The Role of Sentiment Analysis in Monitoring Iran’s Media
Media Monitoring reports generated out of print, online or social media, are usually filled with a variety of metrics, measurements and definitions, mainly related to the type or focus of the media outlet, demographics of the readers, size, reach and other factors.
One of the important qualitative data which normally appear on media monitoring reports is “Sentiment Analysis”. In simple terms, sentiment analysis tells us if a piece is positive, neutral or negative in relation to the brand (or product) in focus.
Sentiment Analysis in Iran
Depending on who publishes what sort of material in which media or social media platform, the level of the effectiveness of a given piece varies greatly. An article with negative sentiment against your brand written by a famous journalist in a newspaper can ruin your company’s reputation for months, while another individual’s post on a less viewed blog can sometimes be ignored altogether.
But it is not always that straightforward.
In a country such as Iran where the political spectrum is pretty wide and a number of media outlets are not exactly the public's "favorite", it could be the case that some negative content on such media would actually work to your benefit. So while sentiment analysis is a core metric in media monitoring, it is equally important to see “Where” the content is published.
The key, as usual, is to first identify your target audience and their behavior as news consumers. By knowing that and hiring a media monitoring service provider, you can easily:-
1- Understand when to worry about negative content and when to let it work to your benefit,
2- Get notified as soon as some negative content is getting brewed against your brand within Iranian media or the social media and before it turns into a bigger issue,
3- Have a proper PR strategy to contain such issues before they get out of hand, and
4- Respond accordingly through channels and platforms favored by your target audience.
At NewsBase, the job of Sentiment Analysis is fully carried out by our team of experts. As much as we love to hand over more and more tasks to the machine, this particular metric requires us to rely on a deeper level of context evaluation and interpretation skills. This way, our clients and PR partners can be assured that the analysis they receive is accurate and reliable.
