Glossary

ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS Deutschland GmbH uses circulation figures. The values are available for most German print titles. Circulation is used as a key figure to assess the distribution and thus relevance of a particular medium. Circulation gives the number of copies printed (e.g. number of copies printed per day for daily newspapers). Our analysis uses the cumulative circulation per day (total circulation of all reports recorded).

Reach in the form of ‘calculated recent readership (‘cRR’) offers information about total contact opportunities, in other words the potential number of readers that a publication can reach. This value is only available for some media titles.

Newspaper with different regional editions (also known as auxiliary issues) are organisationally connected newspaper titles from a single publisher that are largely identical in overarching sections such as the economy or abroad, and only differ in their regional sections. The supraregional sections generally come from the publisher’s main paper, and are supplemented with regional areas of focus.

The advertising equivalent value (‘AEV’) is used to assess the monetary value of coverage for a particular subject of analysis. The equivalent value in Euro is calculated using the average costs for an advertisement of equal size in the relevant media title. The advertising rates and media titles used as a basis for the calculation are regularly updated. A distinction is made between the ‘non-weighted’ and ‘weighted’ advertising equivalent value. The weighted AEV takes into account the dominance of the subject of analysis in an individual report. The non-weighted value uses the overall price of the report's space based on the calculation logic. The advertising equivalent value enables a neutral statement about the financial value of coverage on a particular subject of analysis. It allows the media and public relations outlay and the equivalent monetary value of the coverage to be compared.

For analyses, ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS generally uses a calculated daily reach value (‘reach’) as the reach data for online publications. The reach data is obtained for example from the operating website, or other sources. If no certified data is available, no reach is given. Reach is calculated using available certified reach data (based on UUpW, UUpM, page visits and page impressions).

The ‘unique users per month’ reach value states how many individual IP addresses have accessed a specific website per month. The IP addresses are equated to individual users, so the UUpM becomes the parameter for reader contact, even if this is not always strictly correct (an individual IP address can also be used by multiple people).

A ‘page impression’ is when a user retrieves something in a website that results in a relevant change of content (e.g. a new article or a new video). It is therefore a cumulative number of retrievals within an individual website.

A ‘page visit’ is an amalgam of all page impressions produced within a 30-minute period. It is a connected series of usage events for a website and should not be confused with a website’s number of users, as a user may make use of a website multiple times and thus create multiple visits.

The cost per thousand (also cost per mile, or ‘CPM’) is a key figure from media planning that indicates the costs resulting from an advertising measure in order to reach 1,000 people in a target group.

The coverage equivalent value in Euro is calculated relative to the daily price for an advertising banner in standard IAB formats (full banner, leader board, skyscraper and medium rectangle) on the relevant website. The basis for this calculation is the ‘unique users per month’ (‘UUpM’) scaled down to each day, and the relevant cost per thousand (‘CPT’). For online offerings where no ‘UUpM’ is available, first ‘page visits’, then ‘page impressions’ and lastly the Alexa rank are examined and calculated using the relevant factors. If there are no traffic figures or banner prices available, a flat rate is recorded. A distinction is made between the ‘non-weighted’ and ‘weighted’ advertising equivalent value. The non-weighted value always uses the daily value based on the calculation logic. The weighted value incorporates the dominance of the subject of analysis and can therefore affect the report’s value.

The reach values for radio and TV stations are obtained for example from stations. Reach is recorded per station, and per programme for TV stations. Analyses identify the ‘net reach in thousands’. The reach is given as a total number of relevant broadcasts in the period of analysis.

The market share describes the percentage of media consumption of a specific radio or TV programme in terms of the total listening or viewing time of the relevant media at a specific point.

The advertising equivalent value (‘AEV’) is used to assess the monetary value of editorial coverage for a particular subject of analysis. The equivalent value in Euro is calculated based on the price in seconds for the relevant programme. The advertising equivalent value is calculated using the subject of analysis' mentions and the price in seconds for the relevant format. Weighting by presence and dominance (such as the presence of a logo) is not part of the standard calculation of advertising equivalent value, but is an option upon request.

