Over the last couple of months, you cannot turn on the TV or read online news without seeing a headline mentioning the viral disease Ebola. The largest outbreak to date is currently ongoing and affecting the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. At first, it was highly unlikely that Ebola would reach the United States, but on September 26, 2014, the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in Dallas, Texas. Since that story and other Ebola headlines broke, we’ve been monitoring our media intelligence platform for mentions of Ebola in the news and how those mentions stack up against other top stories.

1. Ebola in the News:
The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

2. Over the last couple of
months, you cannot turn
on the TV or read online
news without seeing a
headline mentioning the
viral disease Ebola. The
largest outbreak to date is
currently ongoing and
affecting the West African
countries of Guinea, Sierra
Leone and Liberia.
At first, it was highly unlikely that Ebola would reach the United States,
but on September 26, 2014, the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in
Dallas, Texas. Since that story and other Ebola headlines broke, we’ve
been monitoring our media intelligence platform for mentions of Ebola in
the news and how those mentions stack up against other top stories.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

3. Overall mentions of Ebola
Since the diagnoses and recoveries of Americans
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, a man
named Thomas Eric Duncan traveled to the US
from Africa, was diagnosed and later died from
the viral disease. He then infected two nurses,
Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who treated him
for the disease.
With additional recent headlines relating to
Ebola, the total number of mentions of Ebola
across broadcast TV, online news, blogs,
forums, social media and Twitter has
reached nearly 3 million.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

4. Peaks of mentions and the key events
If you look at the chart below, you will see the
sharp peaks and valleys of the data indicating the
biggest moments of Ebola in the United States.
The first major peak occurred on October 2, when
it was first announced that Thomas Eric Duncan’s
family would be quarantined following his
diagnosis of Ebola (over 77,000 mentions).
The second peak came with the announcement of Mr.
Duncan’s death, followed by the diagnosis of nurses Nina
Pham and Amber Vinson, who were caring for Mr. Duncan.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

5. The peaks and valleys continue
The final highest peak, with over 125,000
mentions, occurred on October 16, when nurse
Nina Pham released a video from her hospital
bed thanking her family and supporters for their
well wishes. Not only does this show the power of
the news media, but also the power of user
generated content.
Because her video was released and
shared numerous times, it shed light on
the deadly virus and how popular user
generated content can be.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

6. Final peaks and recent developments
The last couple of peaks highlight some key
moments of Ebola stories in the news media. On
October 20, it was announced that additional
healthcare workers who cared for Thomas Eric
Duncan would be monitored for the virus. On
October 23, a fourth American, Dr. Craig Spencer
was diagnosed in New York City.
The last spike to date occurred on October 24, with almost
100,000 mentions, when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie mandated new
screening procedures for those entering New York area
airports from the affected countries.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

7. Ebola and Breaking News
With any major news story comes the tendency
of the media to over analyze or sensationalize the
story. On our iQ media blog, we discussed the
media’s overuse of the term “breaking news.” So
we also did a search with the key words “Ebola”
and “breaking news” and applied it to the story
about the second nurse being diagnosed with the
disease on October 15. We received some
interesting data.
At 9 am, Ebola was mentioned
over 5,000 times, most likely
when most Americans were
getting their news for the day.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

8. Ebola and Breaking News continued
By now, many outlets had confirmed the second
nurse had been diagnosed and were reporting it
during their midday broadcast. Our data can
show you not only the peaks and valleys of your
keyword, but can break down that peak hour by
hour, giving you insights like never before.
In addition to the 9 A.M. spike,
there was another at noon as
well.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

9. Ebola and the stock market
Another major headline over the summer was the
continued daily struggle of the stock market and the US
economy. But how did the news about our economy
compare to a major nationwide medical concern?
When we completed an ad hoc search of “Ebola”
versus the “stock market”, we received over 3.7
mentions of both key words. This indicates that news
surrounding a major medical virus in the US took
precedence over financial news.
You’ll notice that around late September when
Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with
Ebola, those mentions didn’t even hold a
candle to stock market news.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

10. Ebola and terrorism
Lastly, we took a look at another common
headline this summer- the conflict in Syria and
how it could potentially affect us here in the US.
When we ad hoc searched “Ebola” along with the
keyword “terrorism”. Mentions of the word
“terrorism” were right in sync with Ebola in the
beginning of the summer…
yet when the first diagnosis of Ebola
was announced in the US, Ebola
mentions jump dramatically and
flatline stories mentioning terrorism.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

11. Now that a major deadly virus has entered our country, concern that
it will spread quickly will continue to grow and the news media will
continue to make it a major headline. Our data shows that even with
other major headlines occurring simultaneously, our news media
continues to care about the health of our country. !
!
The great thing about our data is that it can show what our news
media is reporting about on a minute-by-minute basis. If you had
access to unprecedented data such as ours, what would you search
for? Take a look at our Discovery tool today and see how you can
utilize the tool and the rest of our media intelligence platform for
your daily content marketing efforts.
Ebola in the News: The Big Data Behind the Media Coverage

12. Take a demo of our Discovery tool today
Reach us at
info@iqmediacorp.com
www.iqmediacorp.com
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