  Communication consists of both meta-information as well as content.
Currently, the automated analysis of such data often focuses either on the
network aspects via social network analysis or on the content, utilizing
methods from text-mining. However, the first category of approaches does not
leverage the rich content information, while the latter ignores the
conversation environment and the temporal evolution, as evident in the
meta-information. In contradiction to communication research, which stresses
the importance of a holistic approach, both aspects are rarely applied
simultaneously, and consequently, their combination has not yet received enough
attention in automated analysis systems. In this work, we aim to address this
challenge by discussing the difficulties and design decisions of such a path as
well as contribute CommAID, a blueprint for a holistic strategy to
communication analysis. It features an integrated visual analytics design to
analyze communication networks through dynamics modeling, semantic pattern
retrieval, and a user-adaptable and problem-specific machine learning-based
retrieval system. An interactive multi-level matrix-based visualization
facilitates a focused analysis of both network and content using inline visuals
supporting cross-checks and reducing context switches. We evaluate our approach
in both a case study and through formative evaluation with eight law
enforcement experts using a real-world communication corpus. Results show that
our solution surpasses existing techniques in terms of integration level and
applicability. With this contribution, we aim to pave the path for a more
holistic approach to communication analysis.
