Overtone

Overtone is a technology company that uses an NLP-based algorithm to produce data on the news and other informational content. Using editorial signals, we differentiate between both long-form content, such as articles, and short-form content, such as comments.

Overtone access textual data from news websites, including a standard list of more than 4,000 sites in English. We receive the text from a third-party scraping service that complies with all applicable rules and restrictions on scraping.

Impact is a measure of the value that has been added to an article by its author to inform their readers. This includes the following: ᐧ Original reporting: Does the article provide new information or is it taken from elsewhere? Is the article vague or does it provide evidence to support its statements? ᐧ Good sourcing: Does the article cite interviews, data or documents? Does it simply republish information that is published online as a release or social media post? Does it include multiple different sources or does it rely on only one? ᐧ Exploration of ideas: Does the article focus solely on one story angle or does it provide context to inform the reader of the related issues? Are statements and evidence analyzed and explained in a nuanced manner? What are the characteristics of each score?

Articles that score 1 - These stories convey news but with limited explanation of the meaning, such as a press release or sourcing reliant on aggregation from a company, other outlets or social media posts. Articles that score 1 may also be non-news, such as purely personal blog posts or recipes.

Articles that score 2 - These stories provide some context but with limited original reporting or value-add, such as a report that is largely aggregated or based on one source, such as local police. These stories convey one angle to the news without consideration of the larger picture.

Articles that score 3 - These stories provide at least some value-add, such as citing an expert to comment on news broken elsewhere. They may provide context on the news with some original analysis but do not delve into multiple angles. Event-based reporting may often fall into this category.

Articles that score 4 - These stories delve deeper than one angle, juxtaposing the ideas of one expert to others or additional facts. Beyond reporting they may show reporters work looking into data or facts and analyzing them for the reader. Reported feature stories are often in this category.

Articles that score 5 - These stories show the presence of most or all of what Overtone is looking for in “impact.” This includes information from solid sources such as interviews or documents, original reporting and exploration of ideas. These stories are likely to be bringing new information to light or deeply exploring a known issue rather than retreading previously reported material.