Media Topics
Subject Taxonomy for the Media - the successor to the Subject Codes
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 13 languages and language variants: Arabic, British and US English, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmal and Nynorsk), Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, 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 NewsCodes 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.
Upcoming Events
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Photo Metadata Conference 2024 - open to the public
- Location
- Online
- Date(s)
- 7 May 2024
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IPTC Autumn Meeting 2024 - for IPTC members
- Location
- Online
- Date(s)
- 30 September - 2 October, 2024
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IPTC Spring Meeting 2025 - for IPTC members
- Location
- Western Europe (location to be confirmed) and online
- Date(s)
- April - May 2024 (date to be confirmed)
Latest News
The latest update to IPTC NewsCodes, the 2024-Q1 release, was published on Thursday 28th March. This release includes many updates to our Media Topic subject vocabulary, plus changes to Content Production Party Role, Horse Position, Tournament Phase, Soccer Position, Genre, User Action Type and Why Present. UPDATE on 11 April: we released a small update to […]