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Attracting Attention for the Cause. The Reporting of Three Indices in the UK National Press

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Abstract

Indicators and indices (a collection of indicators into a single value) have been promoted for some time as convenient devices for the presentation of complex datasets to a more general audience. Examples of indices are the corruption perception index (CPI), human development index (HDI) and ecological footprint (EF). The research reported in this paper was designed to explore the extent to which the CPI, HDI and EF have been reported in UK national newspapers between January 1990 and December 2009, and whether there are differences between the indices in the pattern of reporting. Results suggest that reporting of the CPI was linked to the timing of reports issued by Transparency International. The same was partly true of reporting of the HDI and timing of release of Human Development Reports s by the UNDP. The EF has more reports than the CPI and HDI, and this is related in part to its greater flexibility and adaptability at more local (intra-UK) scales. The paper recommends that those creating such indices look beyond the methodological dimension and consider how best to make the index resonate with the media.

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Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement no 217207 (POINT project, www.point.pb-works.com). The author would like to thank all of his colleagues in POINT for providing support but especially Tom Bauler, Lea Sebastien and Lars Petersen.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Reading, PO Box 227, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK

    Stephen Morse

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  1. Stephen Morse
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Correspondence to Stephen Morse.

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Morse, S. Attracting Attention for the Cause. The Reporting of Three Indices in the UK National Press. Soc Indic Res 101, 17–35 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9660-1

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