Journalisted Weekly: Chilean Miners, Liverpool FC and defence cuts

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. From now on we’ll be cross-posting them on Journalism.co.uk.

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For the week ending Sunday 17 October:

  • 33 trapped Chilean miners received huge media coverage early in the week, reaching a peak after their successful rescue on Wednesday
  • Political debate focused on UK defence cuts, cyber war, home terror, and natural disasters
  • The death of asylum seeker Jimmy Mubenga, while being forcibly repatriated, received little coverage

Covered lots

  • The 33 Chilean miners, finally rescued after 69 days trapped underground, 287 articles
  • The Liverpool FC buyout, sold to US company New England Sports on Friday, 284 articles
  • UK defence cuts, eventually agreed after weeks of sometimes acrimonious wrangling, 236 articles

Covered little

  • The death of asylum seeker Jimmy Mubenga, with suspected mishandling by security officials enforcing his deportation, 20 articles
  • Two miners in Ecuador killed and two more trapped by a cave-in on Friday, 14 articles
  • A Somali-American, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, sworn in as Somalia’s new Prime Minister, 1 article

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

  • David Cameron: 635 articles (+7 per cent on previous week)
  • George Osborne: 317 articles (-39 per cent on previous week)
  • Vince Cable: 246 articles (+92 per cent on previous week)
  • Nick Clegg: 200 articles (+30 per cent on previous week)
  • Ed Miliband: 160 articles (-44 per cent on previous week)
  • Gordon Brown: 143 articles (-15 per cent on previous week)
  • William Hague: 124 articles (-7 per cent on previous week)
  • Tony Blair: 121 articles (-7 per cent on previous week)
  • Liam Fox 90 articles (-8 per cent on previous week)
  • Alan Johnson: 77 articles (-44 per cent on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

Who wrote a lot about…’Chilean Miners’

Carl Markham – 13 articles (The Independent), Martin Fletcher – 11 articles (The Times), Fiona Govan – 10 articles (The Telegraph), Rory Carroll – 9 articles (The Guardian), Jude Webber – 9 articles (Financial Times), Guy Adams – 5 articles (The Independent)

Long form journalism

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