This value indicates how many minutes a radio or TV programme was viewed for, and is given as minutes of use per viewer (‘dwell time’) or per capita of the population (‘viewing time’). For ‘viewing time’, media consumers are scaled up to the entire population. This calculation enables the use of the different programme options to be compared.

Net reach for TV describes the proportion of people who view a particular TV station for at least one second. Net reach is given as a percentage or as the number of people.

Net reach for radio describes the proportion of people who listen to a particular radio station for at least one minute. Net reach is given as a percentage or as the number of people.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses, statements are the smallest subject of analysis in a media report. They are a thematic unit: a statement may for example be one sentence long or may run through the entire report (like a topic).

The author is the creator of the media report. Abbreviations are removed and missing author names are researched wherever possible. On social media, an author can be the sender of a post, and may therefore be described as an ‘influencer’.

A content analysis is a collection of methods from the empirical social sciences. Analysing content with the empirical method is suitable for systematically describing contextual and formal features of coverage in a way that is comprehensible intersubjectively and enables reduced complexity so that specific questions can be answered.

Stakeholders are organisations, institutions, groups of people or individuals who directly or indirectly have a say in media reports and present their view or position on a particular topic to the public. Stakeholders are recorded in ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses in order to examine which interest groups have a say during a particular period of analysis.

A ‘report’ is considered to be a media report (article) that is relevant to the particular analysis. Reports may be articles in print or online, broadcasts or parts of broadcasts on the radio or TV, and posts on social media.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses, a ‘mention’ is an appearance of an element that is relevant to the analyses (e.g. the company’s name) in a media report. For example, the term can be used to describe the number of companies, stakeholders or products appearing in a media report. Similarly, it is possible that an analysis may cover more mentions than there are media reports.

A quantitative analysis is a numerical evaluation of media reports. For quantitative analyses, the focus is on summarising media reporting and its metadata, such as circulation or region. The standard quantitative analysis product is a presence analysis.

Unlike quantitative analyses, ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s qualitative analyses focus not just on metadata, such as circulation or region, but also on content elements, such as the dominance or exclusivity of the subject of analysis. Therefore, qualitative analyses facilitate statements about the manifest and latent elements of media coverage for a subject of analysis. Examples of qualitative analysis include input-output analyses or influencer analyses.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS's analyses, population is understood to mean the total quantity of reports that could be incorporated into the evaluation. The population for an analysis may be internal media monitoring, or all of the coverage that a particular media title provides on a specific topic. It is therefore a preselection of what will serve as the data basis.

The data basis is the media reports that are actually included in the analysis, based on the analysis design and the population. To determine the data basis, the population is narrowed down using selection criteria, such as a period of analysis or specific media channels or media titles.

The analysis basis is created from the data basis and differs from it because it is possible to exclude media reports that are duplicated or are not relevant to the analysis. It is therefore a cleaned-up version of the data basis that is used for the analysis.

‘Evaluation’ is the ‘tone’ used in a media report about the subject of analysis. For this analysis, it is relevant how the subject of analysis (.e.g company, brand, product or person) is represented in the content. A distinction is made between a positive, neutral and negative evaluation. As well as this three-level evaluation, ‘favourable’, ‘critical’ and ‘controversial/ambivalent’ tones are common. A distinction is drawn between the evaluation of the subject of analysis and the tone of the article as a whole. For example, a negative media report may contain a positive mention of the company (such as via a positive example). In principle, the viewpoint of a neutral, independent media consumer is used to code reports.

This records whether a media report is written at a journalist’s instigation or is triggered by a company’s communication activities. A distinction is made between ‘self-initiated’ (the media report is created as a result of a company’s communication activities) and ‘initiated by a third party’ (the media report is created separately to a company’s communication activities). For a report to be deemed ‘self-initiated’, it has to be possible to trace the relevant media report back to a relevant communication activity. Indicators of this are statements such as: ‘According to a press release’ or ‘At the press conference’. The origin is primarily relevant to the input-output analysis.

‘Citation level’ covers how completely self-initiated communication activities are featured in a media report. The citation level is measured based on the inclusion of the core messages contained in the communication activities. The more core messages that are included, the higher the citation level.

