Glossary
The words, defined.
The terms Alethman uses in its guides, briefs and product, each in a sentence or two.
- Bloc
- A group of outlets that report a story the same way: the same stance on its central claim and a similar frame.
- Claim
- A statement of fact that can be checked against the record. In a coverage brief, the claim at the center of a story is written as one sentence and used to measure each report.
- Coverage brief
- An Alethman publication that reads one news story: what every report agrees on, what is still open, which outlets carry each version, and whether coverage split. More
- Coverage split
- When independent news outlets report the same event as incompatible stories. Alethman calls a story split when at least three independent outlets carry an opposing frame. More
- Disinformation
- False information created or shared knowingly, to cause harm. More
- Earliest report
- The first report of a claim that can be found in the sources read. It is not proof of who made the claim up.
- Entity resolution
- Deciding when records in different systems refer to the same person, company or item. More
- Frame
- The angle a report takes on an event: what it emphasizes and how it explains what happened.
- Improper payment
- A payment that should not have been made, went to the wrong recipient, was in the wrong amount, or cannot be shown to be proper. More
- Independent voice
- An outlet that reported a story itself, rather than reprinting another outlet’s or a wire agency’s report. Reprints count once. More
- Lean
- When nearly all coverage takes one stance and only one or two outlets differ. Not enough to call a split.
- Malinformation
- Genuine information used to cause harm. More
- Media monitoring
- Collecting mentions of an organization, person or topic in the media and reporting their volume and tone. More
- Misinformation
- False information shared without intent to cause harm. More
- News intelligence
- Reading news coverage as evidence: grouping reports by event, tracking attention and seeing where outlets disagree. More
- OSINT
- Open-source intelligence: investigation using publicly available information.
- Payment integrity
- Preventing, detecting and recovering improper payments, increasingly by checking them before release. More
- Record fusion
- Combining what several systems and open sources say about one entity into a single view, with the reason for every match. More
- Story
- In Alethman, all the reports about one event, grouped together even when they use different words or languages.
- Wire copy
- A news agency’s report, such as one from AP, Reuters, AFP or PTI, published by other outlets. More
See it on the stories you follow.
Alethman reads national news across countries, groups it by event and shows where the story splits, with every number linked to its sources.