External applications of Media Cloud

Media Cloud is a core piece of digital public infrastructure, informing research, journalism, and activism projects across the globe. Just a few of the many important projects that draw from Media Cloud tools and data are featured below.

Trans News Initiative

A collaboration between the Trans Journalists Association, University of Miami School of Communication, and Polygraph, the Trans News Initiative uses Media Cloud data to track and analyze news coverage of trans communities across the United States. The initiative has a mission of "providing data for journalists, media organizations, and researchers committed to covering issues that impact trans people fairly and accurately." Learn more and view the tool.

USAID Media

Following the United States' government cuts to the USAID agency and foreign aid investment broadly, Scott McKissock launched USAID Media to track coverage of this development and its impacts. Per the site, "The aim is to connect reduced U.S. disbursements with accounts of emerging local consequences— shortages, stalled programs, adjustments, and political reactions—visible first through national and local journalism. USAID Media is built to help reporters quickly spot patterns, verify impacts, and find new story leads as the fallout continues." USAID Media draws from Media Cloud's news collections in the US and UK, extracting topics, authors, and other informative metadata. Learn more and view the tool.

Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction - Substance Use Monitoring Dashboard

A collaborative project between the CCSUA and the University of York, this dashboard draws from Media Cloud and several other digital data streams to show substance use reportings across Canada. The dashboard is to function as an early warning system, allowing public health actors to quickly respond to emerging concerns. Learn more and view the tool.

icemap.dev

Started by concerned high school students who are now college students at Rice University, icemap.dev is an interactive dashboard displaying news and other data about ICE activities in the US. Per the developers, "icemap.dev aims to provide a comprehensive view of the activities of America's Immigration Customs Agency (ICE), with specific focus on its Enforcement and Removal Operations department (ERO). icemap aggregates both unstructured and structured data from a multitude of public online sources, then distills these data into useful news streams and figures. Currently, this vizualization pulls statistics and articles from ICE newsroom reports, TRAC immigration data, as well as a myriad of local and national news sources." Learn more and view the tool.

Climate Security Dialogues

A project of CGIAR, this interactive dashboard draws from Media Cloud's global news data to monitor and display findings about climate security debates in digital spaces. Per the developers, "It aims to monitor conversations about climate security to identify the most prevalent and/or relevant topics, actors, places, and events related to these discussions. Currently, the tool features insights from a social media pilot module with historical data from Twitter (currently X), and a News Media module, developed in collaboration with Media Cloud." Learn more and view the tool.