This compares with the previous
quarterly charts as follows:

March
|

June
|

September
|

December
|
Team Justice's swing up the
order in September has been well and truly put down, with Politics leapfrogging Eurasia. The same data presented in
a different format looks like this:
Constructors' percentage share of total
points by month:

Economics Africa
Politics Eurasia Justice Sport Health Disaster
Art Terror Environment Technology Diplomacy America Education
The greatest end-of-month share
by a constructor was achieved by Africa
in April, when the Arab Spring was in full flow. Environment had the lowest share:
0.56% in March.
We can also visualize this data like this:
Constructors'
percentage share of total points by week:

(Arab Spring) Economics
Africa Politics Eurasia Justice Sport Health Disaster
Art Terror Environment Technology Diplomacy America Education
An early start for Justice (thanks mainly to events in
Bristol) soon petered out allowing Economics
to briefly dominate the scene. And then Africa turns up (it begins above the
Arab Spring curve thanks to
other events in the continent, and ends below it as the Arab Spring
spreads to the Middle East) and dominates the picture for the majority
of the year. It's only in November that Economics regains its hold on
the newsroom's imagination thanks to matters Euro.
Monthly
performance of Constructors achieving over 100pts in one calendar month:

(Arab Spring) Economics
Africa Politics Eurasia Justice Disaster
In this graph, we see the total
points per month for those constructors who at some point managed to
rack up a monthly score in excess of 100pts. The lowest such
constructor is Disaster which
broke the century barrier only once, in March, when an earthquake hit Japan (the smaller peak in July was
courtesy of the drought in Somalia,
while Flooding in various
parts of the world gave the January peak). Justice began with the Jo Yeates investigation, but this
would be eclipsed by Injunction fever in May before the Riots provided the constructor's
biggest tally in August. Eurasia
first started to get meaty in April when Syria kicked off, and was helped to
its highest point in June by the economic tribulations of Greece. These two strands have
provided most of the supercontinent's activity for the rest of the
year.
Politics began in good spirits with the
resignation of Andy Coulson,
then tailed off for a bit until the AV
Referendum in May. July saw the constructor exceed 150pts when
the Phone Hacking story really
kicked off in the wake of the Dowler
Trial (this has been a problematic story for our categories:
Justice or Arts would be more appropriate constructors for the Phone
Hacking story had not the origins of it been in Coulson's Downing
Street role). An even bigger peak for Politics was the 191pts it scored
in October when Liam Fox was
found to have a friend.
Africa's story is a fairly
obvious one, and we can trace it out alongside the line for the Arab Spring. In February we spent
several days just staring at a square in Egypt, and then Libya started. By the middle of
March we were at war, and by May we'd lost interest in the whole thing.
There was a resurgence in coverage come August when the Libyan rebels
started attacking Tripoli, and then things plateaued out again. Even
Gaddafi's death in October was out-done by Liam Fox's kith.
Monthly
performance of Arab Spring nations:

