Media Topics

Subject Taxonomy for the Media - the successor to the Subject Codes

Diagram

Media Topics

Media Topics is a constantly updated taxonomy of over 1,200 terms with a focus on categorising text. Originally based on the IPTC Subject Codes taxonomy, the Media Topics taxonomy was first released  in 2010 and is updated at least once a year. It is now available in 11 languages: Arabic, British English, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Norwegian, Portuguese (for Portugal and Brazil), Spanish and Swedish.

The Media Topics vocabulary can be viewed on the IPTC Controlled Vocabulary server at http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/mediatopic. In addition it can be downloaded as a NewsML-G2 Knowledge Item, RDF/XML or RDF/Turtle document, please read the Guidelines. An Excel version of Media Topics and a more user-friendly tree-like view is also available.

We have recently created an IPTC NewsCodes Guidelines document which describes much more about how IPTC maintains Media Topics and the other IPTC NewsCodes controlled vocabularies.

The Media Topics vocabulary is a member of the family of IPTC NewsCodes. Read more about the generic features and terms of use.

Mappings between Media Topics and Subject Codes

The development of Media Topics started with the Subject Codes vocabulary, extended the tree from 3 to 5 levels and reused the same 17 top level terms. The lower level terms have been revised and rearranged. The Media Topics vocabulary provides a mapping back to the Subject Codes. The mappings are viewable as “Related Concept” entries on the controlled vocabulary server.

Mappings between Media Topics and Wikidata Concepts

We also maintain a set of mappings to related concepts from the Wikidata.org project where possible. These are also viewable as “Related Concept” entries on the controlled vocabulary server.

 

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Latest News

Mar 31 IPTC NewsCodes 2023-Q1 update, the biggest update in years

Today, IPTC announces the biggest change to the NewsCodes vocabularies in years. Almost 200 terms have been modified in the Media Topics vocabulary, including many “retirements”, trimming the CV down to exactly 1100 terms. Overall, three controlled vocabularies have been updated: Content Warning, Content Production Party Role and Media Topic. The changes to Media Topic […]