{"id":88338,"date":"2016-06-15T10:48:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T15:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2016\/06\/15\/state-of-the-news-media-2016-methodology\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:11:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:11:49","slug":"state-of-the-news-media-2016-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2016\/06\/15\/state-of-the-news-media-2016-methodology\/","title":{"rendered":"Methodology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State of the News Media report uses a range of different methodologies to study the health of the U.S. news industry, including custom analysis of news audience behavior, secondary analysis of industry data and direct reporting to solicit information unavailable elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n

State of the News Media 2016 industry data<\/h3>\n\n

The State of the News Media 2016 fact sheets consist of data originally generated by other individuals or organizations that Pew Research Center then collected and aggregated.<\/p>\n\n

For the data aggregated from other researchers, Pew Research Center\u2019s team took several steps. First, Center researchers tried to determine what data had been collected and by whom for the media sectors studied. In many cases, this included securing rights to data through license fees or other means, and often included paying for use of the data.<\/p>\n\n

Next, we studied the data closely to determine where elements reinforced each other and where there were apparent contradictions or gaps. In doing so, Pew Research Center endeavored to determine the value and validity of each dataset. That, in many cases, involved going back to the sources that collected the research in the first place. Where data conflicted, the Center has included all relevant sources and tried to explain their differences, either in footnotes or in the narratives.<\/p>\n\n

All sources are cited in footnotes or within the narrative and in all graphics in the report.<\/p>\n\n

Analysis of comScore digital audience data<\/h3>\n\n

In order to provide as clear a sense as possible of the digital audience data of U.S. news organizations, researchers took several steps using digital audience measurement data from comScore, a cross-platform measurement company.<\/p>\n\n

After the initial selection process, each comScore entry representing outlets or websites (\u201centity\u201d) was individually vetted by researchers and unusual shifts in data over time were checked with comScore analysts. Using feedback from analysts, entities that registered increases or declines in unique visitors over the time period studied (October 2014-December 2015) that were likely due to inorganic changes in measurement or site structure were considered to not have trendable data and were removed from the analysis.<\/p>\n\n

For all outlets, entities that are representative of an entire web domain (\u201ctotal domain entities\u201d) were used whenever possible. When domain entities were incomplete \u2013 i.e., when they did not represent traffic to an entire web domain \u2013 custom entities that represent the total domain were used when available. Multiple entities of the same URL that were the result of a structure change in the comScore database over time were considered comparable. Researchers consulted comScore analysts throughout the entity selection process.<\/p>\n\n

Selection<\/h4>\n\n

The selection process for each fact sheet that included comScore data is detailed below.<\/p>\n\n

African American News Media<\/em>: While there is no official source or census of black-focused digital news media, the Maynard Institute \u2013 an organization aimed at helping media accurately portray all segments of society \u2013 tracks developments in this space. Each year for the past several years, the Institute compiles a list of black-oriented sites and submits it to comScore for ranking using web traffic data. While the Maynard list is not exhaustive, it is an established accounting of record of key stakeholders in the black digital news space. Of that list, 14 of the 19 sites were matched with their associated total-domain entities in comScore in our analysis. HuffPost BlackVoices, AtlantaBlackStar.com, BlackPlanet.com, BlackEnterprise.com and TheYBF.com did not have trendable data during the time period studied and are not included. The following 14 entities were used:<\/p>\n\n

BET.COM\nBLACKAMERICAWEB.COM\nBOSSIP.COM\nCLUTCHMAGONLINE.COM\nEBONY.COM\nESSENCE.COM\nEURWEB.COM\nHELLOBEAUTIFUL.COM\nMADAMENOIRE.COM\nMEDIATAKEOUT.COM\nNEWSONE.COM\nTHEGRIO.COM\nTHEROOT.COM\nWORLDSTARHIPHOP.COM<\/p>\n\n

Cable<\/em>: Researchers used both the total-domain entity for each network and the entity representing the parent organization for the three major cable news networks (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) in order to best represent all aspects of each organization\u2019s web traffic in this sector. Only statements true for both entities were made about each network. The following six entities were used:<\/p>\n\n

CNN Brand\nCNN.COM\nFox News Digital Network\nFOXNEWS.COM\nMSNBC TV\nMSNBC.COM<\/p>\n\n

Digital-Native Publishers<\/em>: Researchers assessed all domains from 11 comScore categories (Business\/Finance, Directories\/Resources, Entertainment, Games, Lifestyles, News\/Information, Regional\/Local, Services, Social Media, Sports and Technology) with at least 10 million average monthly unique digital visitors in the fourth quarter of 2015. From that set of entities, they then selected digital-native news websites using the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n