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It is run by t he 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 17 April
- Royal Wedding fever and the London Marathon covered front and back pages
- Nurses’ no confidence in Lansley sparks more NHS debate
- Britain’s poor stillbirths record and mass grave in Mexico covered little
Covered lots
- Preparations for the Royal Wedding, 421 articles, of which 127 articles mention Kate Middleton
- The London Marathon, with Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany finishing first, 186 articles
- Andrew Lansley loses Royal College of Nursing confidence vote, generating more debate around NHS reforms, 135 articles
- Disputed Ivorian president Gbagbo, prised from a bunker by opposition forces with the help of French military and the UN, 124 articles
Covered little
- A study in the Lancet revealed the UK has one of the poorest records of stillbirths for a developed country, with an average 11 cases per day over the past decade, 16 articles
- 26 articles on Nigeria’s election, won by Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party, and 12 articles on Finland’s election, with a eurosceptic anti-immigration party gaining 1/5 of votes
- A 26-year-old blogger is imprisoned for criticising Egypt’s ruling military council, becoming the first post-revolution prisoner of conscience, 6 articles
- Burkina Faso’s president sacks his government and army chief, after soldiers allegedly inspired by Ivory Coast’s upheaval mutinied, 5 articles
- Pakistan’s government and intelligence authorities have called for an end to US drone strikes, CIA ‘shadow’ networks, and for the withdrawal of private US contractors, 5 articles
- 116 bodies found in a mass grave in Mexico, with authorities suspecting Zetas drug cartels as the killers, 2 articles
Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)
- David Cameron: 572 articles (+5% on previous week)
- Nick Clegg: 272 articles (-20% on previous week)
- George Osborne: 163 articles (-25% on previous week)
- Vince Cable: 154 articles (+67% on previous week)
- Gordon Brown: 153 articles (+37% on previous week)
- William Hague: 136 articles (+12% on previous week)
- Andrew Lansley: 126 articles (-24% on previous week)
- Ed Miliband: 107 articles (-20% on previous week)
- Tony Blair: 80 articles (-14% on previous week)
- Ed Balls: 39 articles (-30% on previous week)
Celebrity vs serious
- Simon Cowell, taking a back seat on hosting Britain’s Got Talent, 121 articles vs. Japan raising Fukushima’s nuclear crisis status to the same level as Chernobyl’s, 90 articles
- Russell Brand, who is launching his new film, 51 articles vs. Hosni Mubarak, suffering a heart attack and then detention for alleged corruption and crimes against humanity, 35 articles
- Singer Justin Bieber, who had a spat with Israel over his tour itinerary, 33 articles vs. a metro bomb attack in Belarus near president Lukashenko’s residence, killing 12 and injuring a hundred, 23 articles
- TV presenter Holly Willoughby gives birth, 26 articles vs. two Croatian generals convicted by the Hague for the ethnic cleansing of nearly 100,000 Serbs in the 1990s, 17 articles
Arab spring
Libya and Colonel Gaddafi, 311 articles (+3% on previous week)
Gaza and Hamas, 38 articles (-41% on previous week)
Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad, 27 articles (+42% on previous week)
Yemen and President Saleh, 20 articles (-65% on previous week)
Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, 19 articles (-37% on previous week)
Egypt’s military council, 12 articles (+9% on previous week)
Bahrain and King Al Khalifa, 6 articles (+100% on previous week)
Jordan and King Abdullah, 5 articles (+25% on previous week)
West Bank and President Abbas 4 articles (0% on previous week)
Qatar and Emir Al Thani, 3 articles (+200% on previous week)
Iran and President Ahmadinejad, 3 articles (0% on previous week)
Turkey and Prime Minster Erdoğan, 3 articles (-77% on previous week)
Morocco and King Mohammed VI, 2 articles (-75% on previous week)
Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah, 2 articles (-78% on previous week)
Kuwait and Emir Al Sabah articles (+200% on previous week)
Who wrote a lot about…’FA Cup semi-finals’
Simon Stone – 15 articles (Independent), James Ducker – 15 articles (The Times), Richard Tanner – 13 articles (Daily Express), Chris Wheeler – 12 articles (Daily Mail), Neil Custis – 12 articles (The Sun), Mark Ogden – 11 articles (Telegraph), Ian Herbert – 9 articles (The Independent), Andy Hunter – 6 articles (The Guardian)
Long form journalism
- 4,177 words: ‘Women on the front line’ – Annalena McAfee, The Guardian, 16th April 2011
- 3,371 words: ‘The Space Shuttle’s final countdown’ – Alex Hannaford, Telegraph, 11th April 2011
- 3,226 words: ‘The demo man: David Aaronovitch takes to the streets’ – David Aaronovitch, Sunday Times, 17th April 2011
More from the media Standards Trust
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