PR, Marketing, News and Media Monitoring Glossary
Fullintel’s PR, marketing, news and media monitoring glossary is a collection of important terms and definitions for communicators. It’s a handy resource designed for anyone – from beginners who need to understand foundational terms, to advanced practitioners who may need a quick refresher. We hope you find it useful.
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Above the fold – Content that appears on the top section of a broadsheet (folded) newspaper, or the most immediately viewable section of a website.
Active audience – Individuals who actively seek information about a topic and look for factual details from many sources before forming an opinion.
Actuality – An audio report recorded on location, often featuring a reporter speaking from the scene along with ambient noise and sometimes interview statements.
Advertising – Paid marketing communication aimed at promoting purchasing behaviour with regard to the products and services of an organization.
Advertising value equivalency– A common yet widely discredited equation meant to measure media results through an advertising lens. It is determined by calculating the advertising value of a news story by multiplying the amount of coverage (in seconds or minutes for broadcasts, and in inches for print publications) with the outlet’s advertising rate.
Advertorial – A paid editorial piece that resembles a legitimate news article.
Angle – Also known as peg or hook, an angle is the perspective from which a news story is reported.
Agency of record (AOR) – A PR agency retained by an organization to drive its advertising campaigns.
AP style – The Associated Press Stylebook is a word usage guide for punctuation, grammar and spelling. Most U.S. news organizations follow AP style
Assignment – A job given to a reporter by an editorial supervisor.
Attribution – To identify who said something, typically as a quote or by paraphrasing. Attribution in news stories is vital to maintain credibility.
Audience – A specified group within a defined public who have come together to consume a piece of media.
Audience share – A percentage of an audience with a defined market of listeners/viewers tuned into a specific program or station by a media outlet.
Audio news release (ANR) – Also called a radio news release, ANRs are essentially news releases in an audio format. They’re pre-recorded audio clips of 30 or 60 seconds about a company, product, or news event that are distributed to radio channels.
Average hours tuned – Average number of hours people tune in to a particular radio station during a given period. It is defined as hours listened to a particular station averaged over the total number of listeners.
Average minute audience – The average number of a specified population viewing a TV channel during a specified period of time and during a specific program. This is part of BBM’s television ratings system.
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Backgrounder – Organizational profiles, historical profiles, and other information used as background information for journalists as they prepare for interviews and complete their stories.
Backlink – Links from another source on the web to your webpage.
Backpack journalist – An emerging breed of journalist skilled as an editor, photographer, videographer and producer.
Bandwidth – Ability, skill or time to do something; the maximum rate of data transferred through wireless connections.
Baseline media measure – A measurement of how the media has been covering any situation, issue, news story or organization – including the type of coverage, extent of coverage, tone, and other aspects – before beginning an advocacy or PR campaign.
Beat – A subject (courts/police, health, sports) or geographical area assigned to a reporter for regular coverage.
Benchmark – An assessment of a campaign’s performance, or a communications group’s performance, against baseline or projected expectations during a given time period.
Billboard announcement – A brief note on community needs, activities or events submitted by non-profit or community groups.
Blogroll – A list of links to other blogs recommended by a blogger on their site. It usually appears in the sidebar of a blog.
Boilerplate – The final section of a news release that gives information about a company, including its location, size and services.
Boolean – A form of algebraic expression, centered on three operators (“and”, “or”, and “not”) and based on the concept that all statements are either true or false. It is used to build complex search queries for media monitoring projects. The “and” operator, for example, is used to join keywords together and the “not” operator is used to exclude certain keywords.
Bounce rate – The percentage of visitors who remain on a particular website for five seconds or less, or those who navigate away from the website after viewing only one page.
Brand – A name, image and personality given to a product or service.
Brand advocacy – An individual (either paid or unpaid) who has had a positive experience with a brand to the extent they proactively speak favorably about that brand through different vehicles (such as social media or blogging), generating sales opportunities for the brand.