Tunisia
Egypt
Bahrain
Libya
Yemen
Syria
A monthly view of the six
main Arab Spring participants gives a reasonable guide to how the
revolutionary antics were reported. First on our radar was Algeria (not
shown) whose protests got a mention towards the end of the first week
of the year. This story was treated in economic terms: these were riots
due to high food prices. It was a week later that the newsrooms finally
picked up on what was going on in Tunisia,
and then in another fortnight's time Al Jazeera's cameras happened to
be in the right place to capture the protests in Egypt. Because of the happy
coincidence of Tahrir Square and Al Jazeera's Egyptian office, we were
treated to live rolling footage: the revolution was being televised.
Unquestionably this was the primary reason why Egypt became the big
story, bolstered in part by a sense that the journalists had been off
the ball a touch for the Tunisian round. Twitter (the first resource of
the press these days) was aflame, and audience figures for Al Jazeera English exploded. This
was incendiary stuff! And then there was a military coup and it was all
over with a squirty squish. But wait... rumours of protests in Libya, and then Bahrain took the headlines as we
approached the third weekend of February. No live rolling pictures of
that though, and soon the weekend was over and the Bahranis were back
at work. The rebels in Libya had other ideas, though. No work for them.
Cue nine days of Libya as top story.
As we entered March, we had three days of respite from Libya as top
story, but it was a cosmetic choice rather than one born of genuine
news hierarchy, and Libya was soon back on top again. A failed SBS
mission in Libya during the first weekend of March caused some
embarrassment to the UK, and conspiracy theorists might find
convenience in the Prince Andrew scandal that pushed the story down the
following day, but the truth is that Libya was getting tiresome.
Gaddafi may have had reason to consider the timing of the Japanese
earthquake fortunate, but rather than bury the Libyan story, it simply
gave it opportunity to rest a little and gain some momentum. After a
week of looking at a melting nuclear reactor, something must have
clicked at NATO: some race memory of the cold war. Cue intervention:
Libya's news fate was well and truly sealed.
Buoyed by this declaration of war in aid of the insurgency, the people
of Yemen decided to give this
whole Arab Spring thing a shot too (shot being the operative word).
Their president agreed to stand down by the end of the year, and our
secondary attention shifted to Syria.
Syria did not pick its moment well. Libya, Japan, an anti-cuts protest,
a double murder, and the inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson during
the G20 protests last year, all served to distract from the protest in
Syria, and what is more, there was no rolling footage to show.
As April began, there seems to have been an editorial decision to rest
the Libyan story. Having spent five days as top story at the end of
March, it was now third billing, then fourth, then fifth. A car bomb in
Omagh cemented this editorial policy. However, by the middle of the
month, the rebels had reached Misrata. Still, things were taking their
time there, and attention shifted once again to Syria which was given a
week in C4N's limelight (a conscious editorial decision designed to
capture that audience unconcerned with the preparations for the Royal
Wedding: the same sort of scheduling mentality that puts niche films
out at the same time as blockbusters).
By May, the whole Arab Spring thing was getting tiresome, so
journalists had Osama Bin Laden killed, held an AV Referendum and Lib
Dem bloodbath, got cornered in a hotel room by the head of the IMF, and
then took out an injunction. After a month away, June was a time to
catch up on our old friends the Arabs. The Yemenis had injured their
president, NATO were still attacking Libya, and Syria was still Syria.
Refugees fleeing to Turkey helped score some points but by half way
through the month we were fed up with it all again. The war journalists
went on holiday and we were left with the Dowler Inquiry and the
subsequent phone-hacking furore. As a consequence of all this, the Arab
Spring was largely forgotten in July.
It bounced back with a vengeance in August, though, as the Libyan
rebels closed in on Tripoli and victory. September's coverage was about
the mopping up and the back-patting. October's was about the death of
Gaddafi. And with that, the biggest story of the Arab Spring (and the
biggest story of the year) was effectively over.
After a fortnight off the subject, eyes inevitably began to flick back
to Syria. But they were weary eyes. Towards the end of November
disquiet began to show itself in Egypt again and the press let out a
stifled yawn and a "here we go again". There was no rolling coverage
from Al Jazeera this time. And so we slipped quietly into December: the
oppression in Syria occasionally being of sufficient magnitude to be
worthy of another resigned mention and the odd top billing. Somebody
should tell them we asked for an Arab Spring, not an Arab Year. What
was good enough for 1848 and 1968 (briefly) ought to be good enough for
the Arabs!
Monthly
performance of Top Five drivers:

