On 27 July, media outlets informed their readers about the American Jewish leaders and families of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered during the Olympic Games in 1972 in Munich, Germany (245 mentions). The widows asked those attending the Opening Ceremony to stand in silence when International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge would speak. The International Olympic Committee responded saying that it would honour the slain athletes at a ceremony in September for the 40^th anniversary, but not during the Opening Ceremony. Israel’s sports minister threatened to stage a protest during the Opening ceremony to condemn the IOC’s decision not to hold a moment of silence.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, the most covered news stories on the Closing Ceremony were related to the British music during the ceremony (109 mentions), with George Michael (73 mentions) taking the lead by the British media. Media outlets highlighted the ceremony’s intention to give the best of British music and humour for every taste to the audience. The US outlets, on the other hand, mostly reported negatively on NBC’s decision to cut early from the Closing Ceremony to air a new TV show (231 mentions).

But what topics was Twitter associated with in the media? Compared to the previous Olympic Games, Twitter has been an important channel for information and discussion. The media referred to Twitter in connection with Athletes and Security most frequently, especially just before, during and after the Opening Ceremony.

A propos Twitter, an analysis showed that Twitter coverage on the Olympic Games 2012 actually dropped over time, as reflected in the chart below.

The Opening Ceremony was widely reported on by the traditional and social media, and the amount of coverage was closely matched with 6,973 mentions in traditional media with 5,951 in social media.  However it is quite interesting to see that at the same time, the media was actually more focused on the athletes, although no particular story drove the coverage when it peaked on 27 July.

Also, a favourability analysis shows that the tonality of the media coverage on the Opening Ceremony was consistent in both media types.

Negative stories in both social and target media included the empty seats during a few of the games, news coverage on 182 activists on bicycles trying to break the Olympic Park’s security cordon and the Open Ceremony NHS’ dancing nurses described as “bizarre”.

Danny Boyle’s Open Ceremony, in particular The Queen’s own performance, was generally well received by the audience; receiving thus positive mentions.

Trending Twitter topics, which more traditional media has honed in, on include criticism of NBC for the delayed broadcasting of events to primetime. Whether satellite stations would have had it any other way , interestingly, has not made a significant impact on the discussion. Having said that,  stories covering NBC and what is being tweeted seems to be rising again (see the following trend line chat below). Equally damning of both NBC and Twitter is their agreement making Twitter the official narrator of the Olympics, and in nearly the same breadth Guy Adams, The Independent’s Los Angeles correspondent, having his Twitter account blocked when he posted a colourful tweet complaining of NBC’s choice to favour revenues rather than journalistic integrity, “The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel,..” referring to the delay of the Opening Ceremony.

Athletes have embraced Twitter in some cased for the first time as an avenue to communicate with their nation and their fans.  Messages of thanks for support and apologies for not capturing a medal for their country are interspersed with cries of support and enthusiasm from the public.   There are lessons to be learned as well , a 17-year-old (@rileyy_69) was recently arrested after sending a malicious tweet to Olympic diver, Tom Daley following his failure to achieve a medal during the final.  Tom chose to re-tweet the comment which increased his support.

These are but two examples that sit within a larger set of coverage in the more traditional media. Both print and web/social media are looking to Twitter to guide what interests the reader. And, in many cases the reader is the driving force.

As the first two share of voice charts show, comparing all WorldWide Olympic Partners between 1 and 23 of July, McDonald’s and Coca Cola were the frontrunners in both traditional and social media overall. However, taking a closer look, P&G – as the third share of voice charts illustrates – took 48% of the Twitter coverage during the same reporting period. McDonald’s and Coca Cola garnered 27% and 11% respectively. This is a bit unexpected as the Twitter sphere generally follows the trend shown in the traditional and overall social media space.

P&G’s global advertisement, “Kids”, received hundreds of tweets on 12 July, which explains the reason why P&G predominantly appeared on Twitter. The microblog’s community tweeted an article published by The Washington Post (11 July), which was originally written by AP. Dow Jones Insight Twitter sample showed the high peak on 12 July, reflected in the trend chart below. Although the Twitter community proactively tweeted The Washington Post’s article, little commentary was added. Thus, the Dow Jones Insight Favorability trend chart below shows a neutral or balanced score.

According to The Washington Post, although the commercial was praised by the media and described as touching and moving, a number of media outlets highlighted that the company has started to allegedly lose ground to fierce competitors such as Unilever. Moreover, P&G has started to shift its attention to less saturated markets since growth in the U.S. and other mature markets has slowed down. The uncertainty about the overall global economy coupled with high costs for commodities, such as fuel and packaging, has led the company’s net income to fall 16% and its overall market share slip 0.2 points. Despite the tough economic conditions, P&G expects the campaign to drive $500 million in sales. If this proves to be true, then the company truly deserves the gold medal for Olympic marketing. (The Washington Post, 11 July).

