RACING NEWS

1st July

Things are fairly boring in the main charts: there's no movement in the constructors' championship, and the only action in the drivers' is Domestic Economy retaking Syria. Economics was the constructor of the week, thanks to the Pensions Strikes. These end up as the third biggest story of the month after Syria and Greece.
At the half way point in the year, the constructors' pie-chart has developed as follows:

End of March 2011

End of June 2011

Africa's lead as a proportion has reduced, and Eurasia has significantly edged forwards. Disaster has slipped down, while Politics, Sport, Health and Terror have gained in the order.

Here's a graph of the top seven drivers so far this season, plotted for points on a week by week basis:

Graph 1: Top Seven Drivers (pts/wk)

Lybia Gov.Spend. Egypt Football Dom.Econ. Syria Jap'Quake

Egypt's light shone briefly but very brightly, with a maximum score of 63pts in week 5. It disappeared as quickly as it came, to be replaced by matters Lybian. Japan interrupted events there, although the situation had already deteriorated beyond polite protest by that point (the SAS had already embarrassed themselves). After a week of Japan, Lybia retained its power over us, until Syria kicked in in week 17. Since that point, things have been considerably messier, with none of the top 7 getting a real hold.

Now let's consider the Arab Spring, the big story of the year, on its own:

Graph 2: Reporting of the Arab Spring nations (pts/wk)

Tunisia Egypt Bahrain Lybia Yemen Syria

Not shown in the above are the Algerian food riots, which picked up 3pts in Week 1. It wasn't until the Thursday of Week 2, over a week after Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, that Tunisia hit the news, being the top story from Friday to Monday, inclusive, by the end of which a revolution had been enacted. It was then the turn of Egypt, who held the lead headline from Friday 28th to Sunday 6th (10 days) during a period where the likes of Julie Walters and Steve Coogan could scrape third billing. At the start of Week 6, the press were losing interest, and Egypt has slipped to 4th before Mubarak did the honourable thing. Jordan had had a 2nd place in Week 5 (not shown) but it was Week 7 when Bahrain and Libya made it to our screens. Libya broke on the Wednesday, but Bahrain overtook it for three days at the top (Libyan stories such as "dozens dead" and "84 killed" fell into second place behind Bahrain's "shots fired" and "protesters jubilant" if only because it was easier to get journalistic verification). Then by Sunday of Week 8, it was obvious that Libya was where it was at, with "Bahrain set for talks as calm returns". Libya spent nine days at the top, consistently trumping the New Zealand Earthquake, before fatigue began to hit in Week 9. By the start of Week 10, Libya was top story again. It traded status with matters economic, and then the Japanese Earthquake hit, stealing the headlines for seven days, and sealing Libya's fate as a secondary story. Things changed again at the end of Week 11, when the UN declared Libya officially naughty and a wider war began. Yemen hit the radar on the same day. Five days of news domination for Libya (and to a certain extent the Yemen) were only brought to an end by The Budget. And then Syria arrived at the end of Week 12. The Anti-Cuts Demo took that off the front page, and then Libya returned for another five days of dominance. At the end of Week 13 it was pushed down the schedules by Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, and the Ivory Coast. On the first day of Week 15, Libya failed to register for the first time since the Japanese quake, although it managed three separate first places later in the week, and by Week 16 it was unquestionably top story once more. But then Syria began to kick off again, and the two would fight it out until the start of Week 18, when both dropped from sight thanks to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Events in Misrata were sufficient to give Libya top billing on the Wednesday of that week, but otherwise both it and Syria were lucky to get any sort of placing. For four days at the end of Week 19, there were no Arab Spring stories whatsoever on the running order, and between Weeks 20 and 21 there were seven days without it as Injunctions became the topic du jure. Things remained sparse till the end of Week 22, when the Yemen woke up again, immediately reminding journalists of the existence of Libya and Syria. The latter became the big story through Week 23, with Sri Lanka providing a little distraction in Week 24. Lybia got a bit of notice in Week 25, but Afghanistan and Greece were getting more press, and the Levi Bellfield trial dominated the headlines. This last week only Lybia was mentioned, attaining a second place on Monday. But the novelty seems rather to have worn away.

