On SiriusXM's The Joe Madison Show, Angelo Carusone details the evolution of daily monitoring and analysis work at Media Matters
Media Matters President: “We live-monitor 55,000 hours of media each year, live, and we archive and analyze a million.”
Published
On SiriusXM's The Joe Madison Show, Angelo Carusone details the daily monitoring and analysis work at Media Matters
Citation
From the June 10, 2021, edition of SiriusXM's The Joe Madison Show
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): I think the biggest ingredient that makes us, you know, that's a difference maker, is that we have a staff right now of about 100. Most of them are researchers. And a big part of that job is to sit there and immerse yourself in the programming. So you're listening to these shows every day. And you're taking notes, you're tracking the guests. And what that means when you take a step back from all of it, is that you can look down and say very clearly, you know, Fox News has talked about this 5,000 times and other programs haven't mentioned it at all. And so you can actually say, these have been the guests.
And that's I think our biggest value-add, is that we live-monitor 55,000 hours of media each year, live, and we archive and analyze a million. So -- And that's just talk and TV. That doesn't even say anything about -- sort of the giant DVR that we've built for much of these online conversations, which allows us to do searching and studies and, you know, develop an early warning system. So, I think that ultimately is what makes it so unique, is that we're really immersed in the media as a whole. But obviously the right-wing media is our focus because they end up, you know, polluting and poisoning the rest of the conversation.
JOE MADISON (HOST): You know, and I should tell people, trust me, I know what I'm talking about, living here in Washington. As I mentioned, and this was before, long before COVID and people working at home. But I was extremely impressed when I went up and and toured your facilities. And there are all of these relatively young researchers and they are in front of those computer screens monitoring, listening. But I did not realize. Did I hear you right? 55,000 hours?
CARUSONE: Yes. Live. So that is happening in real time and they're listening live or tracking it live. And that, that does give you you know, I mean -- to me, what sort of drew me to this work in the first place is that -- because I think sometimes I'm often asked, what's the 'so what'? -- and the 'so what' to me is: It doesn't matter what the issue is, a political campaign, a policy fight, a culture debate -- how the media deals with that issue is going to affect the outcome.