Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations. Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.
Journalisted Yearly: Arab Spring, phone-hacking and the Eurozone
for the week ending Sunday 18 December
- The Arab Spring, phone-hacking scandal and the Eurozone debt crisis were the biggest stories of 2011
- The royal wedding, the natural disaster in Japan and the UK summer riots were extensively covered
- Reality TV shows such as The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing attracted much media interest…
- …while deadly mudslides in Brazil, Mexico’s ongoing drug war, the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and mass protests in Chile received little attention
Covered lots this year
- 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
Covered little this year
- Israel and Palestine participated in a prison swap, with 212 articles on Gilad Shalit
- Mexico’s ongoing drug war, 113 articles
- South Sudan became an independent state, 62 articles
- The world population reached seven billion, 57 articles
- MPs voted in favour of keeping the blanket ban on prisoners voting, 54 articles
- An e-petition calling for the release of documents relating to the Hillsborough disaster collected 100,000 signatures, 52 articles
- Earlier this year, deadly mudslides hit Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 47 articles
15 most covered UK politicians
- David Cameron: 29,803 articles
- George Osborne: 12,366 articles
- Nick Clegg: 9,291 articles
- Ed Miliband: 8,353 articles
- Tony Blair: 6,486 articles
- Gordon Brown: 5,665 articles
- William Hague: 4,991 articles
- Vince Cable: 4,495 articles
- Alex Salmond: 4,176 articles
- Boris Johnson: 3,854 articles
- Theresa May: 3,646 articles
- Ed Balls: 3,443 articles
- Liam Fox: 3,060 articles
- Michael Gove: 2,924 articles
- Kenneth Clarke: 2,717 articles
Top 10 current European Union leaders
Protests around the world
- The Arab Spring, including protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo (2,449 articles), Libya (2,301 articles), Yemen (1,446 articles), Tunisia (2,488 articles), and Syria (2,585 articles)
- Public sector strikes over pension reforms, UK, 1,904 articles
- The Occupy movement, including Wall Street, New York (1,163 articles) and St. Paul’s, London (861 articles)
- Protests against anti-corruption in India, with 222 articles on activist and leader Anna Hazare
- Parliamentary election protests in Russia, 184 articles
- In Greece (381 articles) and Spain (197 articles), thousands took to the streets to protest against austerity measures
- Wukan village protests in China, 37 articles
- Mass student protests in Chile calling education reforms, 30 articles
- Protesters in Bolivia marched against the construction of a road that would cut through the Amazon, 20 articles
12 most written about sports stars
- Andy Murray 4,909 articles
- Fernando Torres 4,208 articles
- John Terry 4,049 articles
- Rio Ferdinand 3,849 articles
- Carlos Tevez 3,621 articles
- David Beckham 3,463 articles
- Andy Carroll 3,411 articles
- Lewis Hamilton 3, 214 articles
- Ryan Giggs 3,180 articles
- Rory McIlroy 3,096 articles
- Rafael Nadal 3,047 articles
- Tiger Woods 2,952 articles
Celebrity vs serious
- The eighth series of The X Factor took place this year, 9,381 articles Vs 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 Vs 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 Vs Durban climate talks, 511 articles
- A turbulent year for Kim Kardashian, 976 articles Vs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman win the Nobel Peace Prize, 3 articles
- …And a turbulent year for Lindsay Lohan, 839 articles Vs the AV referendum, 824 articles
- …And then there’s Charlie Sheen, 1,187 articles Vs 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 Vs UN declared a famine in East Africa, 411 articles
Weird and wonderful
- ‘The Rapture’ preacher Harold Camping predicted that the world was going to end in May. He then changed the date to October, 67 articles
- Einstein’s theory of special relativity was called into question when scientists found neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light, 51 articles
- Silvio Berlusconi released an album of love songs, 30 articles
- 20 tonnes of marmite were spilled on the motorway in South Yorkshire, 13 articles
- Six members of the European Space Agency finally ended their 520 days of isolation as part of a simulated space journey to Mars. They were locked in a capsule in a Moscow car park for the experiment, 12 articles
- A ‘drunk’ moose was found stuck in an apple tree in Sweden, 8 articles
- In July, the first artificial organ transplant was carried out in Sweden. Scientists created a synthetic windpipe that was covered in the patient’s stem cells, meaning that there was no risk of organ rejection, 6 articles.
- November saw the world’s biggest zombie march in Mexico City, 3 articles
Newly added words added to the Oxford English Dictionary
Who wrote a lot about…the Leveson Inquiry
Lisa O’Carroll – 71 articles (The Guardian), James Robinson – 57 articles (The Guardian), Josh Halliday – 43 articles (The Guardian), James Cusick – 37 articles (The Independent), Roy Greenslade – 35 articles (The Guardian), Dan Sabbagh – 30 articles (The Guardian), Ben Fenton – 29 articles (Financial Times), Ben Webster – 26 articles (The Times), Cahal Milmo – 24 articles (The Independent), Sarah Rainey – 20 articles (Daily Telegraph)
Long form journalism
- 6,174 words: ‘Something completely magical’ – Natalie Whittle, Financial Times, 21st October 2011
- 6,030 words: ‘Busted flush: Las Vegas on a losing streak’ – Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 15th October 2011
- 5,844 words: ‘Senna: the driver who lit up Formula One’ – Jessamy Calkin, Daily Telegraph, 20th May 2011
- 5,195 words: ‘We need a serious critique of net activism’ – Cory Doctorow, The Guardian, 25th January 2011
- 5,144 words: ‘How to make an intelligent blockbuster and not alienate people’ – Mark Kermode, The Observer, 28th August 2011
- 4,765 words: ‘A boy named Abdul: Sierra Leone’s child inmates’ – John Carlin, The Independent, 5th March 2011
- 4,325 words: ‘HG Wells: prophet of free love’ – David Lodge, The Guardian, 11th March 2011
- 4,191 words: ‘How to be an App millionaire’ – Rob Waugh, MailOnline, 5th June 2011
- 4,111 words: ‘Double jeopardy: Haiti one year on’ – Sally Williams, Daily Telegraph, 7th January 2011
- 3,902 words: ‘How the internet created an age of rage’ – Tim Adams, The Observer, 24th July 2011
Most prolific journalists
(by number of articles)
The Media Standards Trust, which runs journalisted, won the ‘One to Watch’ category at this year’s Prospect Think Tank Awards
Read about our campaign for the full exposure of phone hacking and other illegal forms of intrusion at the Hacked Off website
Visit the Media Standards Trust’s Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism
Read the MST’s submission to parliament’s Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions and the House of Lords Communications Select Committee on investigative journalism
The Orwell Prize 2012 is now open for entries following a launch debate on ‘Writing the Riots’
For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe
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