We can see the contrast between the Arab Spring and the main constructors in the following graph:

Graph 3: Arab Spring and Top Nine Constructors (pts/wk)

Arab Spring Africa Economics Eurasia Justice Politics Sport Health Disaster Terror

The Arab Spring's various handy peaks come in Weeks 3, 5, 8, 12, 17 and 23. This is a simple +1 progression, and one might extrapolate that the next peak in coverage will occur in Week 30 (w.c. 23rd July). As regards the constructors, one can see a band of noise below the 30pt mark (30pts/wk is the equivalent of 3rd place each day. 7pts/wk can be achieved by a story appearing on a daily basis while being placed outside the top 5). where the vast majority of scoring takes place: stories bubbling away in the background. Anything over this 30pt line can be said to be a dominant performance. 63pts/wk is the maximum score for any single driver (top billing every day) while 40pts/wk could be achieved by consistent second billings. Seven of the top constructors have broken this 40pt barrier over the course of the last six months. Of the top nine constructors, only Politics (5th) and Health (7th) failed in this regard. Africa spent the most time over the line, but that was usually as part of the Arab Spring.

Graph 4: Top Five Continental Regions (pts/wk)

Africa Middle East Asian Sub-Continent Europe North America

Above is the distribution of foreign stories, with Eurasia broken down into some of its constituent parts. Note that Disaster and Terror related stories, along with Diplomacy missions, do not get included in these figures (hence, for instance, the lack of a line for the Orient region, in spite of the highly scoring Japanese earthquake). The Arab Spring has allowed Africa to dominate the first third of the year, and continues to excite the performance of the Middle East. The economy of Greece has seen Europe edge towards the 30pt mark in recent weeks, while Afghanistan tends to keep the Sub-Continent ticking along. The shootings in Arizona in January, that made Gabrielle Giffords a household name, remain the biggest story to have emerged from America over the course of this study.

Let's now break down some of the bigger constructors:

EURASIA RACING: Middle East Europe Sub-Continent Orient	TEAM JUSTICE: Crime & Trial Justice & Legislation Policing
As we just explored, the Middle East accounts for most of the points (47%) accrued by Eurasia Racing. Europe takes 28% and the Sub-Continent 24%. The highest scoring nations internationally are: Libya (514pts), Egypt (174), Syria (136), Afghanistan (74), Tunisia (67), Greece (51), Ivory Coast (46), Sri Lanka (44), Bahrain (41), Ireland (40), Yemen (37), the former Yugoslavia (34), Israel/Palestine (19), China (14), Portugal (11), Pakistan (11) and Iraq (10).	Almost half of Justice's points come from crime and the subsequent trial of such crimes. The Joanna Yeates murder leads this pile with 58pts (22%). Assorted Sexual Crimes clock in at 52pts (19%) (of which Paedophilia accounts for 43pts (16% of the total crime points)). Assorted Other Crimes sum to 43pts, and the trial of Levi Bellfield totals 42pts. Justice & Legislation account for a third of Team Justice's points. 54pts (38%) of this has been the Injunctions debate. The remaining fifth of the pie is Policing, 45% of the points for this portion having come from the inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson.
POLITICS F1: Westminster Scandal Protest Other	RACING ECONOMICS: Gov. Spending & Tax Domestic Econ. Banking/Markets Trade Disputes Employment & Migration International Econ. Privatization
At 213pts, Westminster (and its parties) accounts for 48% of all Politics stories. 22% of those (46pts) concern the nature of the Coaltition. 21% (45pts) are about the Tories. 17% (37pts) went to coverage of the May elections (party-politically a Westminster story despite being local elections). The Labour Party get 14% of the points, Voting Reform (specifically the AV question) 13%, and the Lib-Dems 12%. Scandal makes up a third of all political stories. The biggest scandal so far (62pts; 41%) is the Phone Hacking investigation: political because it initially centred upon Downing Street's Andy Coulson. At 40pts (26%) is the Expenses scandal, while Dominique Strauss-Kahn's adventures in New York accounted for 36pts (24%). 12% of the political compass is occupied by Protest, 45% of which (24pts) was the Anti-Cuts Rally in March. Other Politics accounts for the remaining 8% of the constructor's cake, and its lead driver at 64% (23pts) was the Royal Wedding.	40% of Economics stories (239pts) come from its first seat driver: Government Spending & Taxation, a catch-all for all things Exchequer. Domestic Economy accounts for 23% (138pts) with its tales of inflation and administration, while Banking & Markets make up 16% (94pts) of the figures. All three are drivers in their own right and no attempt has been made to divide them any further. Bringing up the rear are Trade Disputes (48pts; 8%), Employment & Migration (29pts; 5%), International Economy (19pts; 3%) and Privatization (18pts; 3%).

