We measure how the world's news covered people being harmed — and the help and hope within it.
52 of its 78 stories (67%) were about people being harmed, usually 32%. Tripoli accounted for 32 of Libya's 52 stories about harm, carried by 128 outlets. Reports of people killed ran at about three times the usual rate (43 stories). Its coverage was about one and a half times as grief-stricken as the world's.
133 of its 184 stories (72%) were about people being harmed, usually 31%. Reports of evacuations ran at more than ten times the usual rate (27 stories). Flooding was named in 56 of its stories about harm, about 4 times usual, with landslides, storms and storm surge.
96 of its 191 stories (50%) were about people being harmed, usually 29%. Reports of people killed ran at about three times the usual rate (62 stories). Its coverage was about twice as grief-stricken as the world's.
539 of its 1,309 stories (41%) were about people being harmed, usually 36%. Reports of abductions ran at about three times the usual rate (195 stories). Its coverage was about one and a half times as angry as the world's.
47 of its 119 stories (39%) were about people being harmed, usually 22%. Bucharest accounted for 31 of Romania's 47 stories about harm, carried by 8 outlets. Reports of people injured ran at about 8 times the usual rate (15 stories).
Reports of abductions ran at about 6 times the usual rate (5 stories). Poisoning was named in 81 of its stories about harm, about 7 times usual. Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.
Kabul accounted for 54 of Afghanistan's 88 stories about harm, carried by 259 outlets. Reports of refugees ran at about twice the usual rate (7 stories). Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.
15 of its 21 stories (71%) were about people being harmed, usually 29%. Reports of people affected ran at about three times the usual rate (5 stories).
55 of its 129 stories (43%) were about people being harmed, usually 34%. Its coverage was about twice as fearful as the world's.
31 of its 113 stories (27%) were about people being harmed, usually 19%. Reports of refugees ran at about 7 times the usual rate (8 stories).
Also named far more than usual: poisoning in Russia (81 of its stories, about 7 times its usual); snowstorms in US (352 of its stories, about 7 times its usual); hunger in India (27 of its stories, about 5 times its usual); train derailment in Canada (12 of its stories, more than ten times its usual); rabies in UK (13 of its stories, about 8 times its usual).
Stories about people being harmed, in every 100 stories, the 30 days to 17 Dec. 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 25,220 stories about harm among 100,331 counted on 17 Dec.
Reports of abductions ran at about twice the usual rate, most often about Nigeria and the US. Stories about people being harmed made up 25 in every 100 of the day's 100,331 stories, as usual. Mentions of flooding ran about 4 times their usual in Fiji's news. In Libya, 67% of the news was about people being harmed, where 32% is usual. A year earlier, on 18 December 2019, 17 in every 100 stories were about people being harmed, against 25 today.
Written by code from the day's numbers.
Countries with at least 50 stories that day.
Stories, not people.
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.
Of the stories about people being harmed, what part of life each was about. The mark is usual.
Stories that report it, not people: we count what reporters wrote, not what happened.
The words in the day's stories were much softer than usual. Filled dot: today. Ring: usual.
From the words reporters used across the whole day, never one story. Fear is the weakest of the four measures. How?
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