Top news stories for 2007

What have been the biggest news stories so far this year in broadcast, print and online media? The question got an answer at News Xchange, when Canada’s Influence Communication presented a hit parade based on 632 million news items from 120 countries.

IC president Jean-Francois Dumas told the conference that researchers had calculated “media prominence scores” by aggregating the number of minutes devoted to each story between January and mid-September.

In reverse order, the top 15 news stories were:

15. Madonna's adoption problems
14. Mattel recalling toys
13. Paris Hilton going to jail
12. Madeleine McCann
11. Launch of iPhone
10. Hanging of Saddam Hussein
9. G8 summit
8. Elections in France
7. Harry Potter
6. Virginia Tech shootings
5. Tony Blair
4. War in Afghanistan
3. Iran nuclear crisis
2. Campaigns of US presidential hopefuls
1. War in Iraq

And the most talked about person in 2007, excluding politicians, was … Paris Hilton.

No surprises then - just confirmation that we are a shallow, superficial lot - and no reason not to believe the findings are accurate. You didn't really expect to see Darfur in the list, did you?

I believe, though, that the results may have been skewered by the tabloid press and a dumbing down of TV news. Surely, radio still flys the flag for public service journalism?

Anyhow, I would really like to see a breakdown of the results for each media and possibly by region too. Apparently, the data is available and I shall be writing to Mr. Dumas to see if I can get hold of it.