Brand advocate – A brand advocate is someone (customers, suppliers, employees, partners or other stakeholders) who promotes a brand through word of mouth and social media marketing.
Brand association – Particular and usually deep-seated thoughts or impressions of consumers on the attributes of a brand.
Brand character statement – Distills the ideas of brand mission, value and character into a concise statement defining a brand, along with how it differs from similar brands and what the brand pledges to consistently deliver.
Brand character/personality – Assigning a set of human traits/characteristics to a brand to achieve differentiation.
Brand commitment – Also referred to as brand loyalty, brand commitment is an enduring consumer desire to continue the relationship with a brand due to previous good experiences.
Brand equity – The value of a brand’s assets (financial and non-financial) measured by its quality of influence and public awareness.
Brand essence – The core, intangible identity of a brand or company that differentiates it from other brands.
Brand identity – The visible features of a brand that includes brand name, logo, tagline, color, tone, and any other identifiable attributes.
Brand management – The process of maintaining, improving and upholding your brand’s identity and image through monitoring, analysis and well-researched campaigns and engagement.
Brand positioning – The conceptual place a brand occupies in the minds of customers and the marketplace.
Branding – The process of creating and disseminating a brand.
Breaking story – The first report of a news event, usually one that’s ongoing.
Bridging – A statement that allows PR officials to address a reporter’s question and then redirect the conversation to their key messages
Brief – A shorter version of a news item covering the bare facts (such as the so-called “Five Ws” – who, what, where, when and why) of a story.
Briefing book – A compilation of information about an event or happening given to an organization’s spokesperson or representative prior to the event.
Broadcast measurement – The measurement of viewership or listenership of broadcast media.
Broadcast media – The distribution of audio or video content via television or radio.
B-roll – In television news production, background footage recorded to supplement primary footage.
Bumper – A transition element in the form of either a graphic, a voice over, an animation or a short clip placed between a program, a commercial break or other content.
Business to business marketing (B2B) – Marketing a company’s products or services to other organizations and businesses.
Business to consumer/customer marketing (B2C) – The process of marketing products or services to consumers
Buzz – Excitement and/or media/social media coverage surrounding a company, product or celebrity.
Byline – The name of the reporter or writer, placed atop a published article, news item or story.
Bylined articles – An article authored and supplied by a company for publication by a news outlet, often utilized in business-to-business PR as an opportunity for an organization to demonstrate thought leadership.
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Camera-ready features – Featured stories or columns that can be published anytime, and are typically used by newspapers to fill space at the last minute. They often include pre-packaged graphics and photos.
Case study – A detailed study of a company or product focused on evaluating, comparing and understanding different features of a problem.
Cause marketing – A sophisticated PR strategy in which an organization supports a charitable cause such as equality or diversity to increase its brand visibility.
Central area – A geographic area designated for reporting purposes and assigned to particular stations.
Channel – A medium or pathway through which a message is transmitted for purposes of communication.
Circulation – The number of copies of a printed publication distributed within a given time period.
City editor – A newspaper editor responsible for local news operations, and in charge of related staff assignments.
Clip count – The total number of stories in which a company’s name, products or services appear.
Clipping – The number of times a company name is mentioned in the media, including online, magazines, newspapers and broadcast.
Cold calling – A strategy used by salespeople to contact a potential customer who has not expressed previous interest in their services or products.
Collateral PR – All marketing items, such as brochures or other content pieces, about a company or product for marketing purposes.
Column – A regular feature or opinion piece, often on a specific and recurring general topic (such as federal politics, relationship advice, or startup businesses), and written by a guest or staff columnist.
Column note – A pitch to a columnist, providing them with information relevant to their regular column.
Columnists – Writers of columns (see definition above).
Comment marketing – Commenting on a relevant blog or social post to increase brand awareness.
Communications audit – An evaluation of a company’s communication process. It determines how effective a company’s internal and external communications are, including their strengths and weaknesses.
Community calendar – A collection of short messages promoting a community need, activity or event, and appearing on radio, television or in the newspaper.
