Journalism & Research

Report on the feed, not just the platform.

You can cite what audiences post. Now you can cite what audiences are actually shown — with methodology that holds up.

What's broken

Can't cite what audiences see

You can quote a viral post, but you can't describe the information environment a 22-year-old in Phoenix actually experiences every day. There's no data for that.

No comparative data

"TikTok shows different things to different people" is the story. But without structured comparison data, it remains an anecdote, not evidence.

Anecdotes only

Reporters log in, scroll their own feed, and describe what they see. That's one individual's experience — not the audience's. The methodology gap undermines the story.

What Lurk unlocks

Narrative Divergence

Compare what different demographics see about the same topic. Quantify how the algorithm creates parallel information realities across audience segments.

Feed Snapshots

A citable record of what a specific persona's feed looked like at a specific time. Structured data, not screenshots. Methodology you can publish.

Longitudinal Tracking

Watch how a feed changes over time. Track how the algorithm shifts what audiences see as events unfold — day by day, week by week.

Example: Covering a breaking news event

A major policy announcement drops. The story is everywhere — but "everywhere" means different things to different audiences.

Lurk's Narrative Divergence report shows that within 24 hours, a Gen-Z progressive persona sees 12 videos framing it as a win for grassroots organizing, while a conservative boomer persona sees 15 videos calling it government overreach. Neither audience sees the other's framing.

The Feed Snapshot provides structured, timestamped data: video IDs, creators, hashtags, and engagement — all citable in the story with transparent methodology.

The headline shifts from "TikTok reacts to policy change" to "The algorithm is showing two Americas completely different stories about the same event."

See what they see.

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