Social Amplification in News Monitoring

What is Social Amplification?

When an outlet publishes a news article, they often promote it on social media platforms like Facebook or X. That post generates its own layer of public engagement, including reactions, comments, and shares from residents, which can look very different from the tone of the article itself.

Social Amplification surfaces this data directly inside the article view in Listen. You can see not just what was published, but how the public responded to it on social media, without having to check each platform separately.

Coverage Tone vs. Reaction Sentiment

Listen already shows you Coverage Tone, the sentiment of the article's text itself, reflecting how the outlet framed the story.

Reaction Sentiment is a separate signal. It reflects how the public responded to that article on social media, based on the comments, reactions, and discussion generated by the outlet's post. An article can have a neutral tone but trigger strongly negative public reactions, or vice versa. Social Amplification gives you both in one place.

Where to Find It

Social Amplification appears inside the article detail view. When you open an article that has social media activity, you will see a Social Amplification section near the comments area.

You will also notice a small icon on article cards in the News Feed. This icon indicates that social amplification data exists for that article. Hover over it to see the "Has Social Activity" tooltip.

What the Social Amplification Section Shows

• Reaction Sentiment bar: A visual indicator of the overall audience sentiment toward the article on social media (for example, Mixed — 62% negative).
• Engagement counts: The total reactions, comments, and shares across all platforms where the outlet posted the article.
• Platform breakdown: Icons showing which platforms the outlet shared the article on. Click any platform icon to view the individual posts from that channel, including impressions, interactions, shares, and sentiment per post.
• View posts: Opens the original social media post directly in a new tab.

A Note on Reach

Social engagement data is tracked separately from an article's Reach score in Listen. Reactions, comments, and shares reflect the public's response to the outlet's social post and are not counted toward the article's overall Reach.

If an article was posted on social media but has not yet received any engagement, the section will display "No engagement yet" rather than disappearing entirely.