Graph 5: Average Total pts/wk for Selected Leading Drivers

Libya Gov.Spend/Tax Egypt Football Dom.Econ. Syria
Japan'Quake NHS Banking/Markets Tunisia Jo.Yeates Floods Afghanistan

This final spidery mess shows average total points per week over the course of the six months. The Joanna Yeates murder inquiry started us off as top story before being nudged down by the Australian floods. In Week 4 the Yeates inquiry retakes the top position, but Egypt begins to emerge at a pace, taking the lead with a sizable margin over its rivals in Week 5. It remains on top until Week 10 when it is overtaken by Libya. Demonstrated in this graph is the inevitable chaos at the start of the season, followed by the gentle bedding in of the hierarchy. Long, churning stories such as Afghanistan and the NHS can be seen gradually climbing up through the mess; matters economic maintain a fairly stable presence across the field; and the intermittent short-lived stories like the Japanese earthquake occasionally spike up before drifting inertly into place.

That then, was the first six months of 2011, viewed through the lens of Channel 4 News.

24th June

The Australian, Brazilian and Sri Lankan floods that dominated the headlines in January have now fallen out of the top 15 in our drivers' championship. They've been displaced by the Irish Question, which still keeps getting included on the exam paper of life. This week's violence probably doesn't really count as Terror as we've come to understand it, but matters Northern Irish were already allocated to that particular constructor so there it goes. Afghanistan made the weekly top six for the first time this quarter, and in so doing rose two places in the overall table, overtaking Tunisia. Greece was the biggest story of the week, and although Syria didn't make the top six, it did enough to edge up a place overall at the expense of the Domestic Economy.
Eurasia has been constructor of the week for every week this month, and now moves into third place in the overall constructors' championship. If one breaks the team down into its constituents, the Middle East alone accounts for 253 points (effectively 6th place). Europe and Sub-Continental Asia slot between Terror and Arts, while the Orient has only 14 points to its name (most of them down to China).
Next week will see the half-time analysis, and a possible reappraisal of our categorization. Hopefully things might start to get a bit more interesting from here!

17th June

For the third week running, Eurasia Racing tops the weekly constructors' chart, this week thanks to the combined performance of Syria and Sri Lanka. Syria moves up a place in the overall drivers' chart for the second week in a row, becoming a bigger story than the Japanese Earthquake, while the NHS (the week's biggest story) takes Banking. The only movement among the constructors sees Health overcoming Disaster.

10th June

Another mixed week, with no one story hitting the top spot twice. The result is a largely stationary constructors' table: Economics breaks 500pts, Diplomacy makes three figures, but the only real excitement comes from Technology overtaking Team America. Obamarama is thin on the ground at the moment. On the drivers' front, Government Spending hits the 200 mark, while Syria makes three figures, overtaking Banking & Markets and firmly establishing itself as a big story in the process. There's movement in the Phone Hacking scandal, and Afghanistan continues its steady and inevitable creep up the chart. Nothing drops out of the top 15 this week, but now only the New Year Floods have a score of less than 50. One suspects they will not have much longer in our presence.

