Turning News Into Knowledge

Undoubtedly if you’ve been following the Olympics (or you know, not living under a rock) you’ve heard about the red mittens. The absolute must-have accessory for the 2010 Vancouver games that have been selling out across the country since they were released…

Last week, MediaMiser released a report that looked at some of the fun aspects of the pre-Olympics media coverage. One such topic was those red mittens. While it was no surprise they received a good amount of media coverage, we were shocked to learn they aren’t just being talked about in Canada, but in fact, the top-three news outlets talking about the mittens were all US-based.

While we’re working on a follow-up report (watch for its release first week of March), using our Twitter Analysis tool, I noticed that chatter about the mittens skyrocketed on Feb. 13 and again on the 16th. While the spike on the 13th likely had to do with timing – the first full day of the Olympics, everyone was wearing the mittens, etc., I set out find what triggered the second spike on the 16th…

Image from USA Today article

The top mentioned link about the mittens on Twitter that day was an article in USA Today. Yep, another major US publication. In fact, none of the top links were by Canadian mass media-the majority were (Canadian) blogs hosting mitten giveaways, actually. The USA Today article even mentions the mittens are the “gotta-have souvenir” of the games and features a photo of Vice-President Joe Biden sporting a pair.

According to the article, mitten retailer, the Bay, had originally projected selling 1-million pairs of the mittens, and now anticipates 3.4-million total.

Pretty neat, eh?

Download our preliminary Olympics Report

How the Media Sees It: A fun look at the 2010 Olympics. MediaMiser analyzes the fun side of the pre-Olympic Coverage. Download now!

 

 

As we get down to the short strokes and anticipation builds, the question is, who will light the Olympic Cauldron?

Chances are, this decision was made long ago and it’s one of the best kept secrets of these Olympic games.

Speculation has run rampant in both traditional and social media. A poll conducted Feb 1-2 by Angus Reid and commissioned by TSN and the Globe and Mail, found the most popular choice to light the cauldron was hockey great Wayne Gretzky at 25 per cent. Paraplegic athlete Rick Hansen was next at 17per cent, followed by Cindy Klassen and then Nancy Greene.

Betty Fox, mother of National hero Terry Fox, was 6th at 10 per cent.  Recently, however, there has been a big push through social media for Betty Fox to light the cauldron. A group created on Facebook urging organizers to pick Betty Fox has nearly 120,000 members and support on Twitter is growing.

So why was Betty Fox 10 per cent in the survey if there is such an outpouring of support on Facebook and Twitter?

Well, first it’s important to note that Betty Fox was 24 per cent in her home province of BC. Also, the survey was done at the beginning of the month and support for her has recently started to take root.

Therefore, the issue seems to be that Betty Fox and her son Terry, have just recently started to creep back into our National consciousness.

During the month of January, leading up to the poll, Betty Fox received less than 2 per cent of the new coverage Gretzky received. However, during this time the lighting of the cauldron was also the furthest thing from the media’s focus. Of all stories that dealt with Betty Fox and Gretzky, less than 2 per cent of the combined stories focused on the lighting of cauldron.

Justifiably, the media’s focus was pointed at issues such as disaster relief in Haiti and, coincidentally, Gretzky was involved with a telethon to help provide support to Haiti. In the month of January over 25 per cent of coverage that Gretzky received was in regards to the telethon.

Also, being in the throes of hockey season and the World Juniors you don’t require analysis to see where the lion share of his other coverage went.

However, with 5 days to go until the lighting of the cauldron, all of a sudden, people and the media started to take notice and the issue has become a hot subject. During the last 5 days, Betty Fox has received 12 times the amount of coverage.

Betty Fox's print coverage for the Month of February.

In my opinion, if a poll was taken today, Betty Fox would be the overwhelming choice, because of the influence that traditional media has and the polarizing effect social media has to change opinion.

Also, the reason why most people chose Gretzky back in February was the influence of the media, simply because at the time, because of other coverage, he was more in our National consciousness. However, as we get closer to the lighting of the cauldron, people will think more of who will light it.

The decision that I believe was already made long ago, will be what most people would have ultimately chosen once they had time to discuss and think about the issue, and I believe it will be Betty Fox.

Olympic fever is in full swing with the opening ceremonies happening tomorrow. Here at MediaMiser, we thought it’d be fun to analyze the media coverage leading up to the games and take a look at some of the lighter issues. Here’s a taste from the executive summary:

We spent the month of January examining the lighter side of pre-Olympic coverage. Much of the information gathered and analyzed has been assembled in this report to create a fun look at the following areas:

• “Truthiness” and the Olympics
• The Olympic red mittens
• The media’s favourite Olympic sport
• Top six “hyped” hockey teams
• Olympics in the blogosphere
• Olympic Tweets

Some of the findings were surprising. For example, Canada isn’t the country whose media wrote most about our ubiquitous red mittens. However, it should come as no shock to anyone that the Olympic sport covered most by online media was hockey.

And here’s a sample chart, showing the top-10 talked-about sports:

Download the whole report free here. Have a look and let us know what you think.