Libya
Government Spending &
Taxation Phone Hacking
Domestic Economy
International Economy
Here are the top five
stories of the year. We've already covered Libya in some detail, so
need to go over all that again. There in the middle is the big spike of
Phone Hacking brought about by
the moral indignation that a journalist may have deleted messages on
Milly Dowler's phone (an allegation that was, it turns out, probably
unfounded, but which none-the-less led to the closure of the News of the World). The two
previous peaks on this line relate to the resignation of Andy Coulson
in January, and the arrests, allegations and apologies of April. The
Leveson Inquiry (an opportunity for media naval-gazing if nothing else)
makes up the latest peak in November.
Phone Hacking was something of a side-show for the silly-season. The
real opposition to the Arab Spring as far as news dominance goes was,
of course, the Economy. So it is that three of the top five drivers are
Economic stories. Government Spending
& Taxation is the lead driver of the three (and the winner
of our experimental analysis last year). It takes in the budget, tax
cuts, and every hair-brained vote-grabbing scheme the government might
try to throw money at during the year, so it's inevitably onto a mine
of points. Anything George Osborne touches turns purple on the above
graph. Spending Cuts and the "Big Society" were behind the biggest peak
in February, before things plateaued off a bit in light of events
abroad. Pensions entered the agenda in June, followed by a range of
cuts in July, then things tailed off again for the summer recess, with
no stories at all in September. The "Future Jobs Fund" led an array of
exchequered stories in November when everyone had come back to school,
bringing us roughly up to date.
Then there's the wider Economy, both home and abroad. These two
categories are tempered to an extent by other drivers lower down the
order (Banking & Markets, Greece, Italy etc.), but still did well
enough to make the top five. The domestic situation had our interest
for the first six months, while International crises were limited
strictly to the problems besetting single nations. But then the
problems in Greece began to spread and suddenly we had The Euro Crisis.
Domestic affairs kept chipping in, reaching their peak in November with
Osborne admitting the economy was "off course", but this was nothing
compared to the coverage Europe was getting. The high-point for
International Economics came in December with Cameron exercising his
Reform Treaty "veto" (a curious choice of wording that passed
unquestioned by the media).
The mad zig-zag to our right here gives the points path of a selection
of stories on a daily basis. The selected stories each managed to
sustain top billing over a pair of consecutive days. A story about VAT was the first such example,
bettered later by Floods and
the revolutionary antics in Tunisia.
The yellow line that appears in January and rises to the 9pt mark for a
particularly prolonged stint in February is Egypt. An amount of noise is
inevitable in such a graph, especially when there is no definite lead
story. But when a topic does rise to the fore it often wipes out
longer-running stories: so it is that Egypt comes to hog the headlines
in early February, and Libya
likewise in early March. Japan
and Syria come to play in late
March and then the stories begin to mount up again. By May, when
Libya's starting to get tedious, there's a bit of a free-for-all at the
top of the headlines, and then at the start of July there's a
particularly impressive wipe-out as Phone
Hacking becomes the only story around.
Here's a breakdown of the other stories around during Phone Hacking's
turn at the top:
19pts South
Sudan
18pts Afghanistan
18pts Chinook Crash Review
18pts
The Arts (inc. Manchester
Festival)
16pts Golf
(Open)
14pts Domestic
Economy (inc. Bombardier)
11pts African Drought
10pts Government Spending
10pts
Care Services
9pts General Disasters
9pts General Technology
8pts Environment
7pts
Football
7pts Formula 1 (British GP)
7pts Medical Breakthroughs
6pts International Economy
6pts
Stepping Hill Deaths
4pts
Universities
4pts Lottery
3pts
Policing
3pts Legal Policy
2pts
Athletics
1pt Boxing
There's some big
stories here, but most of them failed to have any sustained attention
as a lead headline. The Stepping Hill
story, for instance, managed only one top-billing, which in hindsight
may prove to have been a wise decision. The African Drought (later, more
specifically, the Somalian Famine)
was one of the more criminally ignored story of the year, in part owing
to the politics of Somalia, though perhaps also to the fact the story
slow-burnt into life during a period of massive media naval-gazing. Amy Winehouse and a prick in Norway added to the distraction, and
any pretense to interest was completely written off once the Riots hit. Three lowly placed
call-backs in September paid lip-service to the dying and the dead, but
by then we were well into Conference Season so had far more important
things to worry about.
Conference Season led immediately to the first big Tory scalping as Liam Fox was teased aside. Then it
was time for some previous headlines to give us an update. The only new
subjects on our zig-zag after this point are the M5 Crash on Bonfire Night, and Italy's economic woes that led to
Berlusconi's resignation in November. The rest was just catch-up, most
of the catching up being courtesy of the International Economy.
The map has changed in 2011: there's a new country in Africa, and a
couple of old bogey-men are no-longer on their thrones. Libya has a new
