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Media coverage

The rescheduling of some reports and a focus by the media on COVID-19 during the fourth quarter led to an overall decline in media coverage during 2019–20 (Figure 3.3: Media coverage 2019–20).

We issued 29 media releases in 2019–20, down from 36 in 2018–19. The AIHW had 5,046 media mentions throughout the year, down from 6,167 in the previous year. There were declines in online, print, radio and television coverage (Figure 3.3: Media coverage 2019–20 and Cross-referenceCross-reference).

The two reports that attracted the most media coverage during the year were Australia’s welfare 2019 (260 media items) and National suicide monitoring of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force personnel: 2019 update (241 media items). Our top 5 products for media coverage is shown in Table 3 .3: Top 5 products for media coverage, 2019–20.

We engaged Media Measures to analyse how the AIHW was portrayed in the media during the second quarter. The analysis found that the ‘tone’ of 99.2% of media stories were positive.

Figure 3.3: Media coverage 2019–20 Column chart showing media coverage for each quarter of 2019–20. The chart shows how media coverage decreased in the third and fourth quarters.

Table 3 .2: Media coverage and media releases, 2015–16 to 2019–20

Media type

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

2019–20

Online

1,496

1,822

1,645

2,222

2,080

Print

798

1,694

1,923

1,695

1,304

Radio

1,106

1,617

1,629

1,904

1,414

Television

129

221

273

346

248

Total

3,529

5,354

5,470

6,167

5,046

Media releases

57

35

37

36

29

Table 3 .3: Top 5 products for media coverage, 2019–20

Rank

Title

Media mentions

1

Australia’s welfare 2019

260

2

Medications dispensed to contemporary ex-serving Australian Defence Force members, 2017–18 (web)

National suicide monitoring of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force personnel: 2019 update (web)

Use of homelessness services by ex-serving Australian Defence Force members 2011–12 to 2016–17 (web)

241

3

Elective surgery 2018–19 (web)

Emergency department care 2018–19 (web)

156

4

Burden of tobacco use in Australia: Australian Burden of Disease Study 2015

140

5

Australia’s children

127

Visit

https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-institute-health-and-welfare/reporting-year/2019-20-8