Cross-flank convergence
When one narrative is carried inside a single week by both left- and right-addressing American accounts.
What it means
A narrative in the USA focus is marked cross-flank when, inside a single week, it was carried both by accounts addressing progressive-leaning American audiences and by accounts addressing conservative-leaning ones. The mark appears in the narratives ledger; the evidence behind it — the dates, the accounts, and the number of posts on each side — sits on the narrative's own card.
How it is counted
Convergence is counted from WHO ACTUALLY POSTED, not from the model's assessment of who a narrative is aimed at. Only accounts marked as addressing the left or right audience are counted (currently 12 and 6 respectively); Russian state organs and unaligned accounts cannot form a pair, so no single contested figure can manufacture a crossing.
The window is fixed at seven days on purpose — a wider one would eventually bring any two posts together.
A left or right marking is never our reading of anyone's opinions: it is assigned only from a citable self-description or an openly aligned employer, and the published basis sits beside each account in the source roster. An account without one stays unaligned — and cannot form a pair.
What it does NOT mean
This is a statement about posts. It does not indicate coordination, direction, or funding, and it does not mean the narrative reached both audiences — nobody measures audience overlap. Being monitored is not an allegation about the account holder.