Author(s)

Liu Jinhan ¹, Liang Ling ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Nanfang College Guangzhou, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510900, China

Corresponding Author

Liang Ling

ABSTRACT

In the digital era, social media platforms have become vital arenas for brand image co-construction, yet computational sentiment analysis often lacks the linguistic depth to interpret the nuanced mechanisms behind emotional expression, particularly for time-honored brands. This study bridges this gap by integrating Appraisal Theory with quantitative text mining to analyze 4,176 user comments about the heritage catering brand "Tao Tao Ju" on Xiaohongshu. Employing ROST CM6 and ROST EA for sentiment polarity, word frequency, and semantic network analysis, alongside a qualitative manual coding of Attitude, Graduation, and Engagement resources, the research yields several key findings. Results indicate that overall sentiment is predominantly positive (68.1%), centered on Appreciation of culinary offerings and nostalgic ambiance, but a significant cluster of negative Judgment (23.6%) targets service inefficiency. The semantic network reveals a structural decoupling between product and service evaluations. Theoretically, this study demonstrates the feasibility of an interdisciplinary "data-to-discourse" framework, while practically, it provides a precise diagnostic tool and strategic content suggestions for the digital transformation of heritage brands.

KEYWORDS

Brand Image; Sentiment Analysis; Social Media; Appraisal Theory; Xiaohongshu; Taotaoju

CITE THIS PAPER

Liu Jinhan, Liang Ling. Sentiment Analysis on Social Media Review Texts from the Perspective of Appraisal Theory: A Case Study of Tao Tao Ju Brand on Xiaohongshu. Media and Communication Research (2026). Vol. 7, No. 2, 29-34. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/mediacr.2026.070204.

REFERENCES

[1] Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
[2] Kareem, R., & Farhan, H. (2022). The language of evaluation in Jose Saramago's Blindness via appraisal theory. International Linguistics Research, 15(1), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.30560/ilr.v5n1p25.
[3] Jokinen, J. P. P., & Silvennoinen, J. (2020). The appraisal theory of emotion in human–computer interaction. In Human–Computer Interaction Series, 51(6), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53483-73.
[4] Zhu, Y., Zhang, A. F., He, J., & Wang, Y. J. (2020). The impact of brand transposition strategies and firm type on consumer ratings of brand: An analytical study of cosmetic brands. Journal of Global Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1080/08911762.2020.1781319.
[5] Hung, C.-C., Gao, X., Liu, Z., Chai, Y., Liu, T., & Liu, C. (2023). CECM: A cognitive emotional contagion model in social networks. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 83(1), 1001–1023. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-15394-x.
[6] El Barachi, M., AlKhatib, M., Mathew, S., & Oroumchian, F. (2021). A novel sentiment analysis framework for monitoring the evolving public opinion in real-time: Case study on climate change. Journal of Cleaner Production, 312. https://doi.org/127820.10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127820.
[7] Di Zhou. (2025). Research on user comment requirement acquisition and sentiment analysis of e-commerce platform based on large models. E-commerce Review, 14(12), 5450-5458. https://doi.org/10.12677/ecl.2025.14124510.
[8] Zhou, Z. G. (2022). Research on sentiment analysis model of short text based on deep learning. Scientific Programming, 20(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/2681533.

Sponsors, Associates, and Links

---

• Journal of Language Testing & Assessment
  
  
• Information and Knowledge Management
  
  
• Military and Armament Science
  
  
• Journal of Human Movement Science
  
  
• Art and Performance Letters
  
  
• Lecture Notes on History
  
  
• Lecture Notes on Language and Literature
  
  
• Philosophy Journal
  
  
• Science of Law Journal
  
  
• Journal of Political Science Research
  
  
• Journal of Sociology and Ethnology
  
  
• Advances in Broadcasting