2018, the year of the "very stable genius" : world media analysis

2018

The Year of the « Very Stable Genius »

What happened in 2018 ? What do you remember about 2018 ? Analyzing over 2,000 press reports each month can help answer that question. But even with the assistance of advanced computer programs, how do you summarize a whole year with all that data ? How do you choose a succinct and meaningful title for this work ? Donald Trump, in his second year as President of the United States of America in 2018, provided us with a clear and concise answer to this last question by declaring publicly on two separate occasions in 2018 that he was a « very stable genius ». Yes indeed, 2018 was the year of the « very stable genius » and it's presented and analyzed here month by month, chapter by chapter, using both our computer method of analysis by co-occurrence of key words in press reports and by human expert analysis of the same data set provided by a thoroughly representative sampling system of the international media in English. Each chapter covers a month and includes an overall strategic diagram with its specific thematic clusters of key words and associated typical or representative media reports and word counts. And Yes, the key word « Trump » was at the top of each month's word count, 12 out of 12. Quite a record which clearly characterizes the year 2018.