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# Search for adverse media

> Identify negative media coverage and assess associated risks.

The Middesk Adverse Media product provides an automated, comprehensive search on business and people names within seconds, surfacing any adverse media sources and their associated risk categories.
Identify a customer's potential links to money laundering, financial crime, terrorism, and other risk factors that can lead to financial or reputational damage for your company.

> **Note**
>
> Middesk offers Adverse Media as an add-on within the Business Verification solution. You need a Verify report to order Adverse Media, and you can order the Adverse Media product simultaneously or after a Verify order.

## How Middesk supports adverse media searches

Search on business and people names within seconds, complete with insights to help you assess the level of risk and remove subjectivity from the process.
These insights include:

* **Risk level**. Indicates the low, moderate, or high level of risk associated with the overall business.
* **Risk category**. Identifies risk categories (like Narcotics, Organized Crime, Terrorism, and so on) for searched business or person names, assigning a risk score to each category.
* **Media sources**. Direct links to news and media sources where the searched name was found, including the source name, title of article, and URL.
* **Sentiment**. Determines whether the source is positive, neutral, or negative in sentiment.
* **Name match score**. Indicates how likely the identified adverse media belongs to the business or person in question.

To understand the results returned from an Adverse Media screening, see the [reference](/reference/adverse-media-screening).

## Risk score threshold

Middesk surfaces a business's overall risk by aggregating the risk level and category of each name searched.
The risk level is determined by the highest-risk media source found, so a business with one or more high-risk sources receives an overall high-risk score.

The levels for risk thresholds are defined as:

* **Low**: \<33%
* **Moderate**: 33-66%
* **High**: >66%

## Review tasks

Adverse media searches generate review tasks that summarize findings. These tasks appear in the Business object's `review.tasks` array.

### adverse\_media review task

Identify negative media coverage associated with the business.

| status  | message                                  | sub\_label    |
| ------- | ---------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| Success | No adverse media was found               | No results    |
| Warning | 1 or more low risk source was found      | Low risk      |
| Warning | 1 or more moderate risk source was found | Moderate risk |
| Failure | 1 or more high risk source was found     | High risk     |

## How to order adverse media screening

Adverse media screening requires a completed Verify order. You can order both together as a bundle or sequentially.

#### Order as a bundle

Order verify and adverse media together in a single request. You'll receive all results in one `business.updated` webhook.

#### Create a business

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.middesk.com/v1/businesses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "addresses": [
      {
        "address_line1": "123 Main Street",
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "state": "CA",
        "postal_code": "94105"
      }
    ],
    "orders": [
      { "product": "business_verification_verify" },
      { "product": "adverse_media" }
    ]
  }'
```

#### Wait for verification to complete

Wait for the `business.updated` webhook indicating the business status is `in_review`. Check the [adverse\_media review task](#review-tasks) for screening results.

#### Order sequentially

Order verify first, then add adverse media after verification completes. This approach can optimize cost if you only need adverse media for certain businesses.

#### Create a business with verify order

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.middesk.com/v1/businesses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "addresses": [
      {
        "address_line1": "123 Main Street",
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "state": "CA",
        "postal_code": "94105"
      }
    ],
    "orders": [
      { "product": "business_verification_verify" }
    ]
  }'
```

#### Wait for verification to complete

Wait for the `business.updated` webhook indicating the business status is `in_review`. See [review tasks](/review-insights) for details on verification results.

#### Order adverse media

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.middesk.com/v1/businesses/{business_id}/orders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "product": "adverse_media"
  }'
```

#### Wait for order to complete

Wait for the `business.updated` webhook indicating the order is complete. Check the [adverse\_media review task](#review-tasks) for screening results.

> **Get a demo**
>
> Contact your account manager or [contact sales](https://www.middesk.com/contact-sales) to inquire about access.