Corporate identity – See brand identity
Community relations – The various methods used by an organization to establish a beneficial relationship with its community. Good community relations secure loyalty, community support and goodwill.
Controlled communication channels – Communications created by a company to convey a message including leaflets, brochures, events, annual reports, website, newsletters and emails.
Copy editor – A proofreader of news content who ensures all written text is consistent, concise, and both grammatically & factually correct.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) – CSR is a kind of business self-regulation where a company incorporates environmental and social concerns into its operations.
Cover story – A story featured on the front cover of a publication.
CP Style – The Canadian Press Stylebook is a word usage guide for punctuation, grammar and spelling. Most Canadian news organizations follow CP style.
Crisis communication – Effectively communicating to the media during a crisis.
Crisis management – A process that helps identify, study and forecast a crisis, and the methods used by the organization to deal with the crisis.
Crisis media monitoring – Media monitoring of a crisis or negative event on behalf of an organization. Can include daily news briefs, breaking news alerts, and wrap up media analysis reports.
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Dateline – A line at the beginning of a news report indicating the place of origin and date.
Delivered audience – All potential consumers of a particular media, such as newspapers or broadcasts.
Department/section editors – Editors in charge of specific sections, such as sports, politics, business, lifestyles and entertainment, and others.
Digital media – Digital data in the form of articles, videos, podcasts, advertisements, music etc…
Digital news release (online news release) – A news release solely distributed online and on social media, typically containing a combination of outbound links, images, video, social media elements, and other useful information.
Digital rights management – A range of technologies used to control or protect copyrighted digital media from being illicitly shared over telecommunications networks.
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Earned content – Also known as earned media, earned content is any content gained through PR, digital marketing, word of mouth, reviews, mentions and other promotional efforts other than paid advertising.
Editorial calendar – A coverage calendar for a specific publication, typically outlining general issue themes and topics for the year and arranged by date. It’s created by the publication’s editorial team and used by many PR and communications professionals to send timely outreach to publications based on particular topics.
Effective audience – All potential viewers, listeners, readers or participants in the target audience.
Electronic media kit (EMK) – Also known as electronic press kit (EPK) or electronic information kit (EIK), an EMK is a press kit in video form that’s typically distributed via CD, thumb drive, email, or web-based file transfer service.
Embargo – An agreement between media and the source not to publish a story until the date and time specified on the release.
Endmark – A typographic symbol (usually -30-) used at the end of press releases and news copy to indicate the end.
Engagement – Involvement of the audience in participatory actions on digital media platforms such as social media networks, blogs and forums.
Event media monitoring – Media monitoring of a particular event or happening, such as an earnings call, a panel discussion, a product launch, or a news conference.
Evergreen – A story that isn’t time sensitive and that won’t fade in relevancy over time.
Exclusive – A typically noteworthy story or interview run by a single news organization, to the exclusion of its competitors.
Executive news brief – Emailed media reports of media coverage highlights relevant to a company or brand, fueled by daily media monitoring and typically delivered early in the morning. Also known as a news brief or daily brief.
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Fact box – A bulleted list of bite-sized related information accompanying a news story.
Fact sheet – A one-page document providing useful background information in short bullet points, often used in media packages for a reporter’s reference.
Feature story – A more descriptive, longer style of article than a typical news story, typically with less hard news and usually with more colorful writing and descriptions.
Filler – A short piece of content, usually timeless, used to fill space in a newspaper or bulletin (see camera ready features, above).
Flag – The newspaper’s banner or name appearing on the cover page.
Focus statement – A single phrase or sentence describing the heart or essence of a news story, including who, what and why.
Formative research – Research conducted at the beginning of a project or campaign to gather information about an organization, its stakeholders, and any other important elements.
Four P’s of marketing – Product (the good/service a company sells), Price (product cost), Promotion (advertising, social media marketing, public relations, video marketing, etc.) and Place (the location).
Freelance – An individual who works independently either on an hourly or project-by-project basis, instead of as a regular employee.
