Which country does the media love best?

Everyone knows the media has its darlings. There have always been certain countries that are more than happy to hog the spotlight.

Thus America's elections have transfixed the world. Stories about British eccentrics are guaranteed a front page spot. And Mrs. Sarko has done more to raise France's pofile than any femme since Marianne.

But what about those countries that fall through the cracks?

The narrowness of the media's news agenda is illustrated by these fantastic maps from L'Observatoire des Medias. They track the coverage from several international outlets in 2007 and show it as a distorted global graphic. Here's part of their conclusion:

First, traditional newspapers are highly selective in their coverage of world news. Looking at the three British dailies, editors favour countries that are bigger and more populous, but also closer to home and better developed. They also give more room to the countries of origin of British immigrants, especially if they are white (look at the size of Australia and New-Zealand).

Have a play around by clicking on the publication name. And keep checking back. Daily updates are planned to keep up the pressure on journalists. That is, if we can tear ourselves away from Carla's shoes.

Alice Fishburn

Comments

[Candadai Tirumalai]

The newspaper I read is the "Washington Post." Since every country has its Embassy in D.C. and since most countries have long-term or permanent residents in it, the paper tries to reflect that in its international coverage. In the case of India, the "Post" has its own reporters and correspondents there. Even so it can only be expected to cover those stories which are of some interest to its American readership, so that many people of Indian origin supplement it with specialized newspapers and blogs. In 1960, my first year in America, I turned to the "International Herald Tribune" because other papers did litttle with foreign countries.
The "Post" has frequent articles on Britain; they tend to focus on some burning question, as until recently on Tony Blair, George Bush, and Iraq, or more occasionally on aspects of British life and culture.

[Jez W]

It's probably quite a toughie now that Communism is all but buggered.

Question;

Have all those countries or states the media have hailed in the past (when they were blowing things up to get into power); eg. Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Angola, South Africa, Cuba, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Laos or in the case of Communist North Vietnam, when the media 'youth' rioted in favour of in 1968,

- apologized to these Media/ past student personalities for making them look so utterly incompetent?