the tone of the reports about their reactions, which varies depending on the source.

Among the entities with a negative connotation, USR and PSD stand out by frequency, but also Ceaușescu, Russia or Government.

Harta of semantic associations

By means of semantic network analysis, through which NewsVibe highlights the structure and connections within an online conversation, we can analyze an overview of the topics discussed in the digital environment regarding Ion Iliescu during the period under analysis. We can thus see that the discussions during these days were organized around 5 main thematic nuclei:

• A segment factual-descriptive, centered on the essential events associated with the evolution of Ion Iliescu's condition, from hospitalization to death and later funeral and national mourning; it is the most consistent segment and contains the central institutional-organizational elements;
• An area of the debate focused on political reactions of various types, coming from the political parties, with emphasis on PSD and USR, respectively the leaders Sorin Grindeanu and Dominic Fritz;
• A secondary segment built around references to the ceremonial elements at the Palatul Cotroceni, with the political personalities present or who sent messages (Emil Constantinescu, Ilie Bolojan, Traian Băsescu) or those absent (Klaus Iohannis, Nicușor Dan);
• A segment that brings together the central landmarks of his political career, taken up in public accounts, with central entities such as NATO, European Union, Ceaușescu, but also Russia;
• A nucleus (the smallest in terms of quantity) grouping together references in a polemical register to Revolution and minerals.

Grafic NewsVibe. The semantic network of the online conversation about Ion Iliescu between August 1-11

International coverage of sources

The death of Ion Iliescu was not only reported by digital sources in Romania. According to NewsVibe data, sources from at least 17 countries have reported on the event, reprinting information about his role in Romania's democratic history. Thus, online platforms from countries such as the Republic of Moldova, Italy, Hungary, but also the United States or Brazil covered the event, with various descriptions of the former president, ranging from "the man of the democratic transition" (Le Monde, France), to "Romania's first post-communist leader" (Bloomberg, US) or "Romania's first freely elected president since the 1989 revolution" (The Independent, UK).

Graphic NewsVibe. Geographical distribution of NewsVibe sources with mentions of Ion Iliescu, August 1-11

*****Synthesis realized with the help of a data feed provided by the media monitoring platform NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data and images presented were enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.