cern media analysis report january 2012

1 | Page

CERN Media Analysis Report January 2012

2 | Page

Table of Contents

CERN Media Analysis January Report

Executive Summary & Findings 3

Key Metrics 4

CERN coverage 5

Key Take Away Points 12

Methodology 13

Contact Details 14

Sources

● GlideIntelligence offers a view of editorials based upon a range of sources which are incorporated into each analysis.

● This report analyses all online content , and print content in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. This includes print national news media, print regional news media, print magazine and trade journals, online news sources (including online versions of print publications), blogs associated with print and online news and consumer media sources, in addition to broadcast coverage (television and radio).

● Syndicated stories are included and annotated within the GlideIntelligence system. For reporting purposes, they are included in calculations for sentiment, circulation and AVE.


3 | Page

● CERN has become the focus of public awareness about ‘big science’ experiments - but other organisations are scrambling to get their share of reflected glory

● 40 US Physicists have launched a renewed effort to lobby the US Congress for a new underground facility to go ‘beyond CERN’

● Although established outlets including the New Scientist remain skeptical about faster than light experiments and a ‘failure’ to prove the Higgs Boson, lazy photons, lepto quarks and string balls (among others), the appetite in the science and mainstream media for news includes reports that the University of Tel Aviv may have found another contradiction in Einstein’s theories - adding plausibility that CERN’s scientists may be proved right.

● The ‘CERN’ halo is being eagerly exploited by universities and scientists from across Europe (UK, Danish, French and Norwegian among them) to claim that they are contributing to the understanding of physics. Such national rivalries provoked a furious debate over which country could claim the invention of the World Wide Web (The French say it was them because the room was just inside the French border.)

● The USA is pursuing a different strategy with Brookhaven National among those making bold claims that theoretical experiments have practical (and beneficial) outcomes for the public at large.

● The decision to ‘open’ up CERN for the public to view through YouTube produced mixed reactions, with Channel 4 (UK) among those suggesting it has a ‘shabby’ appearance. CERN itself suggested that its budget was no larger than for any similar sized university – and with international benefits from its results and workers past and present.

● With the rise of ‘TV Scientists’ including Brian Cox and Jim Al-Khalili gaining more primetime slots in schedules, CERN should take care to retain its central position and develop materials suitable for mainstream audiences if it is to fully capitalise upon its successes (and retain control of the message and their factual accuracy).

Executive Summary & Findings


4 | Page

Most Observed Message:CERN continues to stay in the mainstreamthanks to its recent announcements increasingpublic interest in physics.

Most Negative Message:Though some have come forward to supportCERN’s claims at faster than light particles, there are still those that have not been swayed.

Total Volume: 1542

Very Positive: 0.97%

Positive: 3.82%

Neutral: 92.42%

Poor: 0.26%

Negative: 1.88%

Circulation: 64,905,000

AVE: €4,388,000

Key Metrics – Overall (Global)


5 | Page

2011 reviews show Higgs and FTL

particles still possible but not proven. BBC2 documentary aired on

the Higgs Boson.

Who Invented the WWW? – It was us!

claim the French

Atlas and US laboratories profiled

Higher public profile with YouTube channel

CERN Article Volume w/ Fermilab January 2012 (Global)


6 | Page

Breakdown of European Coverage January 2012 (Global)


7 | Page

Mentions by Tonality January 2012 (English Only)


8 | Page

% of Mentions by Tonality January 2012 (English Only)


9 | Page


Key Themes January 2012 (global)

10 | Page


Global Media Share January 2012 (global)

11 | Page

● “It's in the hands of God or CERN or something. Now it's make or break time. For the scientists involved, pushing the frontiers of knowledge is a roller coaster ride.... What was special about this meeting was that it would bring together data from two independent detectors at CERN.”BBC 2 ~ The Hunt for Higgs - 9th January 2012

● “Antimatter may sound like the stuff of science fiction. It’s not something the public sees from day to day life, and it’s one of the few things you can only see at CERN.” BBC 2 ~ The Hunt for Higgs - 9th January 2012

● “The answer to one of the most exciting questions in particle physics seems almost close enough to touch. Fifty years after its prediction, scientists at the Geneva research centre CERN have observed first signs of the Higgs boson and now believe that they will soon be able to prove the existence of the elementary particle they have been trying so hard to isolate. "We indeed may have observed the first evidence of the Higgs particle, but it is still too early for a definitive statement," says Professor Dr. Volker Büscher.”Scientific Computing -13th January 2012

● “Serbia's scientific community received a boost this month as the country became an associate member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). A growing opportunity for Serbian scientists as well as companies to participate in leading scientific projects opens up as Serbia become an associate member of CERN. Serbian Education and Science Minister Zarko Obradovic told SETimes that associate membership in CERN also means greater possibilities for scientists and the economy of Serbia.”Southeast European Times -17th January 2012

