Newsletter
Reputation Agenda: Trends & Topics
The international media agenda Q1 2009
Within the first four months of 2009, the international media agenda has been strongly influenced by the global financial and economic crisis. Only in January did an accumulation of communications on Gaza conflict and on Obama’s inauguration slightly push back reporting on the crisis.
As in the previous four months, public communications in the first third of 2009 was dominated by the global financial and economic crisis: no fewer than 9 of the 20 largest communications events were linked to the crisis (ranks 1, 4, 6, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18). After a concentration on the finance markets during the escalation phase at the end of last year, broader economic developments and the auto industry are now attracting more media attention. Unsurprisingly, the emphasis in reporting on the crisis shifted depending on the degree of direct impact: the New York Times and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung tend to deal with economic developments in the USA and in Germany (including the Opel crisis) respectively. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung, by contrast, places considerable weight on the corporate crisis at UBS and international pressure on Swiss banking secrecy (ranks 5, 10, 15).
Only in January was reporting on the financial and economic crisis temporarily displaced by the Gaza conflict (rank 2) and Obama’s inauguration (rank 3).
However, even after the inauguration ceremony in January, Obama and his cabinet’s taking office has remained an important explanatory factor for the communications dynamics of quality international press: in the USA especially, but also elsewhere, the Obama Administration is a driver for a range of media discourse. Befitting the high expectations placed in Obama internationally as a beacon of hope, his foreign policy and economic initiatives are being closely monitored (ranks 2, 7, 9, 11 or 6, 18, 20). In other words, a US foreign policy informed by a war on the “axis of evil” and Islamic terrorism continues to shape the agenda.