Johannesburg - The Oscar Pistorius trial has been named the National Press Club-North West University Newsmaker of the Year for 2014.
This includes the roles played in the trial by Pistorius himself, Judge Thokozile Masipa, State advocate Gerrie Nel and defence advocate Barry Roux.
National Press Club chairman Jos Charle said the trial dominated the news last year, both in terms of impact and news value, and media attention in electronic, print, online and social media.
“For the first time in the history of South Africa, most of any trial’s court proceedings were broadcast live on a dedicated TV channel. An international Oscar Pistorius trial TV channel followed soon afterwards. At least four books have been published on the trial – with more in the offing.
“Judge Masipa’s banning of blogging and tweeting of graphic evidence by pathologist Gert Saayman prompted 2 500 articles.
In 24 hours, news and social media hit over 106 000 unique inserts. Pistorius having retched in court was carried in 2 300 news articles. In nine days, the press hit the 750 000 article mark,” Charle says.
“Nothing could move the media attention away from Oscar,” the media monitoring group Data Driven Insight added.
The Star