The Oscar Pistorius trial has been named the National Press Club - North-West University Newsmaker of the Year for 2014.
According to National Press Club chairperson, Jos Charle, this includes the roles played in the trial by Pistorius himself, Judge Thokozile Masipa, prosecutor Advocate Gerrie Nel and defence lawyer Adv Barry Roux.
Charle says 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.
He says an international Oscar Pistorius trial TV channel followed soon afterwards and at least four books have been published on the trial - with more in the offing.
Media-wise the trial was bigger than the FIFA 2014 World Cup. Judge Thokozile 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," says Charle.
"Nothing could move the media attention away from Oscar," says the media monitoring group Data Driven Insight.
"Media data was compiled from 6,2 million social media platforms including blogs, forums, social networks and commentary, 60 000 global online newspapers, 2 000 South African print publications and 66 radio and television stations."
"A digital revolution has been in the offing for long, but this trial has finally drawn the line on the old mass media dispensation," says Prof Johannes Froneman of the Journalism Department at the North-West University.
"The shroud of secrecy has been ripped off court proceedings. We could all see, hear and read - on TV, radio, newspaper and smartphones - how the trail was unfolding.
"The extremely high media visibility of the trial also placed the tragic results of violent human behaviour in the forefront. The essential timeous attention to such behaviour cannot be over-emphasised. The National Press Club expresses its heart-felt sympathy to all the role-players that suffered from the actions that gave rise to this trial - especially the Steenkamp family," says Charle.
