Media monitoring service: Difference between revisions
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==History== |
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In the past, the [[mass media]] consisted almost solely of printed matter, so monitoring the '''press''' was the chief activity of such agencies. But with [[radio]], [[television]] and the [[Internet]] now providing output of interest to their clients the services have expanded their activities. |
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In the past, the [[mass media]] consisted almost solely of printed matter, so monitoring the '''press''' was the chief activity of such agencies. The world's first press clipping agency was established in Paris in 1879 by Alfred Cherie, who offered a press-clipping service to Parisian actors, who could buy reviews of their work rather than buying the whole newspaper.<ref>[http://www.mediamonitors.com.au/historypopup.html Media Monitors Interactive history]</ref> |
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As [[radio]] and later [[television]] broadcasting were introduced in the 20th century, press clipping agencies began to expand their services into the monitoring of these broadcast media, a task that was facilitated with the introduction of audio and video tape recording in the 1950s and 1960s. With the growth of the [[Internet]] in the 1990s, media monitoring service now use new digital search and scan technologies to provide output of interest to their clients. |
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Typically, a client (either an individual or an organisation - such as a charity or corporation) approaches a media monitoring service to keep track of what is being said about them, their competitors, or other topics of interest. |
Typically, a client (either an individual or an organisation - such as a charity or corporation) approaches a media monitoring service to keep track of what is being said about them, their competitors, or other topics of interest. |
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Revision as of 00:06, 25 November 2008
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 | It has been suggested that News monitoring be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2007. |
A media monitoring service provides clients with documentation, analysis, or copies of media content of interest to the clients. Services tend to specialize by media type or content type. For example, some services monitor news and public affairs content while others monitor advertising, sports sponsorships, product placement, video or audio news releases, use of copyrighted video or audio, infomercials, "watermarked" video/audio, and even billboards.
Such services hold, or have held, various names - changing over time as new forms of media are created. Alternative names for such services include:
- Press/media cutting agency/service
- Press/media clipping agency/service
History
In the past, the mass media consisted almost solely of printed matter, so monitoring the press was the chief activity of such agencies. The world's first press clipping agency was established in Paris in 1879 by Alfred Cherie, who offered a press-clipping service to Parisian actors, who could buy reviews of their work rather than buying the whole newspaper.[1]
As radio and later television broadcasting were introduced in the 20th century, press clipping agencies began to expand their services into the monitoring of these broadcast media, a task that was facilitated with the introduction of audio and video tape recording in the 1950s and 1960s. With the growth of the Internet in the 1990s, media monitoring service now use new digital search and scan technologies to provide output of interest to their clients.
Typically, a client (either an individual or an organisation - such as a charity or corporation) approaches a media monitoring service to keep track of what is being said about them, their competitors, or other topics of interest.
Illustrative example
An author has a book published and has a strong interest in tracking how well the book is received by critics. The media monitoring service will have a method by which they extract any information about the author and their book from newly printed magazines, radio programs, television programs and so on.
The author will receive a printed bundle of clippings, i.e., the bits of the magazines and newspapers relating to them and their book. They may also receive recordings of any radio reviews, television programs and so on, in which they are featured.
Working methods
In the past the services relied on employing people to read through printed matter and physically cut out relevant articles. With the vast amount of publications on offer now some services use scanning equipment with optical character recognition to automate this task to some degree.
Television news monitoring companies, especially in the United States, capture and index closed captioning text and search it for client references. Some TV monitoring companies still employ human monitors who review and abstract program content.
Online media monitoring services utilize automated software called spiders or robots (bots) to automatically monitor the content of online news sources including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV station and news syndication services.
Trade Groups
The International Association of Broadcast Monitors (IABM) is a world-wide trade association made up of news retrieval services which record, monitor and archive broadcast news sources including television, radio and internet. It acts as a "clearinghouse" or "forum" for discussion on topics of collective concerns and acts as a united voice for the news monitoring industry. Members of IABM subscribe to a code of ethics for broadcast news monitors.
Professional Organization
FIBEP (Federation Internationale des Bureaux d’Extraits de Presse/International Federation of the Press Clipping Services) is the most important professional organization in the media monitoring field. The organization was established in 1953 in Paris, and, at present, has 92 members from 43 countries all over the world. Every 18 months, the members of FIBEP members organize a three-day FIBEP-Congress. In work groups, workshops, reports and discussion circles, members discuss the latest trends in the market.
Future trends
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 | This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. (December 2007) |
Google News provides a basic media monitoring service that allows queries that search for the number of times a keyword has been mentioned in thousands of publications, based on the publications' websites. However, specialized services will very often provide a much more reliable service based on trusted publications and human reading.[citation needed]
Starting in 2005 companies like Global News Intelligence began using Java based artificial intelligence to automate the process of coding clipped content for tone and sentiment.[citation needed] This emerging technology is often referred to as media meta analysis. Key technological differentation to clip/cut only services is instant visualization media tone and sentiment without requiring the user to review content. This method, although promising, is far less accurate than human coding.[citation needed]
The concept of watching media outlet websites using automated technology was pioneered by WebClipping.com in 1998. Since then, there has been a growing market of companies focused on tracking and monitoring online news, blog and social media content. As more news content is available online, this has become an increasingly popular solution.[citation needed]