Political media monitoring guide

Political media monitoring for campaign teams.

A practical guide for campaigns that need to track coverage, detect local narratives, and understand when a mention requires action.

Create Account Compare Google Alerts

Built For

Campaign teams and local races

Alert Channels

Email, SMS, Slack, and dashboard

Conversion

Create an account and start monitoring

What it means

Political media monitoring is the practice of tracking coverage and online mentions that affect a race, campaign, candidate, or issue.

Candidate and campaign mentions
Opponent and committee mentions
District, office, and issue coverage

Why generic alerts fall short

Most alerts do not understand whether a story is about your race, whether the source matters, or whether the mention is positive, negative, or merely noise.

Read the Google Alerts comparison

How SENTINEL fits

SENTINEL combines monitored sources, campaign terms, relevance, feedback, and alert routing so teams can decide what belongs in the dashboard and what needs email, Slack, or SMS attention.

See the campaign use case

Example workflow

From mention to next step

Step 1

Monitor the right terms

Track candidate names, opponents, committees, local issues, offices, districts, and source-specific terms.

Step 2

Route by urgency

Keep low-confidence mentions in the dashboard, send standard clips by email or Slack, and reserve SMS for relevant critical alerts.

Step 3

Move to response

Give the campaign a clear view of what changed, why it matters, and what to do next.

Frequently asked questions

Is SENTINEL only for statewide or federal campaigns?

No. SENTINEL is especially useful for local races where small outlets, local issues, and opponent mentions can move quickly.

How is SENTINEL different from a generic media monitoring tool?

SENTINEL is built around campaign context: candidate names, opponents, districts, committees, issues, severity, relevance, and response posture.

Can SENTINEL send campaign alerts by SMS, email, and Slack?

Yes. SENTINEL is designed for dashboard monitoring plus email, SMS, and Slack alert delivery, with controls for severity, relevance, and recipient routing.