Reality Checks Software

Reality Checks is a Web-based diagnostic tool that allows news organizations to quickly and easily assess the diversity of its sources and the completeness of its coverage.

Plug in the information of the demographics, placement and story type for each article and the Reality Checks software crunches the numbers and generates the reports.

Reports include:

• The demographic make-up of the news organization's sources long the five fault lines of race, class, gender, generation, geography.
• Topic and story-type analysis of where the sources appear.
• Section, placement and page of where the story appears

Each content audit gives the news organization a snapshot of its coverage at a particular time. The ease of the software allows companies to update its information and track its progress on a regular basis.

Organizations can conduct annual or semi-annual content audits of their overall news coverage. That analysis can be augmented with reviews of individual departments on a rotating monthly basis.

Reality Checks can be used by all types of news organizations, including those aimed at a single fault lines segment. For those news organizations aimed at certain audiences, the flexibility of the software allows it to determine which of the other fault lines are at work.

For more information, email Woody Lewis at wlewis@maynardije.org.