The ‘dominance’ variable covers the proportion of the media report's overall content occupied by the subject of analysis. The higher the dominance of the relevant subject of analysis, the more the overall content of the media report will focus on said subject of analysis.

‘Exclusivity’ records whether other (competing) companies, brands, products or people comparable to the subject of analysis are also included in the media report.

The quality value is a key figure that measures and compares the quality of communication activities in relation to individual, strategic corporate goals. The customisable quality value consists of various factors, such as reach or evaluation, and quality characteristics, such as presence in the most important media (media publications that have a particularly major influence on public opinion and affect other mass media) or the exclusivity of coverage. The ARGUS quality value reduces the quality of coverage to an indicator that can be used as a unit for measuring the success of media and public relations work. More information is available here.

Media reports may take various different forms in terms of layout and content. The length, layout and content of an article are taken into account when assigning a particular report type. For example, in terms of content, a distinction is made between information articles and opinion articles. Possible report types include: news, report, editorial report, portrait, interview, lead article, column, commentary, essay or reader letter.

The ‘regions’ assign the various different German media titles to the relevant circulation area of the individual media products, enabling an overview of the regional distribution of media impact in Germany.

A ‘category’ covers the allocation of media reports to a pre-defined grid. Brands, products or companies can all be categories. Media report categorisation serves to create a rapid overview of media impact and can be applied as a selection criterion to determine the data basis for an analysis. Unlike issues/sub-topics, categories are pre-defined receptacles for structuring reports.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS's analyses, a ‘topic’ is an overarching focus of coverage content. A topic generally consists of multiple issues/sub-topics and, unlike a category, provides an answer to what is actually touched on in relevant media reports and is not pre-defined.

An issue or sub-topic is an overall topical focus of media reporting. Unlike a category, this focuses more strongly on the content-related context of the media coverage. The assignment grid does not have to be pre-defined, but can instead be ‘derived’ from media reports. This is particularly true for new, previously unknown topic areas. Various issues/sub-topics can be put together to form a ‘topic’, and a media report can also contain multiple issues/sub-topics. A sub-topic is neutral, whilst an issue has a more critical content focus.

Reputation describes the image of a company, person or institution presented to the public by the media. For a company, reputation is an intangible asset and forms part of the company’s value, similarly to patents or trademarks. The reputation index measures the reputation of a company or brand in the public’s eyes.

Dimensions and drivers of reputation are the elements making up reputation, with each dimension consisting of multiple drivers. Together, these form an overall picture of how the relevant subject of analysis is perceived internally and externally. Reputation drivers are topics that are recorded in media coverage in a way that expresses judgement about the subject of analysis For a company, the following topic areas may be considered dimensions of reputation: ‘corporate’, ‘products & innovation’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘CEO’. The CEO dimensions of reputation itself may then consist of the reputation drivers ‘business success’, ‘leadership/governance’ and ‘mission statements’.

The ‘reputation index’ sets out the reputation value for the relevant subject of analysis. Like the ‘net promoter score’, this includes both positive and negative media reports, and compares them with overall coverage (incl. neutral and ambivalent mentions). The reputation index values range from -100 to +100. Multiple levels can be compared using the reputation index. For example, the reputation values of various different dimensions of reputation or topics can be compared with each other.

‘Sentiment’ is an automatic evaluation of tone. The sentiment of a media report can be ‘positive’, ‘neutral’, ‘ambivalent’ or ‘negative’, and differs because it relates to an evaluation of the overall article and not of the subject of analysis. A sentiment analysis is generally performed for all media reports. However, there may be reports that consist of incomplete text or other media (videos, images, links), and therefore cannot be assigned a sentiment. Therefore, the number of reports evaluated may not be the same as the population total.

Keywords are an important tool for summarising the content of media reports. ‘Keyword extractors’ are used to pick out the key terms from the text based on frequency of use, in order to enable a rapid overview of a large quantity of text.

