Starling David Hunter III 1 Susan Smith 2 Received 9 January 2016 Reviewed 14 February 2016 Accepted 24 February 2016 UDC: 81'42:791]:004.4 CENTER OF ATTENTION: A NETWORK TEXT ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN SNIPER Abstract: Network Text Analysis (NTA) is a term used to describe a variety of software-supported methods for modeling texts as networks of concepts. In this study we apply NTA to the screenplay of American Sniper, an Academy Award nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2014. Specifically, we establish prior expectations as to the key themes associated with war films. We then empirically test whether words associated with the most influentially- positioned nodes in the network signify themes common to the war-film genre. As predicted, we find that words and concepts associated with the least constrained nodes in the text network were significantly more likely to be associated with the war genre and significantly less likely to be associated with genres to which the film did not belong. Keywords: network analysis, network text analysis, film studies, screenplay, war movie, war film, genre analysis, film genre Introduction Network text analysis (NTA) is a term used to describe a broad set of software-supported solutions for modeling linguistic data as interconnected networks Dzof words and the relations between themdz ȋDiesner & Carley, ʹͲͲͷ, p. ͺ͵Ȍ. The creation of these text networks involves four distinct steps, the first of which is inclusion, i.e. the determination of which words to include in the analysis and, by extension, which to exclude. The second step is generalization and it involves the decision of whether to assign the included words to higher-order conceptual categories. The third step is inter-relation and it concerns the choice of the 1 Associate Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business (Doha). 2 Professor, American University of Sharjah.