We *know* that the UK media has become really trans-hostile over the last decade, both in the quantity and quality of news articles.
But let's have a look at the data...
There have been 21,917 articles on trans topics in the UK media since Jan 2012.
At its highest point, 1,142 articles were published in the 30 days from 27/6/2022
Note: The publications being captured are: The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, Spiked, The I, BBC, Spectator, Breitbart, The Sun, Unheard, Daily Mirror, The Express, RT, The New Statesman, The Economist, The Herald, Associated Press and Pink News.
If we exclude Pink News - the only consistently trans-positive publication - there have been 15,939 trans-neutral or trans-hostile articles published by the UK media since January 2012.
It is noticeable that articles have become more trans-hostile in more recent years.
At its highest point, in the 30 day period from the 27/6/2022 there were 1,004 trans-hostile/neutral articles in the UK media on trans topics - That equates to over 33 articles a day about a minority group that represents less than 1% of the population!
So who is publishing all of those articles on trans topics?
It's interesting to note that in previous years it was predominantly The Guardian, but in recent years, there has been a massive increase in articles by The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph.
You can easily see the shift over time of coverage of mainstream UK media on trans topics when you track in 5 year increments.
See that between 2010 - 2015 that The Guardian massively dominated - However this only totalled 320 articles in a 5 year period.
From 2015 - 2020 the UK news media masively increased the number of articles published on trans topics to 5,581 articles. Additional publishing platforms began reporting, as they saw an opportunity to get readership, clicks and ad-sales from 'outrage' reporting.
Since Jan 2020 there have been 10,101 articles published by the UK mainstream media on trans topics - that's nearly TWICE as many articles than the previous 5 years!
It's worth noting that in addition to the increase in volume, has also been an increase in hostility!
Over 38% of all (10,101) articles on trans topics in the UK media over the last 33 months have been from The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph.
Almost all articles published from UK news media are now predominantly trans-hostile in their reporting.
The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph account for 3,902 articles published on trans topics over the last 33 months from 1 Jan 2020 - This equates to:
- Over 118 articles a month
- Over 27 articles a week
- Nearly 4 articles a day
Talking about less than 1% of the UK population!
We can see that in the week of 11/7/2022 that The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph published 123 articles between them talking about trans topics!
All from massively trans-hostile news platforms.
On the 15/7/2022, The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph published 26 articles on trans topics - 11 of them by The Telegraph alone!
Not to be outdone, the following day the Daily Mail published 11 articles, and the day after that the Times published 10!
An additional interesting piece of data - there have been 224 articles on trans topics that have *also* mentioned JK Rowling, published by The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph since 1 Jan 2020 - As many as 16 articles in one week, with the Daily Mail publishing 10 of them!
Note: Data taken from bespoke @Dysphorum database, collecting, indexing and analysing written news media coverage of trans issues in the UK media. Full data corpus is from 1995 can be searched by keyword and cross-referenced...
The publications and articles captured by the @Dysphorum project represents only a small selection of the entire media coverage on trans topics. There are multiple international and specialist publications and TV coverage, along with numerous blogs, YouTube and social media posts
The Dysphorum Project intends to include additional publications over time, and to expand upon analysis functionality and depth. If you’re interested in knowing more about the @Dysporum project, or how the data can help your org in improving lives for trans people please DM them.
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