A word cloud is a method for visualising information. A list of terms (such as words, hashtags or tags) is displayed in a single graphic, with the frequency of individual terms weighted using elements such as colours of size differences, so that their importance for the subject of analysis is easily visible. The layout of the terms is generally random (automatic) and has no contextual significance.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses, impact is viewed as media coverage of the subject of an analysis. The subject of analysis may be a company, a brand or a product.

Media activity is considered to be activity undertaken by the PR and communications department with the aim of achieving media impact. Within this, ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS distinguishes between various different formal types, such as interviews, events or press releases. The response to individual media activities is also measured. See also: origin. In addition, media activity may be in response to previous media reports.

The non-weighted advertising equivalence value uses the full, standard value of a media report based on the calculation logic for print or online publications.

Unlike the non-weighted AEV, this incorporates the dominance of the relevant subject of analysis into the calculation of the equivalent monetary value. If a subject of analysis is only mentioned, the value of the report will be lower than for one where the subject of analysis dominates the content of the article.

Daily and weekly media contain information about news, politics, business, sport and public life. This type of media is aimed at broad sections of the population and is fundamentally accessible to all. Daily and weekly media are published regularly, and alongside the physical print editions, the corresponding online counterparts for the relevant media titles fall under the same category.

Consumer media are media products that are published on a regular, weekly or occasional basis, aimed at a broad target audience. Like the physical print editions, the corresponding online counterparts to each media title fall under the same category.

Special media is content aimed at the target group's special interests, which may arise from hobbies, membership of a particular age group, life circumstances, or certain areas of interest, for example. Like the physical print editions, the corresponding online counterparts to each media title fall under the same category. Examples of this type of media: in general all magazines covering areas such as travel, living, real estate, gardening, cooking, (university) education, children, family, sport, fitness, lifestyle, health, animals, animal conservation, religion (church news), politics (party newspapers), music and culture.

Specialist media are aimed at members of particular professional groups with specific professional and specialist interests.

News agencies disseminate information from politics, business, society, culture and sport in the form of text, images or videos. Only reports published by agencies on their own channels are included under this type of media. If agency reports are used in whole or in part for a report in another publication, these reports will be allocated to the relevant medium.

Like daily and weekly media, information platforms disseminate universal information about news, politics, business, sport and public life. This type of media is similarly aimed at broad sections of the population and is accessible to all. Unlike daily and weekly media, however, information platforms are only available online, with no physical counterpart in print.

Blogs are a form of digital diary kept on a website, meaning that they are usually publicly visible. Blogs mostly cover a specific topic area such as sport, technology or lifestyle. ‘Microblogs’ differ from ‘blogs’ in that they are devoted to a very specific niche topic, and only have a small reach to a very limited audience.

Like ‘specialist media’ in the print sector, these online offerings are aimed at members of particular professional groups with specific professional and specialist interests. As the ‘specialist organisation’ type of media has no physical counterpart in print and is limited to an online presence, it is given its own media type category.

‘Corporate news’ covers company websites and blogs that publish company-specific information and news. As this type of media publishes company-specific content via the company’s own online presence, ‘corporate news’ falls under ‘owned media’. Examples of this type of media: argusdatainsights.de/en and argusdatainsights.de/en/blog/

The ‘radio’ type of media covers all media services that disseminate radio broadcasts. No distinction is made between terrestrial and digital broadcasting or between different receiving devices, so this type of media also covers all digitally transmitted and internet-only radio.

The ‘TV’ and ‘web TV’ types of media cover all public and private media services disseminating audiovisual media content to a mass audience, whether live or time-delayed. The ‘web TV’ type of media differs from the ‘TV’ media type because it does not occupy space on a conventional transmitting channel, but is instead broadcast entirely online.

Video platforms are online services where users upload their own audiovisual items, thus making them available to a large audience. The videos can then generally only be downloaded using a technical work-around. Some video platforms also offer live streaming. Examples of this type of media: YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion or Vevo.

The ‘organisations, hobbies’ type of media covers all media services devoted to specific interests and topic areas. The creators of these services may be organisations, institutions, associations or individuals. Unlike ‘special media’, this type of media is only available online, meaning that it has no physical counterpart in print.

