Information that may be published but not attributed by name, usually described instead by role, such as "a person familiar with the negotiations".
Glossary Journalism & Media
On background
Information that may be published but not attributed by name, usually described instead by role, such as "a person familiar with the negotiations".
Seen in our coverage of On background
Stories where this term does real work, rather than appearing in passing.
More from the glossary
Interest rate
The price of borrowing money. When a central bank moves its policy rate, mortgages, business loans…
Large language model
A model trained on vast amounts of text to predict what comes next, which turns out…
Fiscal policy
What a government does with taxation and spending, as distinct from monetary policy, which is set…
Bipartisan
Supported by members of opposing parties. It describes the pattern of support for a measure, not…