A Digital Humanities Research on the Method for Periodization of History: The Example Based on the Shenzhen-related News Reports in the People’s Daily (1946-2016)

Abstract

This study aims to provide a method of historical periodization based on digital humanities that could better combine qualitative and quantitative analysis than previous ones. This study singled out 3,203 news reports in the People's Daily, 1946 to 2016, whose headlines contained ＂Shenzhen＂ and respectively applied 1) artificial periodization, 2) peak number periodization, and 3) keyword cluster periodization to these Shenzhen-related news reports. The results show that three methods of periodization respectively have their limitations on objectivity. This paper thus suggests an automatic periodization based on quantitative datasets and this data-driven method could provide a novel perspective for the long-term historical analysis in the future.

Keywords

• shenzhen
• people’s daily
• history periodization
• change point problem
• digital humanities