Title: Informing decision makers: development of online news media monitoring and visualisation

Authors: Alvi Syahrina; Media Wahyudi Askar; Margareta Hardiyanti; Mochamad Satria Riza Permana; Kayla Queenazima Santoso

Addresses: Department of Public Policy and Management, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ' Department of Public Policy and Management, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ' Department of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia ' Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract: As information continues to be generated online, the volume of 'big data' is rapidly increasing, offering potential for strategic decision-making across industries, including public administration. The online news media, as a source of real-time information, have transformed the way policymakers access and respond to public sentiment and emerging issues. In this context, the need for advanced tools to monitor and analyse vast streams of online news has become crucial. This paper introduces Unitrend, a platform designed to facilitate data-driven decision-making by offering real-time insights through advanced data processing, data analysis, and visualisation technologies. Unitrend aggregates news data, conducts sentiment analysis, and tracks key entities, providing policymakers with a comprehensive understanding of trends and public reactions. This research explores Unitrend's system architecture and methodologies, highlighting its potential benefits and limitations in fostering responsive and informed policy development.

Keywords: news media monitoring; big data analytics; natural language processing; NLP; sentiment analysis; named entity recognition; NER; web scraping; evidence-based policy making.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2025.149231

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2025 Vol.21 No.6, pp.613 - 633

Received: 06 Dec 2023
Accepted: 06 Sep 2024
Published online: 20 Oct 2025 *

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