In practical terms, IPv6 (Internet provider version 6) was created to deal with the long anticipated problem of IPv4 running out of addresses. These addresses are public, individual and unique, like a phone number. Since 1983 all connected machines recognize each other through these IPv4 addresses (the old version). They are coded in such a manner that “only” 4.3 billion addresses exist. When the current system was invented, nobody imagined that we would ever run out, but with the explosion in the number of devices that connect to the Internet it became necessary to enlarge the net… just to be sure that tomorrow´s fridges would be able to be connected.

With the IPv6 it would be possible to have an infinite number of IP addresses: 3.4 x 10³⁸ , so about 667 000 addresses on every square millimeter of the Earth´s surface, or if we prefer looking at the sky, an entire IPv4 internet for every star in the universe.

Since the 6^th of July, the IPv4 and the IPv6 addresses have been recognized by most of web big players and we are heading towards the generalisation of IPv6. The progressive migration will take an unknown number of years and the mainstream users will see no difference.

Let´s have a look on how this huge change was reflected in the media.

Now within this (not so) new scenario, one could think the classical press release lost its purpose. Apparently corporations are not convinced. In our media research tool, Factiva, we carry a significant number of press release wires. A study based on the number of releases shows us the following trend:

At year-end 2009, one could have concluded that we were watching the decline of a tool that doesn’t fit the current corporate communication model. Nevertheless, that trend seems to be reversed in the last three years with 2012 looking to become a record year.

Although volumes are back up, the use of a press release has changed and has become one of many instruments to drive traffic back to main communication channels. A small example: on July 1st, AT&T announced it reached an agreement with AMC Networks to keep carrying the network in its U-verse TV service. AT&T distributed the news through PR Newswire and other press release wires. The release contained links to its corporate website as well as its Twitter account. This linked back to a dedicated website on the dispute. AMC’s release on the same issue contained no such internal links. In the last day, the release from AT&T was immediately used as the basis of 19 news stories while AMC’s version only led to 4 news stories. Press releases still play a valuable role as long as they are designed to accommodate today’s channels of information. Now, we want to hear from you- do you think the usage of press releases will rise or decline in 2012?

Koen Platteeuw is a Media Consultant at Dow Jones and has worked for more than 10 years in a variety of Media Research roles. He works closely with clients in the pharmaceutical, food and agricultural, chemicals as well as the transportation and logistics industries. Koen is accredited by the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and holds a post graduate degree in Digital Journalism from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

The ban could not have come at a worse time for the beverage industry, as soda consumption has already witnessed a sharp decline over the last ten years. Meanwhile, the industry has had to grapple with a steady stream of negative messages in the media signaling that sugary beverages are a key driver of the obesity crisis, thus contributing to rising health care costs. This presents a serious risk for Coke and Pepsi’s businesses, which rely heavily on their flagship brands.

Coca-Cola was quick to engage its public relations machine to reframe the debate, highlighting that over the last decade, while obesity was rising, caloric intake from carbonated beverages was slumping, a sentiment that found placement in some prominent media outlets. What’s more, the industry’s messaging was shepherded by critics who assailed the proposal as a “nanny state” overreach of government power.

Media Analysis: Obesity Related Coverage for Coca Cola and Pepsi

Yet, despite Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s PR strategy, the beverage industry was shouted down by the media and public health experts sympathetic to the notion of a large-soda ban, much like they rally behind taxes on soda. Further, legal analysts ventured that drink makers face an uphill battle in the courts if they mount a legal challenge to obstruct the initiative.

Media Analysis: Favorability of Coca Cola and Obesity Related Coverage

While the media are decidedly behind the ban, that sentiment may not be shared by the audience. During an interview with Mayor Bloomberg on NBC’s “Today” show, anchor Matt Lauer revealed an online poll that found 83% of respondents concluded that the ban would not solve the obesity problem.

Nevertheless, the beverage behemoths will likely have to operate in a media environment that blames sugary sodas for the U.S.’s rising obesity rates. 

For more background, read The Wall Street Journal Story, “Sugar Ban Stirs Up New York”

The dominant issue since late May has been jobs and employment.  A key driver of coverage was the Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report, released on June 1. The release resulted in a large spike in coverage, as both President Obama and Romney commented on the report, and it’s likely that subsequent reports will draw significant pick-up during the rest of the campaign.  A second spike in jobs coverage occurred during mid- June when both candidates visited the battleground state of Ohio to promote their visions for creating new jobs.   

At the other end of the spectrum is the relatively light volume of coverage since late May for issues such as immigration, taxes and health care, which played central roles in recent presidential and congressional campaigns.  The low volume of health care coverage has been particularly surprising, since the Affordable Care Act has been a much debated component of Obama’s legislative initiatives, and Romney’s health care program was a centerpiece of his term as governor of Massachusetts.  It’s worth noting, however, that this issue will likely gain significant traction after the Supreme Court rules on key components of the Affordable Care Act this summer.

Social media results have generally mirrored traditional media for coverage of jobs, taxes and health care.  This indicates that the candidates’ campaigns or the government’s scheduled economic reports are driving the discussions and setting the agenda for traditional media coverage and conversations in social media.

Traditional and Social Media Analysis of Presidential Campaign Issues: Jobs, Taxes and Health Care