GDELT Cloud generates structured event records from news media clusters using a three-layer coding framework. Every media event cluster is analyzed by an AI pipeline that classifies events using one of three complementary systems:
ACLED — Armed Conflict Location & Event Data methodology for conflict and political violence
Traditional CAMEO — Conflict and Mediation Event Observations for diplomatic and political interactions
CAMEO+ — GDELT Cloud’s extension of CAMEO across eight additional structural domains
These three systems are mutually exclusive and non-overlapping. Every event belongs to exactly one system. Together they form a complete taxonomy that covers the full spectrum of geopolitically significant events — from battlefield clashes to monetary policy decisions, AI capability breakthroughs, and pandemic declarations.
All event codes across all three systems are independently generated by GDELT Cloud. We follow ACLED and CAMEO methodology and taxonomy where applicable, and extend CAMEO with our proprietary CAMEO+ categories for domains those systems do not cover. GDELT Cloud does not use, license, or re-distribute ACLED’s proprietary dataset. Our conflict event records are derived entirely from GDELT news clusters.
Beta: The GDELT Cloud event coding system is in beta. The taxonomy, scoring methodology, and coverage will evolve as the system matures. Event codes, field definitions, and domain boundaries are subject to change.
Scope: Physical conflict, political violence, and mass demonstrations.ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) is the gold standard for conflict event coding. GDELT Cloud follows ACLED’s methodology to code the following event types from news clusters:
Event Type
Examples
Battles
Armed clashes, territorial fights, government vs. rebel engagements
Attacks, abductions, sexual violence targeting non-combatants
Riots
Violent demonstrations, mob violence
Protests
Peaceful demonstrations, protest with intervention
Strategic developments
Agreements, arrests, base establishment, territory transfers
ACLED events correspond to CAMEO event root codes 14, 18, 19, and 20, plus sub-codes 137, 138x, 173, and 175 (armed demonstrations, arrests, and violent repression).Each ACLED event record includes: disorder_type → event_type → sub_event_type (3-level classification), actor pair (actor1 / actor2) with ACLED interaction codes, location with latitude/longitude, fatality count, civilian targeting flag, AI-written narrative notes, and links back to the source news cluster.
Scope: Diplomatic interactions, political cooperation, and non-violent conflict between states and political actors.CAMEO (Conflict and Mediation Event Observations) is the standard event coding ontology used in political science and conflict research. GDELT Cloud uses CAMEO’s 2–4 digit hierarchical coding scheme for diplomatic and political events that fall outside ACLED’s conflict scope.Coded CAMEO roots (01–13, 15–17):
Code
Category
Examples
01
Make public statement
Official announcements, press statements, symbolic acts
Not coded here: CAMEO roots 14 (protest), 18 (assault), 19 (fight), 20 (mass violence) — those are handled by the ACLED layer. Sub-codes 137 (armed protests), 138x (military force threats), 173 (arrest), and 175 (violent repression) are also ACLED-scope.CAMEO POLITICAL events carry: goldstein_scale (cooperation/conflict score −10 to +10), quad_class (Verbal Cooperation / Material Cooperation / Verbal Conflict / Material Conflict), actor pair with ISO-3 country codes, and precise location.
Scope: Eight structural domains that CAMEO and ACLED do not cover — economic, corporate, technology, infrastructure, environmental, health, demographic, and information events.CAMEO+ is a GDELT Cloud-developed extension of the CAMEO framework. Where traditional CAMEO focuses on diplomatic and political interactions between actors, CAMEO+ codes the structural events that shape geopolitical risk, financial markets, and systemic stability — but that traditional event coding systems were not designed to capture.CAMEO+ event codes use 2-letter domain prefixes (e.g., EC02 for monetary policy, TE03 for cyber events, EN01 for geophysical hazards), making them immediately distinguishable from traditional CAMEO numeric codes.CAMEO+ events additionally carry four latent event attributes extracted by the AI coder:
Attribute
Description
magnitude
Domain-specific event intensity (0–10)
systemic_importance
How much this event affects the broader system (0–1)
propagation_potential
Likelihood of cascading or contagion effects (0–1)
market_sensitivity
Expected financial market impact (0–1)
These attributes cannot be derived from rule-based coding systems — they require the contextual reasoning that large language models make possible.
Diplomatic, cooperative, verbal-conflict, and non-violent coercive political events.The POLITICAL domain in CAMEO+ uses the same standard CAMEO 2–4 digit codes as Layer 2 above. It is the bridge between traditional CAMEO and the new CAMEO+ domains, sharing the same Goldstein scale and quad_class system. This domain captures the same political interaction events as CAMEO while being processed through the CAMEO+ pipeline and stored in cluster_cameoplus_events alongside the other CAMEO+ domains.
Magnitude scores for environmental events are calibrated to scientific scales: earthquake Mw for EN01, hurricane category for EN02, affected area/temperature anomaly for EN03.
Raw GDELT-assigned CAMEO code from article-level event extraction (not AI-coded)
When a cluster has been processed by the GDELT Cloud AI coding pipeline, the CAMEO+ or ACLED badge is shown.When a cluster was not AI-coded — either because it was determined to be out-of-scope (see below) or has not yet been processed — the ⚪ GDELT Assigned badge is shown. This is not an AI-coded event. Instead, it reflects GDELT Cloud’s selected CAMEO code based on the cluster’s contributing articles: the most representative CAMEO event code found across the articles that voted to form the cluster. It is a signal of what GDELT’s underlying article-level extraction detected, not a GDELT Cloud structured event record.
Not all news clusters are candidates for structured event coding. The GDELT Cloud coding system focuses on discrete, consequential, geopolitically or structurally significant events. A large share of daily news coverage falls outside this scope and is intentionally skipped.Content that is NOT coded:
Category
Examples
Sports
Game results, league standings, player transfers, coaching changes, tournament outcomes
Entertainment & celebrity
Film releases, award shows, celebrity news, music chart activity, TV programming
Lifestyle & culture
Fashion, food, travel, wellness, consumer trends, local festivals
Opinion & commentary
Op-eds, punditry, analyst commentary, political opinion pieces, editorials
Routine corporate news
Routine earnings reports, minor product updates, standard press releases without discrete events
Market analysis & forecasts
Analyst predictions, market outlooks, economic projections (not actual policy actions)
Weather forecasts
Routine weather coverage (not actual disaster or extreme weather events)
General political commentary
Polling discussion, political punditry, campaign coverage without concrete policy actions
Soft diplomatic coverage
General reporting on ongoing relations without a concrete act or decision
Social media & viral content
Viral stories, social media trends, influencer activity without real-world structural impact
Human interest stories
Local community coverage, personal profiles, non-structural human interest content
When a cluster is skipped, its badge defaults to ⚪ GDELT Assigned — showing the underlying CAMEO code GDELT’s extraction pipeline detected in the contributing articles, rather than a GDELT Cloud structured event record.
Visit Events in the sidebar, then select the CAMEO+ tab to browse, filter, and map CAMEO+ events. Use the domain filter to narrow by ECONOMIC, TECHNOLOGY, HEALTH, etc. The interactive map displays pins sized by magnitude. Each event card links back to the source news cluster.The Dashboard hero card also features a CAMEO+ tab with a live world map and domain breakdown for today’s events.