flag, and various other Arab nations have secured some sort of change
too, although quite how much change remains to be seen. The parallels
with 1848 are there to be pointed at in a knowing manner. Yet for all
the interest in this Arab Spring,
it was, as even Bill Clinton might've predicted, the Economy that ultimately dominated
our news. And unless the Mayans were onto something, it will be the
Economy that dominates 2012 too. The bread and circuses of Olympic
games and pariah states may offer some depressing respite, but there
will be no escaping the inconvenience of having no money. If this were
a game of Monopoly, China
would have hotels on the pinks and oranges, and we'd be looking to
shake two fives or two sixes to get out of jail. The only other option
would be kicking the board away in a tizz, so if you're going to have a
bet against the world ending this year, make sure the bookies consider
that compelling simile before they set their odds.
With that cheery thought we spurt out our champagne and say goodbye to
Racing News. It was interesting at times, but probably not interesting
enough. While we try to come up with something better, here's some
coronal mass ejections from Wikipedia to get you familiar with the
Wrath of God:
Have a pleasant 2012.
Ivan & Aidan.
23rd December
With a
week to go, the Economy has at
last overtaken the Arab Spring
as the big story of the
year. Meanwhile Eurasia
captures 4th place in the constructors' from Team Justice. In the drivers'
championship, last week's changes are for the most part reversed: Football retakes Syria for 7th place, and the Riots regain 11th from the NHS. Tunisia, the Arab Spring's spring,
hutches up slightly to gain parity with Liam Fox and Adam Werritty; the self-immolation
of Mohamed Bouazizi getting a (year late) second-place billing.
On
that festive note, have a
very merry Christmas.
16th December
Two weeks pass and with only two
weeks remaining in the project, Racing
Economics are now just eleven points shy of the total points
scored by the Arab Spring. The economic situation may yet
be the story of the year. Only one change in position in the
constructors' championship: Environment leapfrogging Technology thanks to the climate
talks in Durban and a stormy night in Scotland. The Higgs' Boson
couldn't match up to the weather.
This weather is the main cause of the impressive ten point rise of Natural Environment in the drivers'
chart. The economic drivers are the main movers, however. Employment & Migration gains
three places to 25th, while that pesky Eurozone crisis has allowed the International Economy to overtake
the Domestic Economy and take
4th place. Can it push Phone Hacking
off the podium in the remaining fortnight?
2nd December
The
predictions of last week's
column come to pass, as Trade Disputes
overtakes the Tory Party, Computing and Greece to sit alongside Political Protests in the top-half
of the Drivers' table.
The other mover is the International
Economy which overtakes Syria and
Football in its bid for a
top five position.
In the Constructors' championship, the closely pegged teams continue to
trade places: Diplomacy edges past America, Arts overtake Terror, and Health leapfrogs Disaster, each holding their
positions by a solitary point's advantage. A greater margin exists
between the top two rivals, as Economics
finally supplants Africa to
take the lead in the championship with only a month to go.
25th November
The movement near the top of the
Drivers' chart last week has been neatly reversed this week, as Egypt
retakes Syria as second-biggest news story
in the Arab Spring (which collectively has accounted for a massive
1338pts). Meanwhile, as the Tories seek to deform public sector
pensions, Trade Disputes draws
level with the Conservative Party
and can be expected to climb another two or three places next week to
meet its kindred spirit: Political
Protests.
In the Constructors' chart there is no movement this week, though Health is lining up to overtake Disaster, and Arts stands a reasonable chance of
defeating Terror. At the top, Economics has crept 3pts closer to Africa, and only an Arab Autumn can
realistically prevent the triumph of capitalism.
18th November
The Economy was the biggest story this
week, again, while Politics'
second place allowed it to break the 1000pt mark. No movement in the
Constructors' chart, but in the Drivers' championship Syria is now a bigger story than Egypt, and perhaps more seriously,
the International Economy has
drawn level with Football. The
rest of the top 30 are unmoved. Bubbling under after a strong
performance this week is Italy
on 61pts.
11th
November
In recognition of the fact that
we are nearing the end of the season, the Drivers' Championship has
been extended to thirty places. We've not made any effort to show
movement in the bottom half of the table, but up in the top half it's been a busy fortnight: Syria gains a place at the expense
of Football,
and the International Economy
has a particularly strong time of it, gaining three places (and 37pts).
Economics and Politics have been the big
constructors of recent weeks, along with Eurasia, thanks in no small part to
17th placed driver: Greece.
With exactly fifty days to go until the end of the year, there are
potentially 450pts up for grabs for the drivers, meaning that Government Spending & Taxation
would need to be the lead story from now until the New Year if it is to
have any chance of defeating Libya
as this year's champion. But Racing
Economics is now the bookies' favourite for the Constructors'
trophy.
28th October
Again not a great deal of
movement. The Turkey Earthquake
sneaks Scuderia Disaster
