The Cision Media Contacts Database (formerly known as Bacon's Media Directories) gathers information on media contacts and outlets (currently over 1.6 million, updating daily). Though a commercial resource, it has often been exploited for academic research applications. The database is useful for

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

work. It has also been recommended for use in academic research and has indeed been leveraged as a key data source in peer-reviewed studies. As summarized by professor Philip M. Napoli, these directories are "widely regarded as the best-available commercial database for identifying media outlets and media workers in the United States," especially as " e scale and scope of the data contained within Cision far exceed what can generally be gathered by academic researchers...". However, some scholars critique the use of Cision in such research because its method of gathering data "sweep up problematic actors," such as

bots The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

, when aggregating data on media contacts.{{Cite journal, last1=Molyneux, first1=Logan, last2=Zamith, first2=Rodrigo, date=June 17, 2020, title=Surveying journalists in the "New Normal": Considerations and recommendations, url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884920935277, journal=Journalism, language=en, volume=23, issue=1, pages=153–170, doi=10.1177/1464884920935277, hdl=20.500.12613/390 , s2cid=242490091 , issn=1464-8849, hdl-access=free

References

Media studies Journalism lists

See also

References