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.
- Coverage of David Cameron’s trip to China slightly surpassed news about student fees and subsequent protests
- George W Bush’s presidential memoirs were widely covered in the UK and elsewhere
- The minister for universities was hardly mentioned
The Media Standards Trust’s latest report ‘Shrinking World: The decline of international reporting in the British press’ is now available to download
For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe
Covered lots
- David Cameron in China, where the prime minister went to promote UK-Chinese relations, 213 articles
- An increase in tuition fees for students that sparked student protests and some rioting in Conservative HQ at Millbank, 196 articles
- George Bush’s autobiography, in which he defended the use of waterboarding, 151 articles
- Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in Burma on Sunday, 107 articles
Covered little
- Concerns about Ireland’s ability to make payments on its sovereign debt, as the country resisted calls for an EU bail-out, 30 articles
- David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, in a week of student protests, 12 articles
- The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, made in October, and followed by a flurry of bets, 3 articles
Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)
- David Cameron: 527 articles (+10% on previous week)
- Nick Clegg: 180 articles (+53% on previous week)
- George Osborne: 138 articles (+6% on previous week)
- Gordon Brown: 109 articles (+9% on previous week)
- Iain Duncan Smith: 109 articles (+148% on previous week)
- Vince Cable: 103 articles (-9% on previous week)
- Tony Blair: 89 articles (+7% on previous week)
- Ed Miliband: 84 articles (+12% on previous week)
- Harriet Harman: 77 articles (+97% on previous week)
- Michael Gove: 64 articles (+21% on previous week)
Celebrity vs serious
- Take That, who appeared together for the first time since 1995 – on the X-Factor, 94 articles vs the formation of Iraq’s new power-sharing government, headed by Nouri Maliki, 28 articles
- Ann Widdecombe, ex-politician turned ballroom dancer, 55 articles vs Paul Chambers, whose conviction for a tweet about ‘blowing up’ Robin Hood airport was upheld, 18 articles
- Emma Watson, who attended the premiere of the new Harry Potter film, 51 articles vs child detention, in the week Clare Sambrook won a second award for her investigations and Peers condemned the government’s postponement of the ending of child detention, 3 articles
Who wrote a lot about…’Aung San Suu Kyi‘
Jack Davies – 11 articles (The Guardian), Phoebe Kennedy – 10 articles (The Independent), Andrew Buncombe – 6 articles (The Independent), Tim Johnston – 5 articles (Financial Times), Emma Cowing – 3 articles (Scotland on Sunday), Peter Walker – 3 articles (The Guardian), Mail Foreign Service – 2 articles (MailOnline)
Long form journalism
- 4,857 words: ‘Christopher Hitchens: ‘You have to choose your future regrets’, Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 14th November 2010
- 3,639 words: ‘Douglas Gordon on life in Berlin and growing up in Glasgow’, David Sharp, The Herald, 8th November 2010
- 3,190 words: ‘Fin de siecle: Has French cookery had its just desserts?’, John Lichfield, The Independent, 13th November 2010
Tune in same time next week.