Germany favourites on and off the field

Media analysis on coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Pretoria, July 10, 2014. Media coverage before and during FIFA’s showpiece event indicates that Germany have won off the field as well as on it in reaching the World Cup Final. While other national teams buckled under the pressure of expectation, Germany have risen to the occasion, proving their backers right. Argentina, Germany’s opponents in the final, go into Sunday’s match as underdogs in the media, an unlikely scenario for a South American side in a World Cup in Brazil against European opposition.

England and Spain, who suffered humiliating first round exits from the tournament, were roundly criticised in the media for their performances. Both sides were given tough draws but failed to perform to expected levels in Brazil and suffered humblings in the media World Cup as well as FIFA’s event.

According to research conducted by Media Tenor International, “What’s interesting is the way media sentiment has so accurately predicted the semi final winners, even the difference in tonality hinted at the rout Germany would deliver to Brazil, all that remains to be seen is whether the media have accurately predicted the outcome of Sunday’s final.” Andley Wu, Media Tenor researcher observed.

Going into Sunday’s match the media are giving Germany the nod to clinch football’s greatest prize, but it remains to be seen if Argentina can again prove the pundits wrong and walk away from Rio as World Champions.

This report is based on the analysis of 1671 out of 20,941 reports gathered from 20 global TV news programs. The average inter-coder reliability in the first quarter of 2014 was 87,37%. For more information, please contact the principle researchers AndleyWu or Matthew Wate; e-mail:

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