From Weekly to Daily: Computational Analysis of Periodical Time Cycles

In this article we examine the differences between weekly and daily time cycles in the nineteenth-century Hebrew newspaper HaTzfira. This newspaper changed its publication format in 1886 from weekly to daily. We use this case study to identify the meanings and implications of time cycles in the discourse constructed in each format, and most specifically the different constructions of the “present” in each. We do this by using the computational tool of topic modeling. Through analysis of the topics in the three years prior to the change (1883–1885) and the three years after the change (1886–1888), we show the different patterns of topic changes within the journal.