22nd December 2015
The top news story for the year was the All Blacks winning the Rugby World Cup.
80% of people said they followed the story (1 and 2 on a 5-point scale), while 68% said they followed it “very closely”
(1 on the 5-point scale).
The Rugby World Cup win comes in as the 10th most followed news story since 2003, however it didn’t quite match the
attention of the All Black’s last Rugby World Cup win in 2011. That story was followed by 83% of people, with 71% saying
they followed it “very closely”.
National’s decision to send troops to Iraq was the most followed political news story. 68% percent of people said they
followed that story. The top three were rounded out by the debate around refugee quotas and Mount Eden prison being
taken over by the Government after allegations of prisoner injury and mistreatment.
The top international news story of the year was the terrorist attacks in Paris in November. 77% of people said they
followed the story. The January Paris attacks (Charlie Hebdo) also feature in the top five international stories of the
year, being followed by 58% of people.
The top crime story for 2015 was the threat to poison baby formula if demands to stop using 1080 were not meet.
56% percent of people said they followed that story.
The most followed natural disaster story for 2015 was the flooding in Dunedin in June, with 62% following the story.
Top news stories each month featured the referendum for changing the flag on two separate occasions, in August and in
December. Attention in the story did not build significantly. In August 54% were following the story; while in December
55% were following.
ends