Can you imagine the pressure today’s campaign managers and communication directors face on the road to the White House? In the pre-digital communication era, those jobs were downright easy compared to the 24/7 news cycles of today. Plus, good news and bad news alike have the potential to go viral, and if your media intelligence isn’t up to snuff, you could wind up missing out on great opportunities to raise money—or worse, be forced into damage control mode, over and over again.

See Sentiment Sooner

Monitoring and analyzing the media proactively enables you to gain insights sooner so you can stay on top of issues that bubbled up. Take two topics that have been dominating social media feeds in the past week: a little bird that landed on a podium at one campaign stop and an incident between a reporter and campaign manager at another.  As you can see from the article sentiment below—and as you might have guessed from the topics themselves—article sentiment varies widely between positive and negative.

The Sanders campaign is capitalizing on the new #BirdieSanders hashtag, which in less than 7 days has eclipsed others used by the campaign including the long-standing #FeelTheBern. Bumper stickers and t-shirts featuring an adorable ‘Bernie bird’ are generating donations. See other advantages of media monitoring and analysis. 

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is struggling to get past news coverage of its own campaign manager’s recent arrest on a misdemeanor assault charge and the subsequent media scrutiny deeper into his background. What makes matters worse—the media loves a scandal, so the topic is receiving far more coverage than #BirdieSanders, except in the micro-blog space.

Uncover Trending Topics

Until recently, most of the candidates have been pretty light on details when it comes to policies, but as the field narrows, both Democrat and Republican hopefuls are clarifying their positions on a number of issues.

As you can see from the Article Volume chart above, the hot topics remain consistent, but the coverage of those topics shifts. By tracking and analyzing media coverage, candidates can fine-tune their messaging for the broadest appeal based on situations of the day. And, of course, companies can improve awareness into emerging trends in the same way.

Keep Tabs on Earned Media

Whether you’re a presidential campaign communication director or a PR or marketing professional, you want to understand just where you stand in terms of Share of Voice versus competitors. Not only is it critical for your efforts to attract and maintain the attention of voters—and customers—but it also enables you to allocate your budget to capitalize on the ‘free’ attention you’re getting, or if needed, to redirect the focus of your audience away from the negative.

You don’t need to be marching down a campaign trail to recognize that media intelligence helps you stay agile. Success is a moving target, and yet media monitoring enables you to always keep an eye on the prize—whether that’s new digs in Washington D.C. come January or winning new customers to fuel business growth.

3 Ways to Apply This Information Now

1. Check out our U.S. Presidential Campaign Tracker to keep tabs on what’s being said in the media.
2. Register for a free trial of LexisNexis Newsdesk™ media monitoring to experience it for yourself.
3. Share this blog on LinkedIn to keep the dialogue going with your colleagues and contacts.

Is it time for universities—and the foundations that fundraise on their behalf—to adopt the rigorous due diligence and risk monitoring processes that global companies use? Based on the latest bribes-for-admission scandal to hit the headlines, the answer is a resounding, “YES!” 

Bribery allegations tarnish university’s reputation

One school currently under fire—the University of Southern California—is no stranger to controversy. Inside Higher Ed points out that USC was known as a party school back when competition to get in was less intense, noting, “People joked that USC actually stood for ‘University for Spoiled Children.’ In more recent years, however, the university had adopted more selective admissions requirements.

When the most recent corruption scandal hit the newswires, prosecutors named names—and the story took on a life of its own after the charges resulted in celebrities trading in their typical publicity photos for mug shots.

Headlines focused on the $25 million paid by Hollywood and corporate elite to win spots for their children at elite universities, sparking interest and outrage.

Subsequent photos of one of the benefactors of the fraud enjoying spring break in the Bahamas—on a yacht owned by USC Board of Trustees chairman Rick Caruso—added fuel to the fire.

Inside Higher Ed writes, “Many USC students, alumni and influential benefactors are deeply disappointed and angry about the latest turn of events and are highly critical of the administration under whose watch the bribery apparently occurred undetected.” But that’s not the only hurdle the university must overcome.

In the past two years, USC administrators have come under fire for sweeping complaints about sexual harassment and abuse under a rug. The article notes that students, alumni and supporters of the university are frustrated by an administration that is constantly focused on damage control instead of proactive reputation management.

College athletics play a role in reputational risk too

Admissions isn’t the only area of risk on campuses across the country. Last fall, two Adidas employees and an agent were found guilty of fraud in a scheme that paid student athletes to choose certain universities. Four coaches were also arrested in connection with the case and will go to court soon.

