The website themediaonline.co.za reports that despite it being Madiba’s 95th birthday the world media seemed to have lost interest in the anti-Apartheid icon.,
themediaonline.co.za quotes research conducted by Media Tenor about the coverage of his hospitalization. By the time of his 95th birthday in Mandela Day on 18 July, most media had lost interest, with the awareness threshold dropping to below 1% in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Australia and China. In the UK, Canada and the US it was under 1.5%.
In South Africa, the awareness threshold was between 5% and 6%.
These research is based on an analysis of 1,010 reports in 26 global TV news broadcasts across 12 countries.
Media Tenor SA senior researcher Stephano Radaelli said in the report that they would have expected local media to keep focusing on the former statesman going into July given that this has always been a topical month for Mandela.
“In addition, our research suggests that South Africans would feel that the news in the past two months has only been focusing on Nelson Mandela and his family… We also believe that many people in some parts of Europe are wondering what happened to Nelson Mandela given that the last news they would remember hearing is that his health was critical.”
As soon as information on Mandela’s health became staid, many countries stopped reporting on his condition, he said.