3rd June

No points at all for our top three drivers this week. Football, however, goes from strength to strength, thanks in no small part to Sepp Blatter and chums at FIFA, and the hardly surprising result of the leadership election they held. Last year's second place finisher, Afghanistan, at last finds its place in the table, albeit at the bottom. The FIFA story in its own right is only 3pts shy of the board. Maybe we should think about re-splitting Football, but we shall be leaving such decisions till the end of the month when we will be reappraising everything to make sure that our categories are sensible and appropriate. Taxonomy is a tricky business at times.
Meanwhile, in the constructors' championship, things are a little more fluid: Eurasia retakes Politics thanks to a range of stories, not least Mladic and the further repercussions of the Arab Spring; Sport slips past Disaster what with all things Sepptic; some nasty nursing and maligned cucumbers have allowed Health to conquer Terror, and Art retakes Diplomacy, mainly because Gil Scott-Heron timed his death for the weekend and consequently managed 4pts for third billing.

27th May

The Ivory Coast slips off the bottom of the drivers' championship and all is forgotten. Syria falls a place too. Instead, our attention turns to the much more important subject of Mister Ryan Giggs and his Injunction woes, new in at number 12. Movement too in the constructors', with Obama's European tour helping Diplomacy up a notch, and an Icelandic volcano lifting Environment (& Travel) two places. Last year, in our trial run, the Ash Cloud story took an early lead, ultimately finishing in 16th place. It is unlikely to do quite so well this time round.
And so we come to the end of May. It's the first month since January where no one story has particularly run away with the agenda and clocked up a three-figure score. Libya managed only 40pts, it's lowest since it entered, and only 2pts above Football. 2pts more and we reach the Injunctions story and a further 4pts above that is the untimely demise of Osama Bin Laden. Top constructor for the first time was Team Justice, thanks to a number of on-going trials and inquests. It finished 12pts clear of Politics F1, despite an Election and a couple of scandals.

20th May

This week's main story, the arrest of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was a hard one to categorize. We initially considered it one for Team Justice, but we normally limit that constructor to British drivers, and while rape was at the centre of the case, it was more a story born of the political scandal aspect than of the criminality. Economics was considered, but the weight of the story seemed less on the IMF and more on Strauss-Kahn's political ambitions in France. Perhaps Eurasia Racing then? That would normally be the default for a French political scandal, but this story seemed more wide-reaching than that. For a moment we dallied with Diplomacy as a fudge, before settling on Politics (and its sub-category in our database of 'Political Scandal') as the most fitting team. Had we gone for Eurasia Racing, they would've retaken Politics F1 in the constructors' championship. We didn't and so there is no movement in that particular chart. There's not a great deal going on in the drivers' championship either, although Egypt has at last succumbed to Government Spending & Taxation. Libya only managed 7pts this week, though that's 5pts more than last week. It still rather suggests that that particular story has outstayed its welcome somewhat.

13th May

This week's winning driver was, perhaps a little surprisingly, Football, helped in part by the latest Triesman anecdotes hitting the fan. It means that Football is now in an impressive 6th place in the overall championship, and looks poised to easily take the Japan Earthquake in the coming weeks. The NHS was this week's other big winner, with the Lansley football getting a good booting about the place in the aftermath of the local elections. Osama makes a doubtless brief entry into the top 15 in a week when C4N decided it had had quite enough of all things 'Arab Spring': Libya managed only two points, and Syria one (effectively for the same story: a comparison of the two situations that went out on Monday night). The people of Syria's loss is domestic Politics' gain, with Politics F1 capturing fourth place from the Eurasia Racing team in the constructors' championship. But despite a relatively Libya-less week, Racing Africa remains an impressive 315 points clear at the top of the leaderboard.

6th May

Poor old Syria: the 'Arab Spring' is soooo two months ago. Closer to home, despite an election, Politics was down on last week, but then Thursday's radio-silence can hardly help in that regard. Well, that and the fact that the week has been largely dominated by the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, his death boosting Team Terror two places in the constructors' championship. Meanwhile, the leader of the drivers' championship at the very start of the season, the Jo Yeates murder, began its way through the courts and hence gained a couple more places in that chart. Another death: that of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests last year, is this week's token 15th placer. All quite depressing really.

