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12/3 Screen behind studio guest
VRT TV NEWS (7 o'clock)
Central screen with daily numbers
Graphs February – April 2020
Dear viewer, if you have watched the 7 o'clock TV news on VRT during March and April of 2020, you know that Covid-19-related numbers were mentioned daily. Sometimes the numbers were even presented as graphs! We wanted to do something in return, so we put these broadcasts into 4 graphs.* SYLVIA WENMACKERS
The start of the Belgian lockdown on the 13th of March 2020 is clearly visible in these graphs. For instance, the number of news items decreased …
… while their duration increased. Covid-19 was underreported during the weekends, so this graph shows a pronounced weekend effect.
Total number of items in the TV news
Duration of the news in minutes
25
70
13-3-2020
65 20
60
15
50
10
40
5
30
15-4-2020
27-3-2020
55 45 35
0
25
13-3-2020 3/2
10/
17/
24/
2
2
2/3
2
9/3
16/ 3
23/ 3
30
/3
6/4
13/ 4
20
/4
20
27/ 4
The percentage of items on Covid-19 reached 100% on the 13th of March and this happened more than ten times after that day. At least this indicator could not get any worse.
3/2
17/
24/
2
2
2/3
2
9/3
16/ 3
23/ 3
30
6/4
/3
13/ 4
20
27/ 4
/4
To end appropriately, we now have to turn to sports. As this graph clearly shows, even a pandemic cannot stop the reporting on (cancelled) sports events.
Percentage of items on Covid-19
Percentage of items on sports
100%
100% 13-3-2020
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
10/
3/2
10/
2
17/
2
24/
2
2/3
9/3
16/ 3
23/ 3
30
/3
*For the labelling of the news items we relied on the VRT NU website (without correcting any errors in the indexing).
6/4
13/ 4
20
/4
0%
27/ 4
13-3-2020
3/2
10/
2
17/
2
24/
2
2/3
9/3
16/ 3
23/ 3
30
/3
6/4
13/ 4
20
/4
27/ 4
Only if we adhere strictly to all preventive measures will the duration of the news broadcast stay below the critical threshold. Thank you for watching and stay safe!
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