Glossary

A dimension of ideology. There are five: Ownership, Power Concentration, Traditionalism, Governance Scope, and Democratic Accountability. Each is scored independently from −4 to +4. An article can be left on one axis and right on another. No collapsing, no averaging.

The full theoretical range on an axis, from one philosophical endpoint to the other. Defined by political philosophy, not by the current media landscape. Marx to Rothbard on ownership. The spectrum is permanent — it doesn't shift. The Overton window moves within it.

The scoring scale that defines what each integer level means on each axis. Each level is described as a governance reality profile — a description of the world the article's assumptions match. "+1 on ownership" means the article assumes private ownership as the default without questioning it.

A position on an axis. An integer from −4 to +4. A score alone is incomplete — it needs mode and engagement to be meaningful.

Whether the article argued the position (explicit), assumed it without stating it (implicit), or did both (mixed). Implicit positions are often more diagnostic because they reveal what the writer treats as the unmarked default.

How centrally the article engages a given axis, scored 1 to 4. An article can score +2 on ownership with engagement 1 (barely touches economic framing) or engagement 4 (the entire article is about private ownership). Both are +2. They are not the same article.

An observational instrument that detects a specific kind of signal in text. There are 14 lenses organized in 6 depth tiers, from surface-level framing down to narrative continuity. Each lens uses a "Category: Parameter / Parameter" naming format that describes what it measures.

A grouping of lenses by how deep they look into the text. Six tiers: Surface, Frame, Structure, Context, Absence, Continuity. The numbering of the lenses follows the tiers — Lens 1–2 are Surface, Lens 3–5 are Frame, and so on. The numbering IS the process.

What a lens produces when it examines an article. A specific, concrete finding tagged to one or more axes. "The article centers the founder's vision without mentioning the workforce" is an observation. "+2 on ownership" is NOT an observation — that's a score, which comes later.

A short paraphrased passage from the article used as evidence for a score. Exhibits are always paraphrased, never direct quotes longer than 15 words. Each exhibit is tagged with the lens that identified it and the axis it supports.

A method for converting lens observations into axis scores. There are five models, each using a fundamentally different approach: Trip Wire (default), Elimination, Accumulation, Fingerprint, and Debate. All five share the same lens extraction output.

The full audit trail connecting a score back to the article text: Score → Rubric level → Exhibit → Observation → Lens → Article text. If someone disagrees with a score, the evidence chain tells them exactly where their disagreement sits.

A vetted calibration point in the scoring library. A real-world figure, law, institution, or court decision whose position on the axes has been determined through the full evidence-first process and has passed the vetting chain (internal review → scholar review → co-publication → versioned release). Once a figure becomes an anchor, other figures and articles are measured against them. Anchors are what make "+1" mean the same thing across every analysis.

The complete set of vetted anchors the scoring engine calibrates against. Mapped across 5 axes × 9 score levels, tracked by policy domain. The library's coverage determines the engine's precision.

A visualization showing where anchors exist across all axes and score levels, and where gaps remain. Gaps trigger the "scavenger hunt" — targeted research to find real-world governance examples that fill empty spectrum regions. The coverage map drives anchor selection through purposive sampling.

A scored three-band record for any figure, institution, or cultural work. Contains scores on all five axes for each of the three bands, calibrated against the existing anchor library, plus cross-axis findings and band gap analysis. A profile is the output of Figure Analysis — the figure is measured by the anchors. It may or may not go on to become an anchor itself.

One of three layers in a profile. The universal structure is Individual / Collective / Output, with labels that adapt per entity type. Politicians: Speech / Platform / Governance. Musical groups: Members / Group Positions / Body of Work. Media outlets: Journalists / Editorial Board / Published Coverage. Each band is scored independently. The gap between bands is a finding.

The distance between a figure's scores across the three bands. A narrow gap means consistency. A wide gap reveals the distance between rhetoric and reality. The gap is never averaged away — it IS the finding. Obama: speech −1, platform 0, governance +1 on ownership. The one-point rightward step at each band is the diagnostic.

The full evidentiary record for a figure. Contains the raw evidence inventory (organized by source tier, not by which score it supports), rubric-level mappings, adversarial engagement with at least one credible counterargument per score, derived scores with confidence levels, and a full bibliography. The evidence file is evidence-first: all evidence is gathered before any score is assigned.

The evidentiary weight classification for sources used in evidence files. Five tiers: Tier 1 (governance records — highest weight), Tier 2 (primary documents), Tier 3 (peer-reviewed analysis), Tier 4 (quality journalism), Tier 5 (think tank/advocacy — lowest weight, always labeled with known orientation).

A specific reference in the project bibliography with a web link, DOI, or archive location. Points to a source used in an evidence file or in the methodology documentation.

One of 10 types of examination the tool performs: Article, Figure, Anchor, Corpus-Level, Author Trajectory, Outlet Drift, Event Spread, Era-Appropriate Dual Scoring, Score Your Own, and Tilt/Shift. Each type asks a different question and some require accumulated data from other analysis types.

A published finding synthesized from one or more analyses. Written for public audiences. Examples: "The Populism Gap" (synthesized from anchor profiles), "The Content Filter as Overton Finding" (meta-analysis). Timed to events or published on a regular cadence.

A Frequently Waged Accusation entry. A pre-published defense against an anticipated challenge to the methodology or a specific anchor placement. Every entry follows: accusation → wrong question → right question → where it lives in the framework → what the framework actually surfaces. Designed so that every challenge forces engagement with evidence.