The invention provides a novel method and apparatus for analyzing a communication network such as a computer network or a social network comprising nodes communicating with each other by means of messages. A topic discovery unit is provided for performing a topic discovery on the basis of a message content which can be formed by textual content. A segmentation unit performs a segmentation of a global network graph representing the communication network into topic sub-graphs depending on the discovered topics. A property calculation unit calculates intra-topic network properties and inter-topic network properties of the network nodes. An advantage is that a deeper understanding of the analyzed communication network can be achieved such as communications patterns to identify roles of participating nodes. The method and apparatus according to the present invention can be used to optimize the organization of any communication network.