December 2017 Events Covered in the News as of 31 December 2017:
The targets for this project are the most newsworthy events of the month, as determined by the rules of the project and the table below that contains a pool of potential targets. (See also this Overview video.) These are news events that are major headline items occurring in the month. In most cells, there are two numerical entries separated by a slash (/). The first is the number of news cycle days in which the event was featured on the main page of the news outlets. This number estimates the longevity of the story, implying that stories that last longer on the main page of a news outlet relate to more important events. The second number (following the slash) is the cumulative number of links on the main headline page for the news outlets that connect stories related to each event. This second number estimates the breadth of the new coverage for each event, implying that events that spawn more stories and links on the main page is are more important events. When only one number is included in a cell, that number is the total number of links only.
| Event Reporting Date | Events | CNN US | CNN International | New York Times | BBC | Total Links |
| 3 December 2017 | Tens of thousands people protest in Tel Aviv, Israel in anti-curruption protest (The Guardian, Times of Israel, Newsweek, RT) | |||||
| 5 December 2017 | Southern California wildfires in and around Ventura rapidly scorch over 50,000 thousand acres on first day at a rate of one acre per second, pushed by Santa Ana winds. Thousands evacuated. Fires then spread to Los Angeles on second day. Fires continue through month. Santa Barbara evacuated on 16th. (CNN, LA Times, Washington Post, VOX, BBC) | 8/27 | 6/9 | 7/24 | 6/19 | 79 |
| 6 November 2017 | President Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel | 1/2 | 1/7 | 3/11 | 2/12 | 32 |
| 7 November 2017 | Protests in the Middle East and elsewhere relating to American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, plus Israeli military responses | 2/2 | 6/16 | 2/2 | 3/13 | 33 |
| 9 November 2017 | Mudslide as town of Corino, Columbia is inundated. At least 9 killed. (BBC, Al Jazeera) | |||||
| 11 November 2017 | ISIS terror attack below Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhanttan, New York. 5 injured with homemade pipe bomb. | 1/3 | 1/2 | 1/8 | 1/1 | 14 |
| 16 December 2017 | Massive mudslide in Villa Santa Lucía, Chile. Much of the town is destroyed. (The Watchers, BBC, CNN) | 1/1 | 1/3 | 4 | ||
| 17 December 2017 | Total power outage in Atlanta International Airport, world's busiest airport (CNN) | 1/7 | 1/6 | 1/1 | 1/3 | 17 |
| 18 December 2017 | Trainwreck in Seattle, Washington | 2/21 | 2/7 | 2/6 | 1/9 | 43 |
| 23 December 2017 | Trophical Storm Tembin smashes into the Philippines. Landslides and flooding is extreme. Many dead. (CNN) | 1/1 | 2/8 | 1/5 | 14 | |
| 25 December 2017 | Protests in Peru over the pardoning of ex-President Alberto Fujimori | 1/1 | 1/5 | 6 | ||
| 28 December 2017 | Thousands protest in multiple cities in Iran against current regime. The next day the protests spread to additional cities. Protests continue to escalate through the rest of the month. (Harretz, NCRI-1, NCRI-2, Reuters, BBC1, CNN, BBC2) | 2/8 | 2/8 | 2/2 | 3/22 | 40 |
NOTE: The numbers in the above table are subject to ongoing audits throughout the month. At the end of the month, a final audit is performed based on screen shots of the web pages for all four news outlets. Errors in the table are corrected both during the month and as a result of the final audit.
To be listed in the above table, the events must have the following characteristics.
- The target events should involve significant physical activity by objects and subjects.
- The target events should involve something unexpected or unscheduled.
- The target events will typically be a leading headline news story that is featured on prominent web sites, such as CNN (U.S. and International), The New York Times, and the BBC. Other stories covered in other news outlets are linked in the table. That means that the story appears somewhere on the main news page of the news outlet, usually in the top section of the web page where headline stories are posted. (Stories for most major events change daily. Some links to more dated events remain unchanged in content and format on the web site for longer periods, and such links are often located further down the web page. These are called "residual links" and are not considered headline news stories unless the linked articles/stories are updated.)
- The target events should involve more than one daily news cycle for the month, preferably with numerous and related stories.
- The target events must be of significant public interest.
- The target events will typically be of international interest, as evidenced by being covered as a headline event on both the U.S. and International editions of CNN.
- If a significant event occurs near the end of the month, then the counting of news cycles and cumulative links can extend into the next month until the event fades from the headline pages so as to fully evaluate the importance of the event. Rarely does a news story remain on the main page of a news outlet for more than a week.
- If two or more events of a similar nature and/or cause occur on different dates of the month, then a given target would be the combination of the two events. For example (obviously fictional in this case), if the Moon disappears into another dimension on two different dates during the same month, then the target would be the general or combined disappearance of the Moon during that month. Examples of types of events that would be combined within the same month are (a) scattered fires that are part of a larger area that is aflame, such as scattered statewide California wildfires, (b) terror events caused or inspired by the same group in a larger campaign, (c) wartime events from a larger military engagement, such as various elements of the Normandy Invasion of World War II, (d) multiple large political gatherings (including demonstrations) with similar characteristics, (e) weather related events that are the result of the same general weather condition.
Here are some useful web sites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017
https://www.mapsofworld.com/calendar-events/