29th April

Were we following a popular news programme, this week's figures may well have come out a little different. As it was, the Royal Wedding managed only fourth place, trumped by Libya, Syria and the difficulties in holding together a Coalition come election time. The latter two of these even managed to claw their way into the top 15 of the Drivers' Championship: the only activity in our main charts today. Syria is now bigger than Tunisia but needs another 100 points before it can take Egypt. Meanwhile, it being the end of the month, there's the monthly chart to explore. Libya tops this for the second month in a row, and Racing Africa for the third month. April has also been the first Disaster free month, at least from the top-12 perspective (the team managed only 7pts). Environment GP and Education F1 make the monthly top-12 for the first time this year. Domestic Economy is the only driver to have appeared in the top-12s for all four months.

22nd April

A slightly freaky week, perhaps with Easter holidays toying with the editorial staff. Some lacklustre performances by some of the main drivers, though Libya have broken the 400 mark and are building up an impressive lead as we reach the end of the first third of the year. Most of the top 15 are untouched, however, and the only movement comes from the continued descent of Tunisia. Egypt better be careful too, as Government Spending is hot on its heels.
There's a similar lack of movement in the constructors' competition: the stupidly big Eurasia Racing retakes 4th place from Politics F1, but whilever Racing Africa are uptop I feel no need to break Eurasia up into its two halves. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pile, Environment GP, or to give it its full name, Environment & Travel GP, gained a modest haul this week thanks to the M1 being partially closed near That London. The bank holidays also helped a tad. Education F1 managed to pick up some points, but not enough to keep it slumping back to last place in the Constructors' Championship.

15th April

There's some significant movement in the Drivers' Championship this week, with Bahrain slipping out of the Top 15 to make way for returning veteran driver Irish Terrorism. Banking & Markets is the highest placed of four drivers rising two places. The other three are the NHS, the Ivorian Crisis and the Phone Hacking Scandal, the new legs of the latter helping Politics F1 rise two places in the Constructors' Championship. As mentioned before, the Phone Hacking Scandal is classified as Politics rather than Justice or Arts (which incorporates most Media stories) because it first entered this competition as a political scandal centred on then Downing Street press secretary Andy Coulson. Perhaps this is a flaw in our system. The only other riser in the Constructors' is the minnow Education F1, narrowly gaining the smallest nose over its chief rival this year, Environment GP. The categorization process is a shady one even here: should the Oxford Race Row story count as Education or Politics? We settled for the former.

8th April

The Ivorian Crisis kicked off at the end of last November. One day last December it made second billing with demands for the UN to withdraw from the country. In January there were a couple of stories (Grounds for optimism (5th place); Refugees fleeing to Liberia (3rd)). Since then the story has failed to register, with other parts of Africa being much more interesting. That was until April 1st, when it was suddenly realised that things were starting to come to a climax. This perhaps matched the prevailing trend for Afro-Arabian revolution, so we finally got to follow a world where GB is an acceptable start to a surname. La Côte d'Ivoire was not the biggest story of the week, though. The biggest story of the week was the return of Irish Terrorism in the form of a sandwich-box full of semtex stuck under a Catholic cop's car. There were 7pts for the subject last year so this represents something of an escalation. Almost as covered as the Ivory Coast this week was the NHS: principally all things Lansley. For a government that promised not to touch the NHS, they're doing a bloody good job of threatening to touch the NHS, albeit while taking this natural break in the legislative process to consult with humanity. A point behind the NHS was good old Libya. Naturally enough, this week (the third week of interventions) mainly consisted of friendly-fire stories. Such is war.
Three risers in the constructors' championship is an unusual amount of movement. Events in Afghanistan and Portugal help Eurasia Racing to overcome the shaky foundations of a troubled Japan and Scuderia Disaster, while troubles in Northern Ireland allow Team Terror to move up two places. All things Lansley see GP Health rise in the constructors and allow the NHS to at last make an appearance in the drivers' championship (along with the Ivory Coast). Football rises, thanks to young master Rooney's fruitful riposte to a mis-heard cameraman, while Cricket drops out of the top 15. The other riser in the drivers' chart is the Phone Hacking Scandal, where Murdoch has finally surrendered: the News of the World admitting to having been a terrible fibber over the last few years. Expect the fall-out of this story to last at least the weekend (during which the NOTW will be publishing its apology). In the meantime, there is a horse-race to worry about.