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.
for the week ending Sunday 3 April
- Fukushima and cricket covered the front and back pages
- Defection of Libyan foreign minister revisits Lockerbie anger
- A rape accusation against Gaddafi forces and Mubarak’s house arrest got little coverage
- Journalisted weekly introduces new section ‘Arab spring’
Covered lots
- The Cricket World Cup, with India winning the final by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka, 312 articles
- Fukushima nuclear plant, with Japanese officials scrapping mission to save its crippled reactors as seawater radiation levels rise, 199 articles
- Gaddafi defector, Moussa Koussa, denied UK immunity amidst public scrutiny of his alleged role in the Lockerbie bombing, 141 articles
Covered little
- Former Springbok player Joseph Ntshongwana, accused of murdering 3 people in a revenge attack for the rape of his daughter, 8 articles
- Libyan law student Iman al-Obaidi, facing defamation charges after bursting into a Tripoli hotel to tell journalists she had been raped by pro-Gaddafi soldiers, 5 articles
- Former president Mubarak, and his family, placed under house arrest by Egypt’s military council, 4 articles
Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)
- David Cameron: 509 articles (-7% on previous week)
- Ed Miliband: 203 articles (-8% on previous week)
- Nick Clegg: 194 articles (+68% on previous week)
- George Osborne: 193 articles (-76% on previous week)
- William Hague: 171 articles (-2% on previous week)
- Tony Blair: 91 articles (-15% on previous week)
- Ed Balls: 85 articles (-7% on previous week)
- Gordon Brown: 82 articles (-53% on previous week)
- Michael Gove: 72 articles (+13% on previous week)
- Andrew Lansley: 66 articles (+97% on previous week
Celebrity vs serious
- Prince Harry, training ahead of a trek to the North Pole, 72 articles vs. 20 UN staff killed in Afghanistan by a mob protesting a US Koran-burning, 36 articles
- Britney Spears, launching her new album, 49 articles vs. renewed Eurozone crisis, with Irish banks receiving £21bn and Portugal under bailout pressure, 28 articles
- Mohamed Al Fayed, revealing his Michael Jackson memorial outside Fulham FC, 23 articles vs. BP, set to return to the Mexican Gulf amidst potential manslaughter charges from last year’s rig explosion, 17 articles
Arab spring
- Libya and Colonel Gaddafi, 519 articles (-32% on previous week)
- Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad, 79 articles (+27% on previous week)
- Yemen and President Saleh, 46 articles (-133% on previous week)
- Gaza and Hamas, 24 articles (-129% on previous week)
- Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, 15 articles (-223% on previous week)
- Turkey and Prime Minster Erdoğan, 14 articles (-114% on previous week)
- Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah, 7 articles (-57% on previous week)
- Egypt’s military council, 6 articles (+17% on previous week)
- Kuwait and Emir Al-Sabah, 6 articles (+83% on previous week)
- Iran and President Ahmadinejad, 5 articles (0% on previous week)
- Jordan and King Abdullah, 3 articles (-167% on previous week)
- Oman and Sultan Al-Said, 2 articles (+100% on previous week)
- The West Bank and President Abbas, 2 articles (-200% on previous week)
- Iraq and Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki, 2 articles (+200% on previous week)
Who wrote a lot about…’Ivory Coast unrest’
David Smith – 11 articles (The Guardian), Aislinn Laing – 7 articles (Telegraph), Monica Mark – 5 articles (The Times), William Wallis – 5 articles (Financial Times), Marco Chown Oved – 4 articles (The Scotsman), Pauline Bax – 4 articles (The Guardian
Long form journalism
- 4,995 words: ‘The plan to save Ed Miliband’ – Johann Hari, The Independent, 1st April 2011
- 4,307 words: ‘How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico’s murderous drug gangs’ – Ed Vulliamy, The Observer, 3rd April 2011
- 3,088 words: ‘Linda Norgrove’s parents are paying tribute to their daughter’s life by continuing her work’ – Catherine Deveney, The Scotsman, 29th March 2011
More from the media Standards Trust
Visit the Media Standards Trust’s new site Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism
Churnalism.com ‘explore’ page is available for browsing press release sources alongside news outlets
The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk
For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe