Being open
How we measure tone
Next to each headline you may see a small label like "Calm wording" or "Some hype words". Here is exactly how it is made, and what it can't tell you.
What we count
Our software reads the headline and counts words from three lists we wrote ourselves: 142 positive words (like "rises"), 248 negative words (like "falls") and 84 hype words, dramatic or emotional wording either way (like "soars" or "crash"). Then it picks one label:
- Calm wordingno hype words, and positive and negative words balance out (often none at all)
- Some hype wordsone hype word
- Lots of hype wordstwo or more hype words
- More negative wordsno hype words, more negative words than positive
- More positive wordsno hype words, more positive words than negative
Examples
Made-up headlines, marked by the same code the site uses.
Sensex crashes 900 points as IT stocks tumble
Some hype words · 2 negative, 0 positive, 1 hype words
Small-cap stock zooms 20% in massive rally
Lots of hype words · 0 negative, 2 positive, 2 hype words
Infosys Q2 net profit rises 7%
More positive words · 0 negative, 1 positive, 0 hype words
RBI keeps repo rate unchanged
Calm wording · 0 negative, 0 positive, 0 hype words
Comparing outlets on one story
On a story page, every outlet's headline gets a tone score (its positive words minus its negative words) and we show the average. Outlets are listed in a fixed order: first business and markets newspapers and wires, then business TV and websites, then general news outlets. You see the top 3 first, then the top 10, then all. The order is about how much of an outlet's newsroom covers business. It is not a judgement of how accurate or honest an outlet is.
What it can't tell you
- It only reads the headline's words, not the article.
- It uses our own lists, so it can miss words or count one that means something else ("falls short of fears" counts as negative).
- It says nothing about the company, its shares or what the price will do. Calm wording doesn't make a share safe, and hype words don't make it bad.
- We never rank companies by tone or give a single score.
Word lists version v6.