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 Weekly: Kim Jong-un, New Year honours and Syria
for the week ending Sunday 1 January
- The succession of Kim Jong-un dominated this week’s news
- The New Year Honours List and the Arab League presence in Syria covered lots
- Police to trial lie detector tests in Britain and Kurdish civilians killed in Turkish air strike covered little
Covered lots
- In North Korea, Kim Jong-un is named Supreme Commander of the military, 118 articles
- Ronnie Corbett, Lorraine Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter and Alex Crawford among those who were awarded New Year Honours, 114 articles
- Arab League observers monitor Syrian regime, 99 articles
- Police investigate the murder of Anuj Bidve, 97 articles
Covered little
- The jury deliberates in the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, 27 articles
- 35 Kurdish civilians killed in a Turkish air strike, 11 articles
- UK police to trial lie detector tests, 4 articles
- Egypt bans virginity tests used on female detainees, 4 articles
Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)
- David Cameron: 315 articles (-23% on last week)
- George Osborne: 116 articles (-44% on last week)
- Nick Clegg: 102 articles (-59% on last week)
- Ed Miliband: 100 articles (-49% on last week)
- Andrew Lansley: 85 articles (+143% on last week)
- Tony Blair: 83 articles (+22% on last week)
- Boris Johnson: 75 articles (+19% on last week)
- Gordon Brown: 51 articles (-58% on last week)
- Ken Clarke: 47 articles (+96% on last week)
- Vince Cable: 30 articles (-58% on last week)
Celebrity vs. serious
- Celebrity couple Russell Brand and Katy Perry to divorce, 34 articles Vs new bird flu fears as bus driver from Shenzhen dies from the virus, 10 articles
- Singer Sinead O’Connor ends fourth marriage, 24 articles Vs Chinese activist Chen Xi is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, 14 articles
- Opera singer Katherine Jenkins and TV presenter Gethin Jones announce split on Twitter, 11 articles Vs Portia Simpson Miller of the People’s National Party wins Jamaican election becoming the country’s first female Prime Minister, 11 articles
Eurozone leaders (top ten by number of articles)
- Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 78 articles (-18% on last week)
- Angela Merkel (Germany): 58 articles (+14% on last week)
- Mario Monti (Italy): 38 articles (+153% on last week)
- Mariano Rajoy (Spain): 13 articles (-52% on last week)
- Lucas Papademos (Greece): 9 articles (+125% on last week)
- Enda Kenny (Ireland): 8 articles (up from 0 on last week)
- Elio di Rupo (Belgium): 2 articles (-60% on last week)
- Dimitris Christofias (Cyprus): 1 article (up from 0 on last week)
- All other Eurozone leaders: 0 articles
Who wrote a lot about… Rick Santorum
- Ewen MacAskill – 8 articles (The Guardian)
- Richard Adams – 5 articles (The Guardian)
- Mark Duell – 5 articles (Daily Mail)
- Jon Swaine – 3 articles (Telegraph)
Long form journalism
- 3,257 words: ‘2011: the technology year in review’ – Charles Arthur, The Guardian, 29th December, 2011
- 2,545 words: ‘Sorry: the most memorable apologies of 2011’ – John Walsh, The Independent, 29th December 2011
- 2,324 words: ‘Just like 1981: History repeats itself’ – Tim Walker, The Independent, 30th December 2011
Journalists who have updated their profile
- Jon Danzig is a freelance journalist. He has written for numerous publications including The Guardian, The Times, New Internationalist and the British Medical Journal. Jon won the Eli Lilly Medical Journalism Award and is the co-author of books ‘The World In Your Coffee Cup’ and ‘Basic Needs in Britain’
- Caroline Bishop is a freelance journalist who has written for ATG Magazine, Preview and The Guardian. From 2005-2011, Caroline was the editor of officiallondontheatre.co.uk, and in 2005, she won The Times/Waitrose Young Food Writer of the Year. Follow Caroline on Twitter @calbish
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 open for entries
For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe