Tag Archives: Obama

The Image of FHFA Lawsuit Against 17 Banks

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Corp - Bank of America, Rep Issue - Newspapers • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 5 Comments

(Note: as Bank of America is in the news for additional mortgage related lawsuits, we put in the frontline this analysis posted before)

The precedent post showed which banks are more present in the media in relation with the multibillion lawsuit of the US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) against 17 major American and international banks.

Now we show results about the images portrayed by the media when covering the FHFA lawsuit.

This is a new tool of analysis that we present in this blog. It has been developped at our research center MRI Universidad de Navarra, and it has been applied to other studies.

Image analysis show striking results for media reputation analysis. All analysis presented in this reputation crisis blog is entirely based in news content analysis from newspapers. Image analysis is also based in newspapers articles. What we do here is to identify all photos used by the journalists to illustrate the news published about any kind of issue or event.

We collect all available photos used, and we regroup them into relevant categories. The final step is to present the results. We can show the numerical results or a graphical representation of it. The reputation collage is the resulting image emerging from all photos chosen by journalists.

This tool is probably very relevant in terms of reputation analysis. Appearing in the news in a reputation crisis may damage the media perception of the affected people, company or institution. This damage increases substantially if the news appearence is not recluded into the body of the article, but appears in the headlines. But it is probably even more damaging if the indicted actor appears in the photo illustrating the news article.

News photos are many times the result of a hard work of media professionals, as they are picked as means to show the “soul of the article”. In many cases, especially when dealing with reputation crisis or scandals, the image chosen come as a result of a journal editorial decision. The impact of a photo is many times stronger than the impact of the content of the text.

We present the result concerning images showed to explain the FHFA lawsuit. As explained in the precedent post, the case we analyze here is ver nice in terms of reputation analysis, as it concerns as much as 17 different companies. The journalist or the editor needs to take a choice if she wants to show the image of a particular bank. As explained, the bank appearing in the photo of news about the FHFA pays a hard price in terms of loss of media reputation, as it creates an association with misleading business behavior, linked to the present economic crisis suffered by many right now.

First reputation collage refers to photos used in news from US newspapers about FHFA lawsuit, published between September 1 and 7.

Main image reference is a picture of a bank. We have shown a unspecified bank image, but they refer all to specific companies. The next collage will show the details of which banks are chosen as examples in the news. Second image reference in importance are photos about the stock markets, normally showing distress and images of falling stock indexes. They are concentrated in news from Monday September 5, when sued banks suffered substantial losses in European markets (Labor Day in the United States). Third and fourth images used to explain the core of the news are images about housing foreclosures and about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We find also image references to experts/analysts, money, the justice and President Obama.

As announced, we show in the following reputation collage the images concerning the names of banks used in the photo news. This result is the key element concerning the measurement of the reputational impact of the current legal crisis experienced by sued banks. It also answers to the question of which among all banks is paying the reputation bill.

Our empirical answer is quite clear: the crisis is up to now being strongly associated to Bank of America, as it is by far the reference picked by journalists or newspaper’s editor to illustrate the lawsuit. Second bank in terms of presence in news photos is JPMorgan Chase. We find also a significative presence of images about Goldman Sachs. There are only marginal appearences of other banks: Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and First Horizon. Other banks do not even appear as photo news.

This clear result suggest a kind of Winner-take-all rule, that in the field of reputation crises becomes a curse: in a set of several affected companies by an scandal or a crisis, media tend to concentrate image attention to the one appearing as the most exposed to the scandal, in a disproportionate way compared to all other affected companies.

It is true that Bank of America has been sued by the largest amount of sellings to Fannie and Freddie. But while they support less than a third of all eventual sanctions linked to selling mortgage securities, it completely controls media choices as image to be shown to present the FHFA lawsuit news.

Remembering New York 9/11 Attack. A Partisan Media Coverage Issue.

Posted on by • Posted in Disasters, Pers - Bin Laden, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - Newspapers • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 1 Comment

In a couple of days News York and all United States will remember solemny the worst attack ever suffered by Americans in United States soil, ten years ago.

Media coverage is becoming massive, not only in the United States media, but also globally. Additional media attention comes from the official alert of risks of a new Al Qaida “credible threat”.

Even if the attack struck New York and New Yorkers, this memorial is a national major event. It is receiving media attention from all over United States.

As like any other relevant major event, expected or unexpected, we can explore at MRI Universidad de Navarra which kind of specific insights we can gather from analysing its media coverage.

Here our proposal is to measure state by state media behaviour concerning the memorial of New York terror attack. We can group the newspapers by states and then create global results by each state.

The main result that we have obtained with the news published up to September 9 is that the degree of media attention by state is sensitive to party ideology. Our procedure is not to label each individual journal by a supposed party bias. Our strategy is to use the information concerning recent voting patterns in each state. Democratic orientes states will count with more democrat oriented newspapers than average, and the opposite is expected to happen with Republican oriented states.

We present the results concerning the intensity of media coverage given to New York 9/11 attack and memorial news, grouping states by Republican-Democratic profile.

We have used different measures to group states into each side:

1. States by Governor’s party.

2. States presenting a strong partisan voting in the 2008 US presidential elections. We define strong partisan voting when the voting margin is higher than 20 points.

3. States presenting a partisan voting in the 2008 US presidential elections. We define partisan voting when the voting margin is higher than 10 points.

For each measurement, we have estimated two values: weighted and unweighted state averages.

In all the measures estimated we find that Republican states tend to provide a higher media coverage to New York 9/11 than Democtratic oriented states.

Bin Laden Killed. Initial Media Coverage and Perception in United States, UK, Pakistan and Indonesia

Posted on by • Posted in Countries, Country - United States, Pers - Bin Laden, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , • Leave a comment

We open a new series of analysis of this new major event. It is now officially confirmed that Ossama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan in a US special operation. Massive media coverage will come. As in precedent crisis, we will try to offer the information and knowledge that can be gathered by media coverage analysis using the techniques provided by Media, Reputation and Intangibles center, MRI Universidad de Navarra.

We start the analysis with the profile showed by local media in several selected countries about the very initial reaction to the news of Bin Laden death. We have chosen the media reputation vectors “Scandal” and “Tragedy”. The bigger the diamond, the bigger the association to this vector. Please refer to precedent posts for information about the methodology.

The news concerning this issue present clearly a very special feature: they refer to a person with extreme bad image in many countries, but the news are now about a fact that produces extreme joy in some countries. The opposite may happen in some islamic countries. The lecture of the results will then require special attention.

Our first result indicate that US media insist more than other countries in bad references that shoud be understood to be addressed to the personage. We find also that media in Indinesia refer to the news stressing the components awful and tragedy. We understand here a profile of critizism against the military action. All this needs to be checked in our following analysis.

Other Posts

Bin Laden 3. Social Media in Bin Laden News: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Google

Bin Laden 2. Bin Laden Death: Initial Media Coverage. US Newspapers Storyline

Bin Laden 1.  Bin Laden Killed. Initial Media Coverage and Perception in United States, UK, Pakistan and Indonesia

Japan XIV. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (II)

Japan XIII. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (I)

New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (I)

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Corp - New York Times, Corp - Wall Street Journal, Countries, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 10 Comments

We continue our analysis of the initial media storyline of Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the related Fukushima nuclear crisis. In a previous post we have shown how the Fukushima crisis is portrayed by media from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and India. National results are elaborated by the sum of the contributions of all local newspapers.

If an event receives a relevant and sustained media impact, content storyline analysis can also be performen for singular newspapers. For instance, in precedent research projects we have measured how top US newspapers by circulation were following Republican and Democrat candidates, and to which extent they presented bias in terms of total media coverage. As the current media attention to Japan disasters is global and massive, we can study the specific behaviour of any particular newspaper.

We have chosen in this blog to show the storyline profile of two leading and influential American newspapers: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. As these two newspapers are new content generators, they become content providers for other newspapers when cited by. As WJS is a business oriented journal, we expect to find a specific focus on the economic consequences of the earthquake and the tsunami concerning local and international companies, and this should be reflected in the storyline. Those effect are of main importance for Japan’s economy and business, but less relevant for the global economy.

But in contrast with all other big natural disasters, Tohoku earthquake captures media attention with a clear local interests interpellation, as the Fukushima nuclear crisis may seriously open the debate about the future of nuclear energy use. United States uses profusely nuclear power. According to Gallup, in year 2010, 62% of respondents were favorable to nuclear power use for generating electricity, and 33% were opposed. Approval rates are partisan: using 2009 data it appears that 71% Republicans approve nuclear energy, while the approval rate for Democrats drops to 52%. Approval rates right now are respectively 62% and 32%. As it could be expected, approval rating are falling substantially in the context of the Japanese nuclear crisis: 39% of all respondents feel a lot more concerned about a nuclear disaster occurring in the United States after events in Japan, and an additional 31% are a little more concerned.

As many people consider NYT more liberal than WSJ, or WSJ more conservative than NYT, we want to check using our approach to which extent we find a different storyline profile about Fukushima nuclear crisis between these two leading newspapers. We will compare their behaviour to the storyline resulting from all newspapers from United States in our sample.

The analysis of this post is based in the content analysis of more than 200 different articles published by NYT and some 1,300 by WSJ directly related to Japan earthquake. Even if the range of the sample is wide enough, caution is required concerning the interpretation of individual results. When the media impact of an specific storyline component of NYT or WSJ is bigger than 1.0 points, we consider that results are quite reliable, as reflect an important amount of prevalence in different news. For issues obtaining lower scores as they are less frequently in the news, individual results are not directly reliable. In this case we consider that the relevant information appears if all single storyline components pertaining to similar issues behave following a common trend.

First figure just refer to the extension given to the main events suffered by Japan. First reference is still the earthquake, specially present in WSJ news. Fukushima related news receive a similar amount of news.

The following figures refer all to the Fukushima storyline.

The first one of them refers to main global issues in relation with Fukushima. While global attention to Fukushima is similar in both newspapers, we find that NY Times insists more than WSJ concerning “radioactive”, “contamination” and somewhat also “meltdown”. If we compare both to average US newspapers, we find that is WSJ which is underscoring these issues. It follows a clear different pattern concerning media coverage to “radioactive” and “contamination”.

In the following figure we show to which extent the newspapers use the reference to past nuclear disasters as a piece of the present Fukushima crisis storyline. We find a clear differenciated pattern between both newspapers. In comparison to US media coverage average, Wall Street Journal underuse references to past nuclear accidents. The underuse ratio is higher concerning the most severe past nuclear accident (Chernobyl, Level 7 accident) than concerning references to Three Mile Island, which did not provoke direct human casualties. The opposite happens with New York Times coverage: it stresses the media references to past nuclear accidents, in ha higher extent than US newspapers. Similar results concerning references to past disasters from other nature. References to the A-bomb suffered by Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. References to BP oil spill disaster in Gulf of Mexico in the context of Japan disaster are marginal in US media and WSJ, by they play a certain role in the NYT storyline. Finally, the reference to the precedent big earthquake suffered by Japan, Kobe 1995 quake is reported in a similar way both by WSJ and NYT. In this case, the reference to past Japanese tragedy is unrelated with the nuclear debate.

There is a crucial choice that influences the whole profiling of the storyline: the basic labeling of the event. In the newxt figure we show the weight given by the newspapers to different wording of what is happening in Fukushima nuclear plant I Daiichi.

According to our results, the most used labeling is to refer to Fukushima as a “nuclear crisis”. This labeling takes 4.7 points of media impact in the storyline of news about the Japan disaster. In relative terms, this is also a preferred way to present the events by Wall Street Journal journalists. Other naming are “nuclear disaster”, by far less present, with 1.1 points of media impact. This is again a preferred option for WSJ. Third used option is “nuclear accident” (0.4 points), and is the chosen formula by NYT in relative terms to other media (in absolute terms, the main reference is to consider it as a “nuclear crisis”. Final used option is “nuclear emergency” (0.2 points), most widely used by WSJ. We can appreciate that the reference to an objective event, which is the explosion, is refelcted in the news in the same way by noth newspapers.

We echoed in a precedent post the controversial description by a top official from the European Union of Fukushima as an apocalyptic event. Our results show that only marginal media attention is given by US newspapers, and that NYT tends to use is in a higher proportion. Similar result concerning the use of “nightmare”.

Next figure refers to the appeareance of main local Japanese and international actors and authorities related with the crisis. Main reference for US media is Tokyo Electric Power, the company managing the Fukushima nuclear plant. We have splitted mentions to full name and those referring to it as TEPCO. WSJ shows references to the comapny in line with US average, and apparently prefers to use TEPCO instead of full name, in relative terms. This absence of divergent pattern is paradoxically an unexpected result. As WSJ is a business oriented newspaper, we should expect to find a special focus and media attention to Tokyo Electric Power concerning all different aspects when covering this nuclear crisis. This does not happen actually, and we will see later that this absence of interest on TEPCO is in sharp contrast with the media interest shown by WSJ in all other economic and business impact derived from the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Concerning Japanese authorities, we find that WSJ and NYT insist more than US average when talking about them as a group (“Japanese Government”, “Japanese authorities”), but in a lower extent when referring to persons (Prime Minister Edano, Chief Cabinet Kan). Finally, the reference to the International Atimic Energy Agency is lower than average for NYT and specially for WSJ. The ratio Japanese Government/IAEA is 1.2 for average US media, 1.9 for NYT and 3.6 for WSJ. The way reference to local and international authorities is made is probably also a key factor in designing the storyline.

Other references

News Corp Scandal Media Coverage in US Newspapers

How Harmful Is News of the World Scandal for News Corp Reputation?

Movimiento 15-M, Democracia Real Ya: Perception by Local Newspapers El Mundo, El País, Intereconomía, Público

Bin Laden Killing News Storyline 1. Pakistan Media Coverage versus International Media (Ex USA)

New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (II) About The Nuclear Debate

Japan XIV. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (II)

Japan XIII. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (I)

Japan XII. Japan Prefectures Media Coverage. Relationship with Personnel and Property Casualties by Earthquake and Tsunami

Japan XI. Companies in Europe Most Affected by Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, by Media Impact

Japan IX. Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Views in United States, United Kindgom, Australia and India.

Japan VIII. Wikileaks on Fukushima and the Japan Nuclear Crisis. Measurement of the Initial Media Storyline.

Japan VII. Fukushima as a Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: Media References by Countries

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Storyline: The Actors (TEPCO, the Workers, IAEA), The Nuclear Debate, The Economy

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Countries, Country - Australia, Country - India, Country - Japan, Country - United Kingdom, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 1 Comment

This post follows the precedent one (Japan IX). Please check it for explanations about how data is gathered and calculated.

In this second part we show some additional storyline components. They deal mainly with the actors of the crisis, as portrayed by newspapers from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and India. We will refer also the how media is giving media coverage to other implication of this disaster: about the nuclear debate, and about the economic consequences.

First two figures refer to public institutions and personalities directly or indirectly affected by the Fukushima nuclear problem in terms of decisions, competencies or responsibilites.

Main media reference is TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power, the company that manages the troubled nuclear plant. It is the main reference in all countries. The company is scrutinized apparently by the media as the main responsible for managing the crisis and limiting the nuclear damages. In future posts we will show results about media reputation analysis about TEPCO.

The following prominent public figures are the Japanese Government as an entity, the Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. They al share a very similar media exposure. Mr Kan prevails are reference for Australian media, while Yukio Edano is the reference for US and UK media.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is the third actor in importance in terms of media impact in the Fukushima crisis storyline. For American media they play a minor role (1.5 points of media impact) in comparison with Mr. Edano (3.0 points). By contrast, Australia offers a wide coverage to IAEA, similar to weight given to local Japanese authorities. Also Indian media gives a major role than US and UK colleagues.

At this point, US President Barack Obama plays a significative role in this crisis only for US media.

Other actors with a relevent role according to media are presented in the following figure. Yukiya Amano, from Japan, is the current Director of the IAEA. His media coverage profile by countries is quite in line with that given to IAEA. The following person in importance by media coverage in relation to Fukushima is Gregory JaczKo. He is the chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. His remarks in front of the US Congress depicting a somber evaluation of the Fukushima crisis has had not only a national impact in US media, but also in the other countries monitored.

Emperor Akihito offered a public appearance and declaration about how “deeply worried” he was with the earthquake and tsunami disaster. His presence hs been portrayed mainly by British newspapers. At this moment (with news up to March 18), Greenpeace is playing a marginal role, as it captures merely 0.1-0.2 points of media impact by the media of our selected countries. World Health Organization is not being used as reference up to now.

In the following figure we show some elements concerning how the Japanese nuclear crisis is opening the nuclear debate in each country. Remember that only Australia does not use nuclear power. We will probably show in the future a deeper analysis on this issue.

We find that Australia media refers less than the other countries to these issues, specially concerning nuclear industry, protesters, activists and nuclear lobby. Apparently at this point it is a more sensitive issue for media in India. There is ongoing media coverage about the nuclear industry in United States and United Kingdom.


Next figure refers to storyline content directly related to business and the economy. It give some insights of the weight of economic considerations against the other ongoing issues, and suggest which economic issues are considered most relevant right now. The impact of the nuclear crisis, and of the Tohohu tsunami on exchange rates between Yen and Dollar appear to be a leading issue in terms of media coverage. The impact on Yen valuation is highly covered by US media. Media from India is specially sensitive to the economic impact and the impact on oil prices. The concern about the impact of the Japanese disaster on the stock markets come as a second lin issue. According to our results, there is only a marginal mention in the media about possible impact in the financial crisis and economic crisis. This is currently not a major concern for media in all four countries monitored.

Final figure considers other actors related to the crisis in a very direct and dramatic way in  some cases, like the workers and the emergency workers, and others in an indirect way, like scientists and experts. Our approach allows to provide answers concerning the media coverage provided to each group in each country.

The role of workers in Fukushima nuclear crisis is the main reference group for media. Media from US insist more than others. This pattern is repeated when referring more specifically to emergency workers. The group of authorities comes second, are more favoured by media from Australia and India.

The nuclear crisis is special in its media coverage as it requires explanations about technical issues to be understood by public opinion, and the severity of the events ask for innovative measures and solutions, and opens forecasts to unchartered ways. This is why specialists acquire a substantial role in the storyline of the Fukushima news coverage. According to our results, main media reference group is the so called “experts”, with a high media impact value of 4-5 points. They are specially used as source or reference by media from India and Australia. Then follows the group of scientists, with a media impact value around 1 point. They are most widely used by US media. Finally, the group of technicians take some 0.5 points of media impact, and again is US media the ones more focussing on theyr role and contribution.

Other references

Other references

Japan XIII. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (I)

Japan XII. Japan Prefectures Media Coverage. Relationship with Personnel and Property Casualties by Earthquake and Tsunami

Japan XI. Companies in Europe Most Affected by Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, by Media Impact

Japan IX. Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Views in United States, United Kindgom, Australia and India.

Japan IX. Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Views in United States, United Kindgom, Australia and India.

Japan VIII. Wikileaks on Fukushima and the Japan Nuclear Crisis. Measurement of the Initial Media Storyline.

Japan VII. Fukushima as a Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: Media References by Countries

Japan VI. Fukushima Second Explosion Media Perception Compared to First Blast

Share of Wikileaks related news in European, American and Asian Countries

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 The following results show how present are Wikileaks related news. The way we have selected to analyze this point is to measure the share of Wikileaks related news by the local media in each country in comparison with all news produced related to each item selected (United States, Washington DC, Obama and George W Bush).

First three graphs are the example of all news referring to the USA and to Washington DC, and the share of them that were related to the Wikileaks crisis. We show the examples of some selected countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. In almost all countries Wikileaks related news play a relevant role. The lowest weight in comparison with all news related to the USA is taken apparently in Germany, the Netherlands and France in Europe. In the Americas, the lowest relative presence comes in Canada and Jamaica and in Asia, in the Philippines and India.

In the other side, the countries most sensible to Wikileaks related news in comparison with all news referred to the USA or Washingon DC are the following: Sweden (more than 20% of all news), Belgium and Italy in Europe; Guatemala, Argentina, Cuba and Costa Rica in Americas (all above a level of 15% of all news); Sri Lanka, Qatar and Israel in Asia, the continent apparently most sensible to Wikileaks cables (more than 20%). Australia is also a country highly sensitive to Wikileaks news (a level of 22%).

Our results are in line with some expectations: Julian Assange’s home country (Australia)and country related with the judicial case for sex abuse (Sweden) are top ranked countries in terms of Wikileaks news interest. We find also this result concerning Britain, presenting a level of relative interest of 10%, low in global terms, but high in comparison with other European neighbours.

Another finding linked to our results is that the countries where a local newspaers is destilating the news are not counted among those most focused in this crisis. This is the case for Germany (a mere 3% level, with Der Spiegel), France (5%, Le Monde), and Spain (8%, El País).

In the following three graphs we replicate the same exercice than before, but this time we analyze the weight of Wikileaks news inside everu country in the news related to Barack Obama and George Bush.

We find that in general, the share of Wikileaks related news is higher for President George W Bush than for Barack Obama. Local exceptions are Switzerland, The Netherlands and Ireland in Europe; Guatemala and Costa Rica in Central America, and Sri Lanka in Asia.

In many cases, the share of Wikielaks news are higher whith political leaders than with the country or the capital, with some exceptions.

Frankly speaking, we are surprised to see that in some countries it appears a huge percentage of Barack Obama news directly linked to Wikileaks: Belgium, Italy, Venezuela, Canada, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Israel, Pakistan. Depending on how this measure evolve in time, Wikileaks crisis may become a relevant issue for international image and reputation of Barack Obama.

Heads of State and Governement and Wikileaks (I)

Posted on by • Posted in Org - Wikileaks, Political Leaders • Tagged , , , , , • 1 Comment

In this first post where we start presenting our empirical results, we show who are the Head of State and Government which have been more referred to Wikileaks news around the world, during the first two weeks of press revelations.

As expected, US President Brack Obama is the leader in charge most affected by Wikileak crisis. He receives a global media attention of 70.4 points. This means that he has generated an amount of news related with Wikileaks that is 70 times higher than the average of news received by all national leaders. Russian Primer Minister Vladimir Putin comes number two, with 26 points of media attention. Third is Italian Silvio Berlusconi, with 23,7 points. Julia Gillard, from Australia, the home country of Julian Assange comes next. All top political and economic powers are present among top 10 countries, except China leaders, who do not even appear among top 20.

We find among top positions leaders from non democratic countries, or from countries in conflict.

Looking at the recent trend, we identify an upward relationship with Wikileaks issues with the leaders of the following countries: Australia, Germany, Cuba, Zimbawe, Sudan and Yemen.