Universities need to take the bull by the horns when it comes to corruption and reputational risk. John R. Thelin, professor of history of higher education and public policy at the University of Kentucky, contends that “A principle of leadership and organizations is that ultimately a leader should know and be responsible for what goes on, especially with important programs and units.”

Thelin goes on to say, “I think this holds for universities. Intercollegiate sports programs, especially in the Power Five conferences, are sufficiently visible and significant that it’s fair and right to expect a coach, an athletics director and a president—and the Board of Trustees—to know. If college sports are, indeed, the ‘front porch’ of the university, all those high-profile and highly paid leaders are responsible and should know. No excuses.”

Risk management takes center stage on campus

Increasingly, universities and the foundations that support them are recognizing the need to better prepare for risks and opportunities on the horizon. Whether you are recruiting students for NCAA teams or donors to support your fundraising initiatives, the threat of reputational, regulatory, financial and strategic risk is constant—especially in the age of viral media.

A survey by United Educators finds that 70 percent of institutions report having a formal enterprise risk management process in place and 69 percent say that institutional risk is a topic at the boardroom table. What issues pose the greatest reputational risks to universities? The top risks universities expect to face in the future?

1. Campus climate
2. Sexual assault/Title IX
3. Business model

Guest Written by: Ashley Mitchell

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that Presidential-hopeful Donald Trump boasts a litigious past and present. He once sued—unsuccessfully—Julius and Edmond Trump to prevent them from using their own last name for a business venture, claiming “The defendants are South Africans whose recent entrance in the New York area utilizing the name ‘the Trump Group’ can only be viewed as a poorly veiled attempt at trading on the goodwill, reputation and financial credibility of the plaintiff.” At a Fort Worth, Texas campaign rally this past February, Trump attacked the first amendment with his vow to open up libel laws to make it easier to sue newspapers when they write negative stories. And more recently, Trump came under fire for his remarks about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is currently presiding over the class-action fraud lawsuit against Trump University. Not surprisingly, Trump’s frequent mentions of lawsuits piqued the interest of USA Today journalists Nick Penzenstadler and Susan Page who decided to dig into his history as both a plaintiff and defendant.  See how LexisNexis® Courtlink® enables fact checking by providing access to 168 million federal & state court dockets and documents.

Investigative Reporting and News Analysis Offer Answers

 Looking into legal actions initiated by or against Trump was no mean feat. Penzenstadler and the other USA Today journalists contributing to the news research had to examine court records naming Trump, as well as the more than 500 businesses Trump claimed on a personal financial disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission. The results, published in an exclusive report in early June, found that Trump was involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in the past 30 years. What else did they discover?

• Trump was the plaintiff in 1,900 cases, the defendant in 1,450 cases and a party in 150 bankruptcy cases
• 1,700 of the cases were related to Trump’s casino interests, with the rest running the gamut from personal injury or real estate and contract disputes to tax compliance and brand defense.
• Compared to the litigation history of five real-estate moguls, Trump has “been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of the others—combined.”

So, how’d they find the details needed to put together a comprehensive view of Donald Trump’s history with federal and state courts?

Specialized Tools Speed Up News Research

After spending time looking into court cases, Penzenstadler realized that the team would need more details than were available in case summaries. Given Trump’s lengthy business history and variations in how court records are maintained in different court rooms and jurisdictions, the USA Today team did run into some dead-ends. For instance, details on cases listed on official dockets were often unavailable because case files had been archived or destroyed. As a result, any cases that could not be conclusively linked to Trump were not included in the analysis. 

In late spring, the team began using LexisNexis® Courtlink to uncover deeper background on the 3,500 cases involving Donald Trump or his companies. Searching four cases at a time, Penzenstadler and the other journalists were able to access the full text from federal and state court dockets and related documents like exhibits, clerk’s notes and more in in just a few clicks. The convenience of having a single source for information saved considerable time that would have been spent manually cross-referencing court-filed information. In addition, the team took advantage of:

• Profiles to uncover litigation history on a company or key entities associated with Trump
• Graphical analysis to gain insights on the nature and jurisdiction of lawsuits and types of cases.
• Alerts to keep up with new cases based on select criteria like litigants, attorneys, judges, jurisdictions and nature of suit.
• Tracking to receive notification of case status changes.

Penzenstadler said, “I also continue to get my daily update on any new filings with his name, which allows me to produce quick stories.” Recently, for example, Penzenstadler wrote an article covering a lawsuit over text messages. As the presumptive Republican nominee continues down the campaign trail on the way to the National Convention and beyond, one thing is certain: the team of journalists at USA Today likely won’t be the only ones exploring what having a litigious President could mean for America.

