Other contenders for the Newsmaker Personality of the Year awards were ANC president Jacob Zuma, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and US president-elect Barack Obama.
Democratic Alliance (DA) president Hellen Zille was the female personality of the year. First runner-up was education minister Naledi Pandor, followed by Mantho Tshabalala-Msimang.
The research, conducted over January - November 2008 across nearly 1800 media sources consisting of newspapers, magazines, radio, television stations and online publications, further shows that Eskom as an organisation made a lot of news.
In the issues of the year category, fraud and corruption came out tops. Most content related to the fraud and corruption in government departments, as well as the charges against Zuma.
According to MSA CEO Shaka Sisulu, the large qualitative research is the first of its kind in the country. He said, “Our research team pored over 1.5 million media items to arrive at the findings. Given our media footprint and the volume of the data captured in our database, we are excited that a report of this nature is now possible.”
“The presidency is always in the news, but the recall of the state president was unprecedented. The ensuing media blitz from the action was also unprecedented,” he continued.
“Eskom's lead amongst organisations was predictable, given the scale of this year's crisis. The report notes that coverage went beyond simple reportage to powerfully captured policy issues and economic implications.”
Sisulu expressed concerns that fraud and corruption would be leading issues of the year, ahead of other pressing issues.
On the issues of the year, first runner-up was poverty and poverty alleviation, followed by xenophobia and xenophobic violence and power crisis.
Absa was the first runner-up in the company category, after it received high media coverage for selling its stakes in Zimbabwe's largest bank CBZ Holdings to the Russian group Renaissance Capital.
The second runner-up was SAPS, followed by Vodacom in third position.
Beijing Olympics was the event of the year, 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup the runner-up, followed by Absa Soccer Cup and the Absa Currie Cup and the Paralympics in fourth position.
