Having trouble finding the content you need in Mediaportal? Check out this post on for tips on searching for coverage, and download this Cheat Sheet for future reference.
To look for an item (or a bunch of items) that match certain criteria, you can use the search bar in Mediaportal. You’ll find the search bar right at the top of your screen.
Contents
Selecting a date range
The search tool will automatically search the date range you have displayed on screen – if you’d like to change this, use the date picker to select your preferred date range. For example, you might want to use the date picker to search for coverage that was aired or published during a calendar month.
Click the search bar or start typing the phrase you wish to search for and you’ll see two options appear. You can choose to search in your Media Coverage or in the Contacts database.
Choosing to search in Coverage will lead you to the media items that contain your search term. Here, there will be more options to narrow down your search.
You can toggle the buttons on and off to create your search criteria, and use the Date Picker to adjust the time period you’re searching in.
Search terms
Here you can enter or modify the keywords you want to search in Mediaportal. Further down this post there are some tips for using search terms.
Briefs or Folders
Use this option to narrow down your search to content from a particular brief or folder.
Media Types
Use this option to look for content from a particular media type. For example, this is great if you’re only looking for TV coverage.
Geographic Regions
Use this option to look for content from a particular location. If you’re only interested in finding content from New Zealand, this option will work well.
Media Outlets
Use this option to look for content from a particular media outlet, like the Business Times or Channel 9. Start typing the media outlet you’re interested in searching for, and the type-ahead text will suggest media outlets to select. Click on the title of the media outlet to select the media outlet you’d like to search for.
Click on the title of the media outlet to select the media outlet you’d like to search for. If you’d like to search for multiple media outlets, you can begin typing again when you’ve made your selection.
Media Contacts
Use this option to look for content from a particular journalist, broadcast or social media user. Start typing the name of the journalist you’re interested in search for, and the type-ahead text will suggest authors and comperes to select. Click on the name of the journalist to select the contact you’d like to search for.
Click on the name of the journalist to select the author/compere you’d like to search for. If you’d like to search for content from multiple contacts, you can begin typing again when you’ve made your selection.
Activating your search
Mix and match the search options until you’ve created your ideal search criteria. Then click Search now to activate your search:
The search tool will find all of the items in your Mediaportal that match your search criteria, and display them below the search options. You can manage these items right from the search results. Each item has a checkbox beside it – select this and a bright blue action bar will appear at the top of your screen. Use the options on the action bar to can export the item to Excel, or add to a folder/report.
If your search has returned a large volume of items, you may want to use the options in the Sort by drop down menu to sort your items by certain criteria, like date or media type.
FoamTree chart in Coverage Search
For higher volume users, a FoamTree chart is available in the Coverage Search page to help quickly visualise search results and understand trends in the topics surrounding your search. The FoamTree chart option appears below the search criteria section when you are on the Mediaportal Coverage Search page. Use the “Analytics” toggle to display the chart. Can’t see the FoamTree chart toggle? Contact your Account Management team for details on how you can get access.
When you run a search, the FoamTree chart will display common words or entities being mentioned in the media items that resulted from your search. To give some insight into the key topics, the chart will display larger tiles for the words with the most results. By clicking on the tiles, you can drill down your search results.
This will change the list of media items displayed so that they only show those mentioning the entity that was click on.
The chart can also be exported using the links at the top right hand corner. You can download the chart as a Power Point file, PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF, or send it directly to your printer.
Saving your search as a personal folder
If you’re planning on reusing your search criteria, you can save your search. Clicking on the ‘Save’ button will give you the option to create a Folder to automatically capture any content that matches your criteria when it’s delivered to Mediaportal.
You can then give your new folder a name, category and description and click Create folder
This will create a new personal folder, that will automatically capture any content that matches your search criteria when it is added to Mediaportal. This means you’ll be able to find this content really easily if you need to – your folders sit alongside your briefs in the Coverage area.
For more information on personal folders, check out this post.
Important notes on searching in Mediaportal
- The Search Coverage tool only searches through content that’s already in your Mediaportal. This feature does not search through the entire Isentia database. For an item to be searchable it must have already been delivered to one of your Mediaportal folders.
- When searching inside Mediaportal the length of your archive depends on the copyright legislation that is applicable for your area. Mediaportal users in New Zealand have access to summaries and clip metadata for 365 days but print PDFs and full text are not accessible after 90 days. Australian users have access to all content for 365 days and most Mediaportal users in Asia have access to content from the last year.
- When searching for Online News content, the Search Coverage tool only has access to the 255 extract displayed on screen. Check out this post for more information.
- If you’re having trouble finding the Media Outlet or Media Contact you’re looking for, double check the spelling you’ve entered into the text box.
- When searching for content by Media Outlet or Media Contact e the outlet or journalist will only appear as an option when there is already content in your Mediaportal from that outlet or author/compere. For example, if you want to search for content from Cosmopolitan magazine but there is no content from Cosmopolitan in your Mediaportal then this will not appear as an option. You can only search for content from a particular media outlet or journalist if there is content to be found.
Searching for content by media outlet in Mediaportal – when coverage is available in Mediaportal, that outlet will appear as an option.
Searching for content by media outlet in Mediaportal – when coverage is not available in Mediaportal, that outlet will not appear as an option and instead you will see “no results found”.
Tips for using search terms
The Search bar searches for exact words and phrases. Use the following techniques to create refined search terms:
Upper or lower case
The search area is NOT case sensitive. For example using either minister or MiniSteR will return media items containing the word Minister.
Single words
When investigating a topic, using a single word e.g. chairman will return the broadest search result possible. In this example, the result will return all matches of the exact word chairman.
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
The search term banking AND retail will return all media items that contain both the words banking and retail.
The search term banking OR retail will return all media items that contain either the wordsbanking or retail.
The search term banking NOT retail will return all media items that contain the wordbanking but which do not include the word retail.
Exact phrases
The search term Online banking will return media items that contain the exact phraseonline banking. You do not need to surround phrases with quotes (“…”) – any search terms that do not include Boolean operators like OR, AND, or NOT will be considered a phrase.
Exact phrases with Boolean operators
The search term Online banking NOT retail will return media items that contain the exact phrase online banking but which do not include the word retail.
Wildcards
When you use the * wildcard symbol after a number of letters, for example advertise* the result will return media items that include matches with the exact word plus matches to any extensions of the word. In this example media items containing the following words will also be returned: advertise, advertisement, advertisements, advertiser, advertisers.
When you use the * wildcard symbol after a number of letters in a phrase, for exampleDav Ryan* the result will return media items that include matches with the exact phrase, plus matches to any extensions of words in the phrase. In this example media items containing the following words will also be returned: Dav Ryans, David Ryan, Dave Ryan, David Ryans.
