Media Cloud Tools Update for March 2022

Back in January, we shared an update about problems we’re having with the Media Cloud tools. At the time, we expected the issues to be resolved by mid-February, but since that time frame passed, many of you have written for a status update.

The database issues we experienced at the end of last year have not yet been resolved. Our team is still working hard to fix the issues, bringing on additional help and exploring new partnerships that can help us address current issues and build a more reliable system moving forward.

At this time, it is difficult to provide an estimate for when things will be back to normal, but we can provide a clearer picture of where the tools stand now.

• Website: Some users are unable to log in, and the system is not responding to requests to reset passwords.
• Tool functionality: Topic Mapper is not functional. Explorer’s “Attention” tab should be working properly, but the features under the “Language” and “Entities” tabs are unreliable.
• Missing data: Some data between September 25 - November 23, 2021 is missing, and most stories after December 25 is missing.

We know that problems with the tools affect not only our Media Cloud team, but also the large community of researchers, journalists, organizations, policymakers, and others who rely on Media Cloud for research and reporting. We’re sorry for the disruption, and happy to respond to any specific inquiries you may have via support@mediacloud.org. Keep an eye on this blog and our Twitter feed for updates.

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