Frequency – A descriptive statistic measuring the number of times an audience was exposed to a TV or radio program (or a specific message delivered through one of these mediums) during a specific time period.
Full coverage area – A station’s total audience regardless of geography, tabulated from all meters or diaries that report tuning to the station.
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Gatekeeper – An entity controlling the flow of information and deciding what content is printed, broadcast or offered to the public. Gatekeeping takes place throughout the news process and gatekeepers can include reporters, editors, publishers, owners, advertisers and others.
Ghostwriter – A person who writes books, blogs, speeches, or newspaper articles for another person who is named as or presumed to be the author.
Greenwashing – A PR strategy portraying an organization’s products or services as environmentally friendly.
Gross Rating Point (GRP) – A metric that measures advertising impact as the percentage of the target audience multiplied by the exposure frequency.
Guest editorial – A one-off opinion piece written by an author with appropriate professional or personal knowledge of a topic of interest.
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Hard news – News stories that are timely, consequential, objective and relatively brief by getting to the point quickly through the inverted pyramid style.
Hashtag – A word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#), used on social media platforms to reference that the content is related to a specific topic.
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Impact – A metric that shows how much influence an audience might have on stakeholders; the outcome of engagement and influence.
Impressions – A metric that indicates the number of times your content or promotion is seen by a viewer, whether or not he/she clicks on it; also known as OTS (Opportunity To See).
Influencer marketing – Social media marketing focused on targeting key industry leaders known as influencers, to drive brand awareness.
Informal opinion leaders or influencers – An individual who has the ability to sway the behaviour of a large number of people in online and offline social networks.
Insight-led strategy – An effective communications or brand strategy established using sound research.
Intermediate research – A research is done in the middle of a project or campaign to monitor progress.
Inverted pyramid – A way of structuring a news story, usually hard news, with the most important information coming at the top (in the “lede”) and progressively less important information appearing lower in the piece.
Issues management – The process of identifying and responding to issues that could impact an organization, and managing organizational communications and events related to those issues.
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Jump – In print publications, the continuation of a story from one page to another (often several pages later).
Jump head – The headline of the continuation of a jumped story, typically using the same words appearing in the jump line.
Jump line – A line inserted at the bottom of the first part of an incomplete article in a print publication, directing the reader to the page where the story is continued.
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Key message – A very important statement or idea, typically tied to an organization’s overall strategy, expressed by a company’s spokesperson or otherwise appearing in news coverage or on social media. Organizations can have one or several key messages.
Key opinion leader (KOL) – Individuals with sound knowledge and a high amount of credibility in their chosen field.
Key performance indicator (KPI) – Measurable values that demonstrate a company’s long-term performance.
Kicker – A light, often human-interest story used to conclude a newscast or segment.
Kill – To delete a piece of content or section from a news or feature story, or to discard the entire story. Freelance writers who have stories killed are sometimes paid a “kill fee” from the publication.
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Lead story – The first story in a radio or television broadcast.
Lead time – Period of time between start and completion of a project.
Lead-in – An introductory statement of five or less words to a recorded or live broadcast story on a situation or news event. Also used in magazines, annual reports, journals, books, brochures or other publications as a photo caption to engage readers by improving content accessibility and readability.
Lede – An opening paragraph of a print story, summarizing the most important and timeliest facts or news.
Line-up – In a newscast, a list of reports, stories, interviews and other material arranged in the order in which they will be presented.
Lobbying – Also known as government relations (GR), it’s aimed at building up and maintaining relations with government or statutory bodies and representatives for the primary purpose of influencing legislative and regulatory decisions.
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Masthead – The formal statement of a newspaper’s title, staff, place of publication and other descriptive information. Usually printed on the editorial page.
Mat release (matte release) – A short article promoting an event or educating consumers, provided for free to print outlets.
Media alert – A written notice sent to media providing information including who, what, when, where and why on timely news.
