VOX POPULI: Automatic Generation of Biased Video Sequences

We describe our experimental rhetoric engine Vox Populi that generates biased video-sequences from a repository of video interviews and other related audio-visual web sources. Users are thus able to explore their own opinions on controversial topics covered by the repository. The repository contains interviews with United States residents stating their opinion on the events occurring after the terrorist attack on the United States on the 11th of September 2001. We present a model for biased documentary statements, such as interviews, and explain in detail how this model facilitates the automatic generation of rhetorical arguments on a micro-level. We outline the required representations of relevant rhetorical structures and the way they can be processed. The processes are described via examples generated by our experimental engine. The first example shows how to logically counter an opinion using semantics contained in the audio tracks from the database, while the second example describes the generation of an emotional counterargument using visual material.