This year’s media round up

As the sun sets on another year, Journalista takes a step back and looks at the stories that have well and truly pitched their tents and occupied the headlines in 2011.

In a year of revolution, comings, goings and the inevitable controversies, it will be interesting to see which of the stories that dominated the media agenda will go on to define 2011 in years to come and which ones fall by the wayside.

For the year 2011 the topics that received the most coverage according to Journalisted.com were…

Relative news coverage of topics in the UK media.

• Protests swept across the Arab world throughout 2011. Known as the ‘Arab Spring’ (3,447 articles), it was sparked by demonstrations in Tunisia, which then spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman and Syria: 12,858 articles on Colonel Gaddafi, 3,554 articles on President Assad, 2,449 articles on the protests in Tahrir Square, and 1,363 articles on Tunisia’s Ben Ali
• The News International phone-hacking scandal dominated headlines this year, prompting numerous resignations and the closure of News of the World, 8,260 articles (including 5,820 articles on News of the World, 3,891 articles on Rupert Murdoch, 2,381 articles on Andy Coulson, 2,365 articles on Rebekah Brooks and 1,247 articles on the Leveson Inquiry)
• In the financial world, the Eurozone debt crisis took centre stage, 6,416 articles
• In March, a 9.0 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami hit Japan, destroying towns and villages in the north-east of the country, 3,744 articles (including 3,708 articles on the meltdown of Fukushima nuclear plant which was caused by the natural disaster)
• Osama bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 2,346 articles
• The royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place in April. Millions of viewers worldwide tuned in to watch the ceremony, 1,669 articles
• Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed away at the age of 56 in October, 1,593 articles
• The summer riots gripped London and other major cities across the UK, 1,190 articles
• In Norway, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik carried out two terrorist attacks, killing dozens, 730 articles

Celebrity versus serious

• The eighth series of The X Factor took place this year, 9,381 articles versus the campaign for the US Republican presidential nomination, 1,786 articles
• Strictly Come Dancing also took place this year, McFly’s Harry Judd winning the final, 2,507 articles versus Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from the IMF after sexual assault allegations in Manhattan, 1,807 articles
• Reality show ‘The Only Way is Essex’ gained popularity, and won a BAFTA, 2,035 articles versus Durban climate talks, 511 articles
• A turbulent year for Kim Kardashian, 976 articles versus Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman win the Nobel Peace Prize, 3 articles
• …And a turbulent year for Lindsay Lohan, 839 articles versus the AV referendum, 824 articles
• …And then there’s Charlie Sheen, 1,187 articles versus the Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle, glimpsed by scientists at CERN, 234 articles
• Jedward sang at the Eurovision Song Contest and participated in Big Brother, 773 articles versus UN declared a famine in East Africa, 411 articles

Politics

Featuring in an astonishing 29,803 different articles, there are no surprises that prime minister David Cameron not only leads the way for politicians but was the most covered individual in 2011.

Second place is also unsurprising, in a year where the economy remained at the forefront of national concerns, it was the resident of Number 11 – George Osbourne – who appeared on 12,366 occasions.

In the battle of the party leaders it is in fact deputy prime minister and coalition partner Nick Clegg, 9,291 articles, overshadowed Labour leader Ed Milliband who mustered 8,353. This of course does not take the tone of the coverage into account so second place may not be as rosy a spot at it may first seem.

Elsewhere, there were notable appearances for Tony Blair (6,486 articles), Gordon Brown (5,665 articles), William Hague (4,991 articles), Vince Cable (4,495 articles) and Boris Johnson (3,854 articles).

Sport

In the world of sport a list dominated by footballers was topped by tennis star Andy Murray who appeared in the mainstream media on 4,909 occasions. After beginning the year as the runner up to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, Murray went on to reach the semi-finals of every grandslam including the Wimbledon Championships on home soil.

The phenomenon of “Wimbledon fever” was demonstrated by the fact that 1,130 articles or 23 per cent of all the coverage Murray received in 2011 were confined to the two week period occupied by the tournament in SW19.

As ever, a significant proportion of coverage was focused on some sports stars’ activities off the field with a footballer who shall remain nameless. referred to as CTB during injunction proceedings, the subject of 3,180 stories.

Tweet