Sidoarjo, 8 August 2024 - In an effort to strengthen statistical literacy among students and the community, BPS Sidoarjo District has launched the latest series of its educational program, Ngulik 3.1. Taking place at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo (Umsida), the event held on Thursday, August 8, 2024, raised the important topic of "Managing Public Opinion with Sentiment Analysis". This workshop aimed to provide in-depth insight into the use of sentiment analysis in understanding public opinion and decision-making.

Presenting two main speakers, Sabilla Hamida Syahputri and Rahadian Eka Bagus Indra Rinangku, both students from STIS Polytechnic of Statistics. The event discussed in detail how sentiment analysis can be an effective tool for managing and understanding public responses to current issues. Hosted by Arjuna, a statistical agent from Umsida, the workshop provided a rich and relevant perspective for the participants.

The event was opened with remarks by Arry Wahyu Setiawan, a statistical agent from Umsida, who highlighted the importance of sentiment analysis in this fast-paced information age. "Sentiment analysis is a very useful tool to understand how people respond to various issues and information. With this analysis, we can more easily manage public opinion and respond more appropriately," said Arry in his speech. 

Sabilla and Rahadian explained the sentiment analysis techniques that can be applied, namely the use of machine learning algorithms to process text data from social media and other digital platforms. They outlined how these techniques can help identify people's mindsets and provide valuable insights for stakeholders to make more informed and strategic decisions. "With sentiment analysis, we can see the trends and feelings underlying public opinion, which is very important for decision-making," Rahadian explained.

The benefits of this event can be felt directly by the participants who attended. They gained a deeper understanding of the application of sentiment analysis in effectively managing public opinion. It provided insights on how to handle and respond to public opinion. According to Arjuna, "This understanding can strengthen the participants' ability to know what the public thinks and feels about current issues."

Furthermore, Sabilla emphasized the importance of applying web scraping techniques in sentiment analysis. She explained how this technique enables effective collection of data from various online sources and provides access to a wealth of relevant information for analysis. By using web scraping, researchers and practitioners can obtain structured and unstructured data from various websites, which are then processed to identify sentiment trends and public opinion patterns.

BPS Sidoarjo Regency has high hopes from this workshop. They hope that this event can trigger new ideas and innovative approaches that can be applied in statistical consulting programs. This expectation is not only aimed at improving student competence, but also to increase the effectiveness of BPS programs in serving the community.

With a better understanding of sentiment analysis and big data, workshop participants are expected to utilize web scraping techniques in practice to become agents of change who are able to make positive contributions to society. Ngulik 3.1 is part of the Pojok Statistik program, in which Sidoarjo District BPS and Umsida continue to strengthen their collaboration.

Pojok Statistik is an initiative of BPS Sidoarjo Regency that aims to improve statistical literacy in the community through education, consultation, and regular activities on statistics in various education centers. As part of the collaboration with BPS, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo (Umsida) participates in running this program. One of the flagship events in this collaboration is Ngulik, a workshop designed to deepen participants' understanding of data literacy and statistics.

Highly energized and enthusiastic, the Ngulik 3.1 event is clear evidence that collaboration between educational institutions and government agencies can produce a sustainable positive impact in developing skills and knowledge for the community. This event is the first step of many similar initiatives that are expected to continue to provide great benefits for education and the wider community.

also read: NGULIK Workshop 3.1: Optimizing Public Opinion Management with Sentiment Analysis