Unit of analysis
One headline plus source metadata. Article bodies are not copied or analyzed in v0.1.
Interpretation boundary
Report observable lexical and structural signals. Do not infer a cognitive bias, intent, truthfulness, political position or causal effect from one signal.
Sampling boundary
Every snapshot must state its provider, query, date window, language, sample size and sampling limitations. Curated pilot snapshots must never be presented as representative media samples.
Gain framing cue
Counts words that foreground opportunity, growth, improvement or creation.
Current lexicon: opportunity, opportunities, gain, gains, growth, grow, create, creates, creating, hiring, boost, benefit, benefits, bright, improve, improves, success
Loss framing cue
Counts words that foreground losses, cuts, decline, threat or damage.
Current lexicon: loss, losses, cut, cuts, layoff, layoffs, decline, declines, threat, threatens, risk, risks, grim, shortage, shortages, displace, displacement, redundancy, jobless, backlash
Uncertainty cue
Counts modal or questioning language that keeps a claim open rather than presenting it as settled.
Current lexicon: may, might, could, can, unclear, uncertain, whether, really, possible, possibly, appears, suggests, so far, outlook
Certainty cue
Counts language that presents an outcome or relationship with stronger certainty.
Current lexicon: will, must, proves, proven, definitely, certainly, inevitable, always, never, leads, causes
Salience cue
Counts vivid or high-intensity words that can make a headline more attention-grabbing.
Current lexicon: grim, bright, frantic, surge, crisis, massive, dramatic, race, fear, fears, shock, historic, record, backlash, scrappy
Authority cue
Counts references that foreground institutions, experts, studies, reports or named authority statements.
Current lexicon: says, said, study, studies, report, reports, research, researchers, expert, experts, poll, fed, government, minister, scientists
Social proof cue
Counts language emphasizing popularity, majorities, widespread behavior or crowd adoption.
Current lexicon: majority, most, many, millions, popular, viral, widespread, everyone, surge, racing, rush
Numerical emphasis
Counts explicit numerals, percentages, currencies and number-like tokens in the headline.
Rule: Regex-based count; no claim is made about whether the number is accurate or misleading.
Question headline
Marks headlines ending in a question mark. A question can signal uncertainty, curiosity or rhetorical framing, but the observable fact is only the form.
Rule: Boolean: trimmed headline ends with '?'.
Near-duplicate repetition
Groups headlines that share a high proportion of content words after stop-word removal.
Rule: Pairwise Jaccard similarity >= 0.62. This detects similar wording, not shared truth or independent confirmation.
Derived views
- frameDirection: gain-leaning when gain cues exceed loss cues; loss-leaning when loss cues exceed gain cues; mixed-or-neutral when tied.
- certaintyDirection: certainty-leaning when certainty cues exceed uncertainty cues; uncertainty-leaning when uncertainty cues exceed certainty cues; mixed-or-neutral when tied.
- sourceDiversity: unique domains divided by record count. This is a sample property, not a quality score.
- countryDiversity: unique non-empty source countries divided by record count.
Source infrastructure
- GDELT Project: Optional open news-discovery provider for scheduled snapshots.
- GDELT DOC 2.0 API documentation: Documents article-list search and JSON output used by the collector adapter.
- Media Cloud: Alternative archive/search provider for future adapters and replication.