A media monitoring API makes captured mentions, their metadata, the assigned sentiment, recognised entities and clusters bundled into stories available programmatically. This lets monitoring data flow automatically into your own dashboards, CRM and BI systems or alert chains — without manual copying from an interface.
Note: the following endpoint and payload examples are schematic and serve to illustrate — they are not a binding API reference.
REST
REST exposes data as addressable resources over HTTP. A single request fetches, for example, the most recent mentions for a field of observation:
GET /v1/mentions?query=my-brand&since=2026-05-01
Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>REST is easy to understand, easy to cache and widely supported. The price: fixed response structures that sometimes return too many, sometimes too few fields, and multiple requests for linked data.
GraphQL
GraphQL lets the target system request exactly the fields it needs across multiple objects in a single request:
query {
mentions(query: "my-brand", since: "2026-05-01") {
title
source
sentiment
cluster { id headline }
}
}This avoids over- and under-fetching and is efficient for field-rich, nested analyses. In return, caching and rate limiting are more demanding than with REST.
Webhooks
Webhooks reverse the direction. Instead of regularly asking "is there anything new?", the platform reports actively as soon as a relevant event occurs:
POST https://your-system.example/webhooks/mediaintel
{
"event": "mention.created",
"query": "my-brand",
"sentiment": "negative",
"url": "https://source.example/article"
}This produces real-time alerts without polling delay and without unnecessary load. What matters here is signature verification of incoming calls and a retry mechanism for failed deliveries.
Which approach when
- REST
- Lean integrations, clearly delimited queries, broad tool support.
- GraphQL
- Regular, field-rich analyses and dashboards with nested data.
- Webhooks
- Real-time response: alerts, automatic tickets, immediate escalation.
In practice you combine the approaches: a webhook triggers an event, and REST or GraphQL fetches the full context afterwards.
At mediaintel
mediaintel delivers monitoring data via REST, GraphQL and webhooks — with source and licence information carried with every item. This lets monitoring be integrated into existing workflows. The page for organisations gives an overview of the suite.
Frequently asked questions
What does a media monitoring API deliver?
A media monitoring API makes captured mentions, their metadata (source, timestamp, licence), the assigned sentiment, recognised entities and clusters bundled into stories available programmatically. This allows the data to be integrated into your own dashboards, CRM systems or alert chains.
REST or GraphQL — which is better?
REST is simple, easy to cache and ideal for clearly delimited resources. GraphQL lets you retrieve exactly the fields you need across multiple objects in a single request, reducing over- and under-fetching. For regular, field-rich analyses GraphQL is often more efficient; for lean integrations REST is enough.
What are webhooks for?
Webhooks reverse the direction: instead of regularly polling for whether anything is new, the platform actively notifies the target system as soon as a relevant event occurs — for instance a new mention or a sentiment shift. This is the basis for real-time alerts without delay and without unnecessary load.