Media analysis – The process of analyzing data associated with news and social media content collected during media monitoring, using both qualitative and quantitative metrics to uncover and communicate insights that may not be immediately apparent. Media analysis is typically performed at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, or a combination of the four) in order to benchmark coverage and track progress over time
Media availability – Informing reporters about the availability of a spokesperson for an interview.
Media briefing – A session or document designed to provide background information or explanation to media representatives.
Media drop – Typically, the dropping off of unique promotional materials at a news outlet to capture interest and generate buzz.
Media kit – Also known as a press kit, it contains resources and information for reporters and publishers about a company or product.
Media monitoring – Tracking a company’s coverage in the press, on the internet, on TV and radio, and in social media, typically by using Boolean operators to search news aggregators. Media monitoring is usually performed early in the morning each day, and is often accompanied by an emailed news brief or executive daily briefing that summarizes the day’s top stories for an organization’s stakeholders.
Media relations – The forming and maintaining of relationships with the media to create a positive image for the company’s policies, practices, people, and values.
Media relevance – Defines the relevance of a particular media outlet’s audience to an organization’s target audience.
Media tour – A schedule of media events for an organization’s spokesperson, usually requiring in-person meetings and interviews.
Media training – Communications training that helps media facing people understand the media, anticipate a reporter’s behaviour, and teach how to effectively interact with reporters during interviews.
Meme – A concept or idea in the form of an image that spreads virally from one person to another through the internet.
Mobile marketing – A strategy to promote products or services via mobile devices.
Media type – Mediums used to deliver a message to a target audience, including print, radio, TV and social media.
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New visitors – The number of new, unique visitors to a website.
News bulletin – A brief news update, providing bare facts and little more, on broadcast media or the internet about something that has recently happened.
News conference – A meeting of journalists at the behest of an organization with news to share, typically involving an announcement followed by a question-and-answer session. Also known as a press conference.
Newsreader – In broadcast media, someone who presents the news. Also known as an anchor, news presenter, or newscaster.
News release – A written announcement, typically also containing company information and stakeholder quotes, sent to targeted news media and newswires for the purpose of generating coverage. Also known as a press release.
News value – The factors (including impact, prominence, timeliness and human interest) that determine the newsworthiness of an event, situation or announcement. Stories that have high news value are much more likely to get covered by news media. Company announcements such as anniversaries, internal milestones, corporate social responsibility campaigns, and product announcements are usually (but not always) not considered high in news value.
Newsbreak – A short brief or teasers of a few news headlines, usually in broadcast media, to encourage viewers/listeners to tune in for the complete story.
Newsjacking – The practice of injecting your brand into trending and popular stories in an attempt to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.
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Off-message – Also known as off-script, it is when a PR person strays from the desired company message during an interview.
Off the record – Information provided by a source to the media that can’t be directly attributed. Off-the-record interviews are typically attributed to a “source.”
On background – Providing media with information that they can use only for background information.
On the record – Providing media with information that can be directly attributed to a named source. In any media interaction, even informal ones, everything is automatically assumed to be on the record unless explicitly stated otherwise.
On-Air – Indicates that the outlet is currently broadcasting, often live.
Op-ed page – Abbreviation for the page opposite the editorial page, containing opinion columns (also known as “op-eds”) and/or editorial cartoons.
Organizational almanac – Outlines the history of an organization including when it was established and its major milestones, along with its accomplishments and noteworthy activities.
Owned media – Channels such as websites, mobile apps, newsletters, social media profiles, and blogs that are owned, controlled and maintained by a brand or company.
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Page views – The number of times a website’s page is viewed via a web browser.
Paid circulation – The number of paid copies of a print publication in circulation. Many newspapers with cover prices give away numerous copies of every edition, typically for promotional reasons and to increase overall circulation. This is not included in the paid circulation number.
Passive audience – Individuals who observe and accept a message without much or any critical thought.
Photo opportunity – An opportunity for the media to capture photographs or video footage of newsworthy events, spokespeople, or celebrities. Also known as a photo op.
