Offline events and online engagement: user reaction following mass shootings

This study seeks to analyze the impact of an offline event on online user sentiment. To conduct this analysis, this study implements a two-stage difference-in-difference regression model to determine whether an offline event has an impact on user sentiment. My data set primarily consists of a set of exogenous mass shootings, and relevant user data derived from the New York Times API. Moreover, this study implements sentiment analysis tools such as VADER and TextBlob to measure user sentiment. This study primarily finds a significant, negative effect on user sentiment following a mass shooting.