3 Ways to Apply This Information Now

1. Check out other BizBlog posts on news research and fact checking. 
2. Visit our U.S. Presidential Campaign Tracker to gain more media insights into the race to the White House.
3. See how LexisNexis® Courtlink® works in this YouTube video.

One of the most important tasks PR professionals handle is the creation and distribution of press releases. You're expected to include all necessary details that explain an important - and potentially transformational - development, and it’s expected to be right the first time.

Press releases offer an opportunity for brands to reach their audiences in the most direct, factual manner possible. Effectively telling these stories allows you to get ahead of the media, making the first impression on viewers, competitors and other companies in the industry. But that means your press release has to be in pristine condition as soon as it hits the masses.

Here are three common press release mistakes you need to avoid:

1. The title isn't concise and straight to the point
When creating your title, take this advice: Entice readers with a short but informative punch. You may be inclined to tell your entire story in the headline, but then you risk dozens of readers moving onto the next story because they don't need to dig for more information. You need to give them enough facts to encourage further reading. Entrepreneur magazine contributor Phillip Thune recommended the following tips for creating your strong, yet concise headline:

• Make it a general rule of thumb to stick around 100 characters so that it can fit into a tweet.
• Keep the most important information in the first 55 characters, as this is what shows up in Google SERPs.

Consider using subheads throughout the copy, as they can encourage and attract readers to read past the headline.

2. Your lead isn't strong enough
A short and concise headline is important, but a strong lead is even more critical. It's easy for readers to get lost in the abyss of copy when they're looking for certain information, so make it a priority to keep your important point in plain view. Burying the lead is a common mistake made in press releases and can cost you hundreds of readers if you don't follow a smart format when presenting the text.

3. The copy is too promotional
A press release isn't the right place nor time to create an advertisement. Press releases are sometimes meant to be promotional, but only subtly, so headstrong statements and certain remarks can come off as tacky and tasteless to your audiences. Be smart about the details you include in your press releases and stick to the factual information you lead with. At most, the only piece of promotional copy within the press release should be your contact information.

A strong story will make moves as long as you include detailed and succinct information. It always helps to use quotes to back up factual statements. Pay less attention to how you can stand out and focus more on getting the raw, critical information to the public in a timely manner.

3 Ways to Apply This Information Now

1. Keep up with the media buzz with a media monitoring and analytics solution like LexisNexis Newsdesk®.  
2. Check out other posts relating to PR and to see how we’re using LexisNexis Newsdesk to track a number of topics.
3. Share this blog on LinkedIn to keep the dialogue going with your colleagues and contacts

If you ever did a paint by number picture as a child—or have joined the recent trend of coloring for adults that is popping up all over social media—you know how fragmented the image appears until you start to add the color. Devoid of color, it takes concentration to see the image. With each new color, the image begins to take shape, allowing you to better visualize the final outcome.  Media monitoring and analytics follows a similar process. Let’s see what it reveals about a recurring issue in today’s media. 

Capturing New Perspectives of a Tragic Trend

It feels like recent headlines have been dominated by mass shootings. One of the latest, high-profile events took place at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. It received plenty of coverage via international, national and local media outlets as shown below:

In fact, broadcast outlets covered the event most, followed by news and blog sources. 

What may be most shocking from the analysis of media coverage is how quickly the coverage decelerated after the event occurred. 

In less than a week, coverage has dropped off significantly. This points to a bigger issue – that mass shootings have become so commonplace that they fail to sustain coverage—and therefore, visibility—into what is clearly an escalating problem. Recently, The Guardian published an infographic that shows how enormous the issue of gun violence is: 994 mass shootings – defined as involving four or more individuals being shot in a single event—have taken place in the last 1,004 days. No region of the country is immune to the impact of this trend. 

President Obama’s statement following the Oregon shooting revealed his frustration with this violent trend. As CNN reported, “Obama seemed to be thinking of all the other times—of his speeches after massacres in Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and recently in Charleston, South Carolina.” The President said, “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it ... We have become numb to this.” He referred to countries like Great Britain and Australia that, in the aftermath of mass shootings, quickly passed legislation that protects gun ownership rights while also reducing the mass shootings.  

There is no easy answer for this trend, but it does emphasize how monitoring across local, regional, national and international sources of news can fill in the blanks and provide a more complete picture of trends or threats in the digital age. 

3 Ways to Apply This Information Now

1. Share your take on this trend or others that you’re seeing as you monitor and analyze media.  
2. Explore some of the other media-monitoring posts here on the Biz Blog.
3. With the 2016 U.S. presidential election next fall, campaign season is continuing. Check out our Election Campaign Tracker featuring media analysis that updates in near real-time—live now through Inauguration Day 2017.