Pitch letter or memo – A one-page letter to a producer or an editor of a publication suggesting a targeted news story based on their audience or beat. Pitch letters are also used by individuals promoting themselves as experts in their field and actively seeking media interviews.
Placeline – Identifies the geographical location of where the story is taking place. Typically appears at the beginning of an article.
Placement – Content published by a particular media outlet as a result of PR efforts.
Play – Describes the way a story is covered by the media, including whether it is exaggerated (played up) or understated (played down).
Position paper – Presents a debatable opinion about a timely issue to convince the audience that this opinion is defensible.
Press pool – A group of news organizations that cooperate or share resources to cover a particular story. Pools are often used to cover important stories where physical space is an issue, such as high-profile court cases, or for large events such as political conventions. They can also be a cost-effective way for news organizations to cover regular, recurring events such as government department briefings.
PR photographs – Images about an event or a campaign used for public relations activities to enhance press coverage and grab journalists’ attention.
PR pitch – Story pitches/proposals to journalists, bloggers, editors and influencers via email, phone calls and other media.
PR wire service – Used by companies and PR professionals to spread their news to the world.
Print circulation – The number of copies a particular publication distributes on a particular day. Print news outlets can have different circulations for different days of the week.
Product plug – A form of advertising where a company pays for prominent placement of their product within a television show or film.
Prominence – The degree of importance a journalist or editor gives to your brand in their story.
Propaganda – Typically incorrect or misleading information shared or published to influence people to either support or oppose something.
Public affairs – Activities intended to build and maintain good relations with decision-makers such as government officials.
Publicity stunt – An event, typically with some kind of shock or news value, organized to gain exposure and get the public’s attention.
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Quarter hour average – The average number of people in a demographic group listening to a particular station for at least five minutes, during a given fifteen-minute period.
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Radio media tour (RMT) – A series of pre-arranged, 10-15 minute phone interviews between spokespeople and radio stations.
Reach – A measure of the potential size of an audience that estimates the number of readers, listeners or viewers exposed to the medium.
Reader – A story read by a newscaster without any other audio material.
Reader tip sheets – A list of tips printed in newspapers and magazines about how to solve a particular problem or how to do something. A tip sheet is a one-page document that provides 5-12 tips on a particular topic.
Real-time – A PR or marketing approach that focuses on reacting and responding to events or influencers immediately.
Recorded actualities – An audio recording of an interview or speech by a spokesperson, typically used as a broadcast sound bite.
Related articles – Previously published articles related to a news story, usually published via online news, listed alongside or underneath the story.
Repeat visitors – Individuals who visit a website/outlet more than once. Also known as return visitors.
Reputation management – The process of protecting and building the reputation of an organization or brand. Can be assisted by media monitoring and analysis, and also known as brand management.
Return on engagement – The return a company receives from its social media engagement.
Return on investment – An outcome variable that equates profit from investment.
Risk, Compliance & Supply Chain Media Monitoring – Media monitoring that specifically tracks companies or partners in a company’s supply chain, compliance and regulatory issues, and potential risk signals so organizations can proactively respond.
Running story – A story broken into multiple parts and continued in two or more issues of a magazine or newspaper.
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Satellite media tour (SMT) – A series of back-to-back video interviews allowing a spokesperson to be interviewed by multiple broadcast stations or networks within a few hours.
Scope – The geographic area of a news outlet’s audience reach including national, provincial, regional and other designated areas.
Search engine optimization (SEO) – The practice of improving a website’s rank and visibility in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing through organic search engine results.
Sector – An area of focus in a PR campaign, also known as industry or vertical.
Select media briefing – When a select few journalists are brought together for an important announcement.
Sentiment – A metric that assesses and determines the tone of a PR output, and usually classed as either positive, neutral or negative. Also known as tone or tonality.
SEO audit – A report on a company’s SEO effectiveness, especially compared to key competitors.
Shared media – Any content posted on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest) about your brand.
