The most talked about person in TV, radio and print news for 2007, excluding politicans, was Paris Hilton, according to a survey by a Canadian communications company.
Socialite heiress Hilton came above the Queen as the personality with the most coverage in a survey of 632 million news items across 120 countries carried out by Influence Communications.
Presenting the findings at this year’s News Xchange broadcast news conference in Berlin, Influence Communications president, Jean-Francois Dumas, said the story of Hilton’s jail time was the 13th biggest story of the year so far.
The survey found that the story that recieved the most coverage worldwide was the war in Iraq. U:S stories dominated the news agenda worldwide, making up 33 per cent of coverage. George W. Bush leads the world leaders in terms of news coverage over the period.
The top ten is dominated by political events such as Tony Blair’s exit from office with the exception of Harry Potter’s final instalment.
The survey covered the period between January and mid-September 2007.
Results were collerated by aggregating the number of minutes devoted to each item on every outlet across radio, TV and print.
The top 15 news stories were:
1. War in Iraq
2. US 2008 presidential elections
3. Iran nuclear threat
4. War on Taliban
5. Blair’s exit from office
6. Virginia Tech shootings
7. Harry Potter, the final book
8. French general elections
9. G8 summit
10. Execution of Saddam Hussein
11. iPhone launch
12. Madeleine McCann’s disappearance
13. Paris Hilton in jail
14. Mattel recalls toys
15. Madonna’s adoption problems
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