Assessing Your Company's Media Coverage: About the Research

Over the last decade, Cubit Media Research Pty. Ltd. has carried out hundreds of print media profiling assignments for Australian companies and global organizations operating in the Asia-Pacific region. These media profiles often entail comparisons with competitors. A typical assignment will involve recording various types of information, such as media outlet, journalist, placement of the copy in the publication, the tone of the message and its thematic content. The figures shown in this article are a stylized version of the major findings of the message themes encountered in the course of this work. Message themes are chosen to capture both business and social aspects of a company’s activities.

The following method is used to profile a company’s media image and reputation:

• Each client lists either media outlets for scrutiny or several search terms and audiences for which the media search activity is to be conducted.
• Source material appearing in the media during the period of investigation is purchased from a commercial source such as Factiva or LexisNexis.
• A set of target message themes is identified in conjunction with the client.
• Each piece of copy is read by both advanced pattern-matching software and trained content analysts. Words and phrases are identified as belonging to sets of message themes and are meta-tagged accordingly. All data are then stored in a specially designed data file.
• Advanced software, overseen by skilled analysts, then carries out a message- matching activity to identify four types of message themes: “hit,” where the client’s desired messages surface in the media; “positive miss,” where another favorable message cuts through; “negative miss,” in which an unfavorable comment about the client appears; and “contradiction,” where a media message directly opposes the client’s desired message.