Journalisted Weekly: Libya aftermath, football transfers and the eurozone

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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.

Libya aftermath, football transfers and the eurozone

for the week ending Sunday 4 September

  • Libya remains the most covered story
  • Sporting events – US Open, football transfer window, World Athletics – feature prominently
  • Lib Dems’ choice for London mayor and Plaid Cymru leadership race covered little

Covered lots

  • Libya continues to dominate, 639 articles (including Gaddafi, 528 articles; Lockerbie, 119 articles; and Yvonne Fletcher, 84 articles)
  • The British football transfer window closed, 379 articles (including Gary Cahill, who didn’t move, 179 articles and Mikel Arteta, who did, 110 articles)
  • Continued worries about the health of the Eurozone economy, 248 articles
  • Abortion, as Nadine Dorries and Frank Field move an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill, 107 articles
  • Mo Farah, gold medallist in the 5000m at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, 105 articles

Covered little

  • Brian Paddick, named as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the 2012 London mayoral election, 7 articles
  • Suicide bombers killed 9 in the Chechnyan capital, Grozny, 6 articles
  • Elin Jones announced her intention to stand for the leadership of Plaid Cymru, Party of Wales, 3 articles
  • Two journalists were murdered in Mexico City, 2 articles
  • Bolivia’s Supreme Court convicted five former military officers of killing over 60 people during 2003 protests, in an event described as a ‘genocide’, 1 article

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

Celebrity vs. serious

  • Madonna, previewing her film on Wallis Simpson, 79 articles vs former chancellor Alistair Darling, previewing his memoirs, 72 articles
  • The return of Simon Cowell to British TV with gameshow ‘Red or Black’, 59 articles vs a u-turn on the expensive Edinburgh tram network plans, 56 articles
  • Cheryl Cole, tweeting, appearing in a film with Cameron Diaz and possibly making up with Simon Cowell, 41 articles vs Nurse Rebecca Leighton, after charges relating to the deaths of patients at Stepping Hill hospital were dropped, 40 articles
  • Jonathan Ross, whose new chat show premiered on ITV1, 40 articles vs Murdo Fraser, planning to disband the Scottish Conservative Party should he be elected leader, 39 articles
  • Celebration as singer and actress Beyonce announces her pregnancy, 23 articles vs protests in South Africa around the discplinary hearing of Youth League leader Julius Malema, 23 articles

Arab Spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about… the US Open tennis

Long form journalism

Journalists who have updated their profile

  • Gillian Loney is a reporter on Glasgow Westend Extra and Glasgow South and Eastwood Extra, and a freelance reporter for Daily Record, The Herald, Evening Times, Motherwell Times, Cumbernauld News, Fest, and MyVillage. She received an MA (honours) in English and Scottish Literature from Glasgow University before studying for her MLitt in journalism at Strathclyde. You can follow Gillian on twitter @ExtraWestend.
  • Daniel Finnan is a Paris-based broadcast journalist working at Radio France Internationale, and a freelance for American Public Media, Radio Netherlands, and Deutsche Welle. You can follow Daniel on twitter @Daniel_Finnan, or visit his website.

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