How MAP Credibility Scores Work
How MAP Scores Work
A transparent, auditable framework for measuring publisher credibility — computed in real time by our AWS infrastructure and recorded permanently on the MAP Verification Ledger.
What Is a MAP Score?
A MAP Score is a composite credibility rating assigned to a publisher domain, ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate stronger adherence to journalistic standards, greater transparency, and more consistent citation of verifiable sources.
Scores are computed exclusively by MAP’s AWS Lambda infrastructure — never estimated locally or editorially. Every score change is hash-chained into the MAP Verification Ledger, creating a tamper-evident audit trail that anyone can inspect.
Sector scores represent the weighted average of all verified publishers within that vertical, updated automatically whenever a member publisher’s score changes.
The Five Verification Signals
Each publisher is evaluated across five independently-weighted signal categories. Every signal is scored 0–100 and contributes proportionally to the composite MAP Score.
Context 25%
Does the publisher provide accurate, complete context for the stories they report? Context measures whether articles explain who, what, where, when, and why — without omitting material facts that would change reader interpretation.
Presentation 20%
How content is packaged, headlined, and visually framed affects how it’s understood. Presentation scores penalize sensationalism, misleading headlines, deceptive image use, and emotional manipulation techniques.
References 25%
Credible journalism cites verifiable sources. References measures the quality and quantity of sourcing — from primary documents and named experts to independent corroboration and linked evidence.
Visibility 15%
Transparency about ownership, funding, authorship, and editorial standards is a cornerstone of press accountability. Visibility scores reward publishers who make this information easy to find and verify.
Comparison 15%
No single metric tells the whole story. Comparison evaluates how a publisher’s output aligns with peer outlets on the same story — identifying divergence patterns that suggest selective framing, omission bias, or outlier narratives.
Score Computation
Computation Rules
- AWS-only: All scores are computed by MAP Lambda functions on AWS infrastructure. No score is estimated, interpolated, or computed locally.
- Ledger-recorded: Every score event is SHA-256 hash-chained into the MAP Verification Ledger, creating an immutable audit trail.
- Sector aggregation: Sector scores are the weighted average of all verified member publishers in that vertical, recalculated in real time as individual scores change.
- Update frequency: Publisher scores are refreshed on a rolling basis. The MAP Live Feed reflects the most recently computed values.
- No editorial override: MAP scores cannot be manually adjusted by editorial staff. All changes flow through the verification pipeline.
The MAP Verification Ledger
Every verification event — score computation, publisher onboarding, methodology update — is recorded as a ledger entry with a cryptographic hash chained to the previous entry. This makes the record tamper-evident: altering any historical entry breaks the chain and is immediately detectable.
The ledger is publicly queryable via the MAP API. Journalists, researchers, and institutional users can retrieve the complete chain of custody for any publisher’s score history.
For Investors & Institutional Partners
MAP Score data represents a structured, machine-readable dataset of publisher credibility across the media landscape. The dataset is updated continuously, hash-chained for integrity, and queryable via the MAP REST API.
Potential applications include ESG media screening, brand safety analysis, disinformation risk assessment, and media intelligence for financial services. Institutional API access, bulk data licensing, and custom sector coverage are available under MAP’s Platform and Enterprise tiers.
View Tier Pricing Contact Enterprise Sales