← 11 Nov Thursday 12 November 2020 · to 23:59 UTC 13 Nov →
What the world's news said happened to people.
Counts of coverage, not of suffering
10,564 stories about harm· Trends· Every past day

We measure how the world's news covered people being harmed — and the help and hope within it.

How to read these numbers →

Most of the day's attention went to flooding in Ethiopia, the typhoon in the Philippines and drownings in Libya. Ethiopia's coverage was about twice as angry as the world's. Over the whole world, the tone was much softer than usual.

Help and hope: reports of vaccination ran at about twice the usual rate →
Part of lifeHealth 61 in 100 of the stories about harm · more than usual Country that rose mostPhilippines 66 in 100 of its 314 stories, usually 41
RegionSoutheast Asia 41 in 100 of its stories, usually 34
Tone of the words Much softer than usual across the world's stories about harm

What the world's news was about today

how these are picked →
Conflict & violence

Ethiopia

73 of its 111 stories (66%) were about people being harmed, usually 43%. Tigray accounted for 57 of Ethiopia's 73 stories about harm, carried by 72 outlets. Reports of refugees ran at about 4 times the usual rate (17 stories). Flooding was named in 15 of its stories about harm, about 4 times usual. Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.

Disasters & accidents

Philippines

207 of its 314 stories (66%) were about people being harmed, usually 41%. Manila accounted for 90 of the Philippines' 207 stories about harm, carried by 68 outlets. Reports of evacuations ran at more than ten times the usual rate (21 stories). Typhoon was named in 157 of its stories about harm, more than ten times usual, with flooding, cyclone and storms.

Health

Libya

45 of its 70 stories (64%) were about people being harmed, usually 44%. Reports of refugees ran at about twice the usual rate (5 stories). Drownings were named in 10 of its stories about harm, about 6 times usual. Its coverage was about twice as grief-stricken as the world's.

Protests & strikes

Nigeria

192 of its 466 stories (41%) were about people being harmed, usually 34%. 22 of Lagos' 43 stories were about protests or strikes. Its coverage was about one and a half times as angry as the world's. Fear in its coverage rose to about one and a half times its own usual.

6 more places the news pointed at
Conflict & violence

Saudi Arabia

89 of its 142 stories (63%) were about people being harmed, usually 35%. Jeddah accounted for 42 of Saudi Arabia's 89 stories about harm, carried by 46 outlets. Reports of people injured ran at about 9 times the usual rate (34 stories). Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.

Health

New Zealand

78 of its 262 stories (30%) were about people being harmed, usually 22%. Reports of arrests ran at about twice the usual rate (8 stories). Flu was named in 12 of its stories about harm, about 8 times usual.

Protests & strikes

Armenia

12 of Yerevan's 16 stories were about protests or strikes. Reports of arrests ran at about three times the usual rate (5 stories). Its coverage was about one and a half times as angry as the world's.

Health

Italy

79 of its 218 stories (36%) were about people being harmed, usually 24%. Reports of arrests ran at about twice the usual rate (5 stories).

Conflict & violence

Austria

18 of its 41 stories (44%) were about people being harmed, usually 26%. Its coverage was about one and a half times as fearful as the world's.

Protests & strikes

Bahrain

20 of its 50 stories (40%) were about people being harmed, usually 26%. 5 of Manama's 8 stories were about protests or strikes.

Also named far more than usual: flu in New Zealand (12 of its stories, about 8 times its usual); helicopter crash in Israel (13 of its stories, more than ten times its usual); ebola in US (90 of its stories, about 7 times its usual); flu in India (11 of its stories, about 4 times its usual); bird flu in UK (10 of its stories, more than ten times its usual).

26 in 100 stories were about harm

usually 26; 25 the day before
29 in 10023 in 10021 Sep28 Sep6 Oct15 Oct12 Nov21 Sep: 26 in 10022 Sep: 26 in 10023 Sep: 26 in 10024 Sep: 26 in 10025 Sep: 26 in 10026 Sep: 28 in 10027 Sep: 27 in 10028 Sep: 25 in 10029 Sep: 25 in 10030 Sep: 26 in 1001 Oct: 26 in 1002 Oct: 28 in 1003 Oct: 29 in 1005 Oct: 27 in 1006 Oct: 27 in 1007 Oct: 26 in 1009 Oct: 28 in 10010 Oct: 28 in 10011 Oct: 29 in 10012 Oct: 27 in 10014 Oct: 26 in 10015 Oct: 25 in 10018 Oct: 29 in 10019 Oct: 26 in 10022 Oct: 25 in 10023 Oct: 27 in 10027 Oct: 26 in 1005 Nov: 23 in 10011 Nov: 25 in 10012 Nov: 26 in 100 · this day

Stories about people being harmed, in every 100 stories, the 30 days to 12 Nov. The big dot is this day; the shaded band is a normal day (the 30 days before it). Click a day to open it. Based on 10,564 stories about harm among 40,226 counted on 12 Nov.