● “CERN is like a great cathedral of knowledge, wisdom Mecca”, he (Sonia Fernandez-Vidal) says, to equate the nuclear research centre with the Library of Alexandria, a "creative“ and austere in which he never ceased to be amazed by surrounded by so much intelligence, and in which "the luxuries conspicuous by their absence.” It is necessary to remove "fear" that the word science has on most people, says the writer.” Yahoo! -24th January 2012

Comments from Articles

CERN

12 | Page

● The CERN communications team should rightly conclude that the announcement strategy was a success given the objectives to manage expectations about the certainty of the findings, and the context required to understand the announcement at all.

● Of particular note was the scientific engagement materials referenced in the social media space which were widely taken up and re-distributed.

● Less successful was the ability to engage with mainstream media, writers, and producers, many of whom appeared to have had to create their own explanations and ‘expert opinion’ contributors (it is noteworthy that Fermilab scientists in the USA appeared more comfortable with media questions and had ‘public-friendly’ ready answers to hand in interviews. It was Fermilab’s visualisation which topped the trending on YouTube to help the public understand the Higgs boson and it was widely used in US media.)

● There are some learning points which may help bridge the gap in understanding between CERN’s scientists and its mainstream audiences in order to retain media interest in 2012 concerning Higgs results, or any other announcement.

● Drawing on the experience of other scientific announcements which gained popular understanding, through images and graphics, might offer one avenue to take the Higgs results forward. (As apposed to using a graph, or at least one which looked as ‘laboratory produced’ as the one used during the announcement). Examples include IBM’s writing its name in atoms (scanning tunneling microscope), numerous Hubble telescope images (astronomy and the cost of the project), Mandelbrot set (chaos mathematics) and even the dual-slit banding to show wave/particle duality.

● Having twice caught the general public’s attention with announcements in 2011 CERN has a unique opportunity to cement the role of ‘big science’ in a context which will retain broad public support – but it needs to demonstrate its awareness that its global audience does often not understand the language of physics and be prepared to help bridge this gap as a means to manage expectation.

Key Take Away Points

13 | Page

The determination of sentiment and message content was determined using the GlideIntelligenceTM system which applies grammar and syntax rules to allow the identification of phrases and messages including close approximations rather than keywords or simple Boolean logic. For example; the phrase “delivering shareholder value” would also return results from phrases including “will see a healthy return for shareholders”. The method can also produce results for contradictions of messages. Overall article tonality is determined by an advanced syntax mapping software model which breaks the article into component ‘sentiment’ transactions i.e.

"A controversial decision by <1|Lloyds Banking Group> to award its senior executives large bonuses has been endorsed"[+] even though "more than 10 per cent of the bank's"[-] "shareholders failed to back the plan"[-] .

"Just over 8.5 per cent of investors opposed the bank's remuneration policy at its annual meeting in <2|Edinburgh> yesterday"[-].

A further 1.5 per cent abstained.

But "the pay structure was approved by a comfortable margin"[+], "given the <3|Association of British Insurers> had issued an amber top alert"[+], "urging investors to give <3|it> careful consideration"[+].

"Investors questioned the performance criteria used by the bank's pay committee that led to senior executives being awarded bonuses of more than £5m in a year the state-backed bank recorded a £6.3bn loss"[-] .

The individual transactions (seen here in [ ] ) are aggregated using a statistical association tested on human readers to produce an overall output score (positive or negative number) which can be mapped into a scale. For Sony Europe this is a five point scale. Articles are analysed in such a way that both individual scores are produced for companies, divisions, products and topics making it possible to separate individual elements from the overall tone of an article (i.e. A negative article may contain positive mentions of Sony or its products).

Circulation is calculated using audited circulation figures for print and broadcast sources, and a statistical model based on the ‘AlexaRank’ rating system for online sources.

AVE figures are calculated for all articles based on their size and the volume of content. In the case of negative coverage there is a modified value system which can produce negative scores to show the scale of negative impact (as an equivalent to Advertising). Two values are shown; the highest figure represents a ‘best case’/’best value’ upper range, the lower figure is adjusted to look only at the value of individual transactions, impact from negative coverage and the percentage of coverage against competitors. If this value shows negative AVE it’s displayed in red.

The commentary sections in the report are produced by a combination of the GlideIntelligence automated article summaries and assessments from Glide analyst consultants.

Appendix – Methodology

14 | Page

UK Office

Glide Technologies11 Curtain RoadLondon EC2A 3LTUK

Report Consultant

David Woods-Holder

[email protected]

Account Manager

Sinthu Vijayakumar

[email protected]

Contact Details

cern media analysis report january 2012

Documents