Share of voice – A metric often used in media analysis that measures an entity in relation to other entities, and is typically shown as a percentage. For example, a company’s competitive share of voice versus its top five competitors, or comparing a company’s top five issues in the news.
Sidebar – A secondary, complimentary piece of content containing more information or another angle related to the main story.
Simulcast – Broadcasting the same program simultaneously over two mediums/platforms.
Social buzz – A mention related to a brand or topic on social networks or blogs.
Social media audit – A review of social media activities to spot weak points and recommend potential improvements.
Social media optimization (SMO) – Enhancing social media activities and optimizing the content of your social posts to gain the maximum amount of recognition.
Social media release (SMR) – A news release format designed for social media, so it can be more easily shared and commented on in social bookmarking and social networking communities.
Soft news – Stories which have little hard news value and are based on human interest, prominence and unusualness. Feature stories are typically soft news.
Sound bite – A summarizing message that illustrates a story in just a few seconds, usually a clip taken from a longer recording or written piece that provides a short summary.
Source – A person, document, record or event that provides information for a news story.
Splash – The main story on the cover of a newspaper.
Spokesperson – A member of an organization’s PR team or marketing department who talks to the media during interviews, briefs, press conferences or other interactions.
Stale news – News that is no longer fresh, either because it has been broadcast or published repeatedly or not reported in a timely manner.
Sticky content – Content that encourages visitors to spend more time on a particular website or attracts them to return to a website.
SWOT analysis – A SWOT analysis is a technique for identifying an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Syndicated – The publishing of the same story, sometimes with slight differences or edits, in a variety of publications.
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Talkback – A discussion at the end of a live field report, typically on television news, between the anchor and reporter to gain more information or put the report in better context.
Target group – A group of potential customers interested in your key messaging, products, or services.
Target audience – The specific individuals or groups targeted by a media or PR campaign, differentiated by some measurable characteristic or attribute.
Teaser – An upcoming event or campaign intended to create advance interest in a product or service.
Timeliness – The fact or quality of something being done at an ideal time. Timeliness is crucial for news reporting, as news that is not reported in a timely fashion soon becomes stale.
Thought leadership – The practice of producing content or providing other information that positions an organization or one of their employees as a knowledge leader in their field.
Traffic sources – Mediums through which users visit a website, including social media such as Twitter and Facebook, or web browsers such as Google or Bing.
Trending – Describes topics that have captured the attention of a large number of people across social media and other platforms, but often only for a short time.
TV memo – A written pitch (including a summary of the news story, a list of photo opportunities, and a list of possible interview subjects) designed to convince TV gatekeepers to run a story.
Tweeple – Another term for Twitter users.
Twitter handle – A Twitter username preceded by an ampersand.
Type of coverage – The different ways a story can be covered in the media, including as an opinion piece, a broadcast news segment, a hard news story, or a feature story, or a letter to the editor.
Tone/tonality – See sentiment.
Traditional media – Media channels that have been traditionally dominant in disseminating news to the public over the past several decades, including radio, television and print.
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Uncontrolled communications channels – Refers to the media used to deliver messages not under direct control of the organization or company originally sending the message. This can include newscasts, newspapers, magazines, external websites, social media commentary, external blogs, and news stories.
Unique visitors – The number of unique individuals who visit a website over a selected time period. Unlike repeat visitors, unique visitors are only counted once.
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Video news release (VNR) – Videos designed to look like a real news report, but produced by PR or marketing teams and distributed to television networks. Often supplemented by B-roll footage.
Viral campaign – A marketing strategy that leverages its audience to create buzz around a product or service through word of mouth or social media.
Voice over – A report from a TV or radio reporter who doesn’t appear on camera.
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Wire service – In news, a news gathering and distribution service such as Associated Press (AP) or Canadian Press (CP). In PR, a news release distribution service.
Word cloud – A visual representation of words surrounding a specific topic, with the size of each word denoting its frequency.
Word of mouth – The passing of information from person to person through oral communication.