Read the day's briefing

Reports of vaccination, a sign of help, ran at about twice the usual rate. 26 in every 100 of the day's 40,226 news stories were about people being harmed, as usual. On 13 November 2019, a year earlier, the share was 17 in every 100, against 26 today. Ethiopia stood out: 66% of its news was about people being harmed, usually 43%.

Written by code from the day's numbers.

Where it happened

feelings in full →
Feelings Events Harm Warmth
Cabo Delgado, Mozambique -- attacks & violence: 7 stories, carried by 7 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire -- attacks & violence: 6 stories, carried by 8 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Ghormach, Afghanistan -- attacks & violence: 5 stories, carried by 7 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Vienna, Austria -- attacks & violence: 12 stories, carried by 11 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong -- protests & strikes: 7 stories, carried by 8 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt -- people displaced: 6 stories, carried by 16 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Minsk, Belarus -- protests & strikes: 13 stories, carried by 11 outlets; harsh wording in 92 in 100Manama, Bahrain -- protests & strikes: 8 stories, carried by 16 outlets; harsh wording in 88 in 100Yerevan, Armenia -- protests & strikes: 16 stories, carried by 13 outlets; harsh wording in 94 in 100Lima, Peru -- protests & strikes: 11 stories, carried by 23 outlets; harsh wording in 82 in 100Auckland, New Zealand -- disease & outbreaks: 19 stories, carried by 14 outlets; harsh wording in 95 in 100Lagos, Nigeria -- protests & strikes: 43 stories, carried by 27 outlets; harsh wording in 81 in 100Karabakh, Russia -- protests & strikes: 8 stories, carried by 15 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Harare, Zimbabwe -- protests & strikes: 14 stories, carried by 25 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Warsaw, Poland -- protests & strikes: 10 stories, carried by 21 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- attacks & violence: 24 stories, carried by 37 outlets; harsh wording in 88 in 100Fort Hood, US -- attacks & violence: 26 stories, carried by 29 outlets; harsh wording in 96 in 100Philippine, Philippines -- accidents & disasters: 72 stories, carried by 37 outlets; harsh wording in 83 in 100Tigray, Ethiopia -- attacks & violence: 57 stories, carried by 72 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Jeddah, Saudi Arabia -- attacks & violence: 42 stories, carried by 46 outlets; harsh wording in 98 in 100Kabul, Afghanistan -- attacks & violence: 29 stories, carried by 53 outlets; harsh wording in 93 in 100Damascus, Syria -- people displaced: 15 stories, carried by 63 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Manila, Philippines -- accidents & disasters: 90 stories, carried by 68 outlets; harsh wording in 86 in 100Tampa, US -- accidents & disasters: 81 stories, carried by 208 outlets; harsh wording in 90 in 100
Attacks & violenceAccidents & disastersPeople displacedDeaths, cause not givenProtests & strikesDisease & outbreaks

The day's biggest events: attacks, accidents and disasters, people displaced, protests, outbreaks. Bigger dot: more stories. Ranked by the share of the day's outlets that reported it and how clearly it was about one thing, the same way for every place and year; the news data does not say who attacked whom, so both sides of a war appear where the news put them. Click a dot for its stories.

The day in three measures

How it felt 30 days →

harshwarm

The words in the day's stories were much softer than usual. Filled dot: today. Ring: usual.

● Angera little less than usual
● Warmthabout as usual
● Griefabout as usual
● Fearabout as usual

From the words reporters used across the whole day, never one story. Fear is the weakest of the four measures. How?

The weekly briefing · 19 Oct – 25 Oct

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How to read these numbers →

These are counts of stories, not counts of suffering. Most of what happens to people is never reported at all.