How we track information provenance
MPMONITOR maps the actors and structures behind information: who produces it, who pays for it, who controls the channels, how it reaches audiences and how those relationships change over time.
Why provenance matters
Information rarely travels through a simple path from speaker to audience. A company may communicate through its own website and social-media accounts, but also through advertising agencies, sponsored media, influencers, messaging groups, commercial partnerships and platform advertising.
A political organisation may operate official channels while supporters, affiliates and paid intermediaries carry the same messages elsewhere. Media content can move between publishers, broadcasters, social platforms, aggregators and AI systems before reaching an audience.
As communication has become more fragmented, one of the most basic questions has become harder to answer: who is actually speaking?
Six questions behind provenance
Who created it?
The organisation, person, institution or network from which the communication originates.
Who stands behind it?
Ownership, parent structures, management, institutional control and other relevant controlling relationships.
Who pays?
Funding, advertising, sponsorship, public resources, commercial dependencies and other material financial relationships.
Where does it appear?
Websites, broadcasters, social platforms, apps, messaging environments and other communication channels.
How does it travel?
Platforms, telecom infrastructure, media buying, agencies, influencers, partnerships and other intermediaries.
Who is connected?
Corporate, political, institutional, commercial and cross-border relationships relevant to the information question.
Built since 2015
MPMONITOR has examined media power and the structures behind information flows since its establishment in 2015. Over more than a decade, this work has produced an accumulated body of research on media organisations, ownership structures, political actors, communications companies, platforms, regulators, advertisers and other organisations involved in shaping public information.
The present Provenance Database builds on that historical research and continues to expand as information environments change.
This does not mean that every organisation now listed has been continuously monitored since 2015. Organisations enter and leave markets; companies merge; ownership changes; platforms emerge; outlets close; political organisations disappear; and new communication channels become important. The historical value lies in the accumulated ability to reconstruct and analyse those changes when evidence is available.
What we map
An organisation can enter the mapping when it performs one or more significant information functions.
Production
Creating journalism, political communication, campaigning, corporate messaging or other information.
Financing
Paying for content, advertising, sponsorship, campaigns or information-distribution activity.
Distribution
Providing channels or infrastructure through which information reaches audiences.
Amplification
Increasing reach or visibility through platforms, advertising, partnerships or intermediary networks.
Intermediation
Connecting information producers and audiences through advertising, marketing, technology or telecommunications.
Regulation
Exercising significant authority over media, communications, platforms or access to information.
Public-facing actor groups
The directory simplifies the underlying research taxonomy into seven groups that users can understand and search easily.
How entities are selected
The Provenance Directory is a curated map, not a census of every organisation operating in a country.
MPMONITOR prioritises actors because of their reach, structural importance, control over distribution, economic influence, political relevance, ownership position or capacity to shape information flows.
Selection is adapted to each national information environment. A large market may require substantially more entities than a small one, and the organisations that matter in one country may perform very different functions in another.
The objective is not to achieve an arbitrary number of records. It is to identify the actors necessary to understand the architecture through which significant information is produced, financed, distributed and amplified.
How the research is conducted
MPMONITOR research is human-led, source-based and designed to preserve uncertainty where the available evidence does not support a definitive conclusion.
Sources we use
- Corporate registries and company filings
- Ownership disclosures and annual reports
- Regulator databases and public institutional records
- Public procurement and spending records
- Company websites and official digital accounts
- Advertising, marketing and distribution information
- Archived web material
- Credible journalistic, academic and civil-society research
- Interviews and locally gathered information where appropriate
How claims are treated
- Material relationships require human assessment and verification.
- Automated and AI tools may assist discovery or organisation, but do not by themselves establish substantive findings.
- Conflicting evidence is examined rather than collapsed into a definitive claim.
- Uncertainty is retained where the evidence does not justify a stronger conclusion.
- A documented connection is not automatically treated as proof of editorial or political influence.
Following communication across channels
Identifying an organisation is only the starting point. Where relevant, deeper research examines the channels and intermediaries through which an actor can reach audiences.
Direct channels
Websites, apps, newsletters, broadcast outlets and official accounts.
Social distribution
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X and other nationally important services.
Private / semi-private environments
Telegram, WhatsApp and comparable channels only where their use can be documented and examined lawfully and ethically.
Paid distribution
Advertising, sponsored content, promoted posts, media buying and other paid mechanisms.
Agents and partners
Advertising agencies, PR companies, marketers, influencers, distributors and commercial partners.
Partnerships
Sponsorships, branded content, content partnerships and other documented relationships affecting reach.
Ownership, control and relationships
Formal ownership is only one way organisations can be connected. Depending on the research question, MPMONITOR may examine parent companies, subsidiaries, joint ventures, management and board relationships, political and institutional affiliations, financing relationships, advertising and commercial links, content and distribution partnerships, shared infrastructure and cross-border corporate networks.
The purpose is not to imply influence merely because two organisations are connected. The purpose is to establish what the connection is, what evidence supports it, and whether it is relevant to the information question being investigated.
Tracking change over time
Provenance is time-sensitive. MPMONITOR records material changes where they contribute to understanding how a present structure developed.
The public directory is not the full research database
The public interface is deliberately designed to show who MPMONITOR maps without giving away the deeper intelligence layer.
What the directory shows
- Entity name
- Country
- Broad actor type
- Basic role or description
- Official website
- Selected public channels where useful
What deeper analysis can examine
- Ownership and control chains
- Funding and economic relationships
- Historical changes
- Communication footprints
- Paid distribution and amplification
- Corporate, political and institutional networks
- Narrative pathways
- Source documentation and analytical assessment
Need the deeper layer?
MJRC designs bespoke provenance investigations around the specific entity, network, market or information question you need to understand.