marginally ahead of GP Health
in the Constructors', while the International
Economy rises two places in the Drivers' Championship thanks to
the Eurozone Crisis. Matters Economic collected the most points this
week.
21st October
No
change in the top 15 of the
Drivers' Championship this week. Liam
Fox remained the biggest story, bringing him into the top 20. Libya and the 'Occupy'
Protests
occupied second and third places. Two of those stories contributed to Politics F1's reclamation of third
place in the Constructors' Championship, which they now hold by a
single point from Team Justice.
14th October
This week Politics F1 consolidated its 4th
place in style, while Team America
and Diplomacy
GP swapped
places again. Likewise, in the Drivers' Championship, Interntational
Economy and Computing
continued their little
dance. Where did Politics F1's
fifty-nine bolstering points come from? Well forty-five of them were
courtesy of Liam Fox (lying 30th in the Drivers' chart). Taken as a
while block, Political Scandal
has 427pts, enough to put it in second place were its major
contributor, Phone Hacking,
not in third.
7th October
A bit more movement as we enter
the final quarter. The Tory Party
Conference was
understandably the most reported of the
conferences, and helped the party to what will inevitably be a brief
moment of fame in the Drivers' Championship. The death of a phoney
hippy helped Computing
overtake the International
Economy:
perhaps surprising given the current state of the latter. The Riots have begun to slide down the
charts, and Football has
retaken Syria in our
interests. Even the Constructors' Championship has movement this week:
The American
Economy has
nudged Team America past Diplomacy GP, while conference season, and Liam Fox's best man, have helped
Politics F1 up into 4th again.
30th September
Another quarter passes, and the International
Economy enters the
picture. Were one to add to its total the points given to Greece and the US Economy, this driver would be in
5th place on 208 points. But we haven't done this. It may not need the
leg-up. Were things to develop, in the next quarter, to a full scale
battle for supremacy between the Arab Spring and the Global Economic
Death, we might have to bring all the forces to bear (Arab Spring
stories currently account for 1191 points (18% of all points
allocated)).
A look at the pie-chart for
the constructors' share of the points, it
can be seen that little has changed since June (beyond a couple of
swapped places). But with three months left to go, it could still be
anybody's season.
End of September 2011
End of March 2011
 |
End of June 2011
 |
23rd September
Welcome back. We've had a lovely
summer. What happened while we were away? Well, three days after our
last post (July 1st) the news broke that a dead schoolgirl's telephone
had been hacked into by a journalist, and messages had been deleted.
Suddenly the Phone Hacking
story, which had been close to dropping out of the top 15, was back in
the news again. It spent 16 consecutive days at the top of the billing:
a feat akin to that Bryan Adams song. Not even Libya has managed that
sort of staying power. It took famine in Somalia to bring C4N back down to
Earth.
Newspapers briefly got their
own back for the death of the News of the
World by conducting a character assassination on a nurse from Stepping Hill hospital where several
people had died. This was the year's second high-profile example of the
presumption of guilt backfiring when the accused is released without
charge.
Fortunately for the press,
some coordinated atrocities in Norway acted as a distraction from
their cock-up, while the death of Amy
Winehouse wrapped up a
pretty intense weekend as news goes. Then
came a belated "silly season": a 'dead' South African waking up in a
morgue, Putin bending a frying-pan, futurologists predicting people
will regularly live to be 100, and other such crap, sprinkled atop
further news from Syria and Libya, and tales of economic doom.
Then, on a warm Saturday night
at the start of August, while police
were keeping out of the way as a vigil took place to protest an
unpopular shooting they had committed, some dickhead set fire to an
empty police car. A few hours later, the press were stood in the road,
watching a lot of kids watching some police watching a burning bus.
Collectively, the masses came to the realization that this milling
about might as well become a full-on riot,
and so it came to pass. A softly-softly police response seemed to mark
open-season on black goods, and so the rioting spread: first across
London, and then across the country. Twitter was in its element, and
thousands discovered the wonders of Sikh community television. Then
some people got killed in Birmingham and the excitement died down
again. The press coverage lasted somewhat longer than the riots: it was
still top story a fortnight later.
At that point, our old friend Libya
started to get interesting again, as Tripoli began to fall to the
Rebels. This led us to the brink of September, which opened with a tale
of gypsies and planning regulations that is still rumbling on (as it
has been doing on a local level for 10 years). September's been a bit
of a mixed bag: an over-enthusiasm for Athletics
on account of C4's coverage, the 10th anniversary of the World Trade
Centre Attacks, and last week's Mining Disaster acting as tentpegs
for the usual mush. The annual staple of Conference Season is just starting
to kick in, and the World Economic
Crisis is beginning to
look more and more depressing with each
passing day. Tune in next week to see what state things are in at the
¾ mark.