For allocating types of media, ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS considers a ‘social community’ (or social network) to be an online service that enables users to exchange information and build relationships. The resulting online community communicates and interacts in a virtual space based on the capabilities and restrictions of each platform, with the focus on exchanging opinions, experiences and information with one another. Examples of this type of media: Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Forums and wikis are digital information platforms devoted to a specific topic area and designed to enable users to discuss the relevant topic, or gather knowledge on the relevant topic area and make it publicly available in a form similar to an encyclopaedia.

On the social web, ‘owned media’ covers all communication channels where companies can publish their own content under their own responsibility. For example, this includes all corporate media channels, such as a company’s website, in-house blog, newsletter, or social media presence.

‘Earned media’ covers content about a brand or company that comes not from the company itself, but is rather disseminated without payment by clients and other media professionals such as journalists, editors, bloggers or other social web users.

‘Paid media’ covers all forms of communication measures for which companies pay media, platforms or third parties . In digital marketing, this may include a wide range of paid presence elements such as ‘traditional’ banner advertising on websites, search engine advertising, online video advertising, sponsored posts on social media platforms, influencer marketing or blogger relations.

Within ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses, a ‘mention’ is when a combination of search terms specific to the analysis appears in a social media or online report. A ‘mention’ also covers when a social media handle (channel name, e.g. @BR_Sprecher) is linked in a post.

Engagement for a social media report consists of the total of all potential user interactions with the relevant report. The following interactions are possible, depending on the platform: like, share/retweet, comment, save/bookmark.

‘Engagement rate’ is a measurement of user interactions with the content published on a social media profile. Engagement rate covers interaction in relation to a profile’s reach. Engagement rate can be calculated for an entire profile or for individual social media posts, enabling different reports to be compared with the profile as a whole.

Performance covers the interplay between various indicators in a social media analysis. Possible indicators include number of reports, (potential) reach, engagement, or engagement rate. The higher the relevant indicators, the better the performance.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s social media analyses, reach is the number of people who can be reached by a profile or an individual report. Actual reach is used wherever possible. If this is not available, potential reach is used, which comes from the following indicators (and similarly for type of media and social media platforms not listed): Blogs, forums and news websites: Alexa monthly unique visitors, Facebook: number of likes for the relevant accounts, Twitter: number of followers for the relevant accounts, Instagram: number of followers for the relevant accounts, YouTube: total views of the relevant video

‘Engagement per mention’ is the relationship between the total of all interactions and the number of mentions. Unlike engagement rate, this includes not only interaction with all social media reports, but also engagement across all types of media. Engagement per mention also serves as an indicator of interaction and enables different profiles to be compared.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s analyses, a ‘content creator’ is a profile or source that has produced one or more social media reports that are relevant to the analysis.

An ‘amplifier’ disseminates content beyond the limits of their own network via reach-boosting interaction (share, retweet) with the published content. ‘Amplifiers’ are particularly relevant on the short message platform Twitter.

The ‘like follower ratio’ is a key figure for measuring interaction. This is calculated from the average number of likes per post in the last four weeks and the number of followers. Unlike engagement rate, this key figure only includes likes, and no other forms of interaction.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s social media analyses, ‘owner activity’ covers all individual interactions, such as creating, sharing or commenting on social media posts.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s social media analyses, ‘audience activity’ covers all interactions that users undertake with content published on a social media platform.

Influencers create influential content – about a particular topic, brand, company, institution, association or person. Depending on the relevant question, (top) influencers are those who either write the most about a topic (highest number of reports), generate the most interactions, have the greatest (potential) reach, or achieve the greatest virality.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s social media analyses, ‘type of post’ covers the various options for publishing content on the relevant social networks. This may include individual images, image galleries, videos or stories.

In ARGUS DATA INSIGHTS’s social media analyses, the ‘net promoter score’ is used to visualise tone. ‘NPS’ is calculated from positive and negative media values, and ranges between -100 and +100. The higher the ‘NPS’, the more sympathetic the media coverage at a given time. Conversely, a (strongly) negative ‘NPS’ indicates critical media coverage. In summary: an ‘NPS’ above zero is good, a value of +50 is very good, and +75 is excellent.