Methodology

Primary source: the GDELT Project

Geotone's core signals derive from the GDELT Project, which monitors news media worldwide in 65+ languages and exposes aggregate statistics through its DOC 2.0 API. We query GDELT on a fixed schedule (about one request every five seconds — deliberately gentle), aggregate interval data to UTC calendar days, and store only the daily aggregates. Geotone never stores or republishes article text; article listings on topic pages are headline, source domain, and link only, pointing to the original publisher.

Coverage volume

For each topic we run a fixed, published GDELT query (shown on request) in timelinevolraw mode. GDELT returns, per time interval, the number of matching articles and the total number of articles monitored. We sum both across each UTC day:

coverage share (%) = 100 × matched articles ÷ all monitored articles

For countries, volume uses GDELT's sourcecountry filter, measuring articles published by outlets based in that country as a share of all monitored coverage. Note this measures press output from a country, not coverage about it.

Tone

Tone comes from GDELT's timelinetone mode: the average document tone of matching articles, where tone is GDELT's standard measure (positive words minus negative words as a share of all words, roughly bounded -100 to +100 and typically between -10 and +10). We average interval values across each UTC day. Values below about -2.5 read as negative coverage; below -5, strongly negative.

Week-over-week change

WoW (%) = 100 × (mean of latest 7 days − mean of prior 7 days) ÷ mean of prior 7 days

Shown only once a full fortnight of data exists. Changes within ±2% are described as "steady" in page summaries.

Surge detection (z-score)

z = (latest daily volume − mean of trailing 28 days) ÷ sample std-dev of trailing 28 days

The latest day is excluded from its own baseline. A topic or country is marked surging when z ≥ 2 — meaning today's coverage volume is at least two standard deviations above its own recent norm. Z-scores require at least 8 days of history and are suppressed when variance is zero.

Update cadence

• Topic volume and tone: refreshed hourly (priority topics first).
• Country volume and tone: refreshed every 2–5 hours (priority countries ~2×–3× as often).
• Article samples: refreshed daily per topic, capped at 40 links per page.
• Pages re-render hourly; the "Data updated" line shows the newest datapoint's date.

Known limitations

• GDELT measures media attention, not ground truth. A surge means the press is writing more, which correlates with — but is not identical to — events on the ground.
• Country volume reflects where outlets are based; state media, diaspora outlets, and uneven internet penetration all skew the geography.
• Tone is a lexical measure. Sarcasm, translation artifacts, and topic-inherent negativity (war coverage is always negative) mean trends matter more than levels.
• During major world events GDELT itself throttles aggressively; our collectors back off and mark affected cycles, so short gaps can appear in the daily series.

Licensing & reuse

Geotone's derived aggregates (daily volume, tone, z-scores) are licensed CC BY 4.0— cite "Geotone / GDELT". Headlines and article links remain the property of their publishers. Enrichment data comes from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA, always attributed inline), the World Bank, UN OCHA ReliefWeb, and UCDP. Questions? See about & contact.