Tuesday 24 December 2024 · one signal · spike
Ursa Major cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean
The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea on December 24, 2024, following an engine room explosion. Russian authorities described the incident as a suspected terrorist attack. The vessel was reportedly involved in an evacuation mission to Syria. Two crew members were reported missing.
Peak 94.1 on Wednesday 25 December 2024. The shaded band is the incident window.
Where the attention came from
Over the whole window this ran Media-led; on the peak day itself it read Mixed-led. When the two differ, the fast signals (social, news) spiked and faded while the slow ones (search, research) carried the tail.
Bar = share of the extra attention over the whole window; the tick marks the share on the peak day alone, where the two differ.
How unusual it was
This was above 86% of all days since 2020, and the highest since Monday 20 May 2024.
How far it spread
No vessel type moved — 0 of 6 vessel-type groups drew clearly more readers than usual.
Bars start at 1× — normal readership for that vessel type, the weeks before the incident. Grey = no clear lift. "Over time" shows each group's daily readers through the window; "All 12 articles" breaks the six groups back into their members.
How it was framed the frame glossary →
Lead frame: human drama. Trade press was 4% of in-scope coverage — the story had left the trade press and gone mainstream. (Historical coverage is scored on headlines only.)
Acting, or acted upon
In 85% of coverage shipping was the thing acted upon rather than the actor; 41% of it was strongly negative in tone.
What the coverage said
- Ursa Major: Russian cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean after engine room explosion, Moscow sayscnn.com · 2024-12-24
- Russian cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean after explosion in engine roomtheguardian.com · 2024-12-24
- Russia says cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean after blast, 2 missingscmp.com · 2024-12-24
- Russia says two missing after cargo ship sinks in Mediterraneanaljazeera.com · 2024-12-24
- Russian cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean after explosion, two crew members missingtheglobeandmail.com · 2024-12-24
- Russia Says Terrorist Attack Sunk Cargo Ship 'Ursa Major'gcaptain.com · 2024-12-26
Gold rule = a national or international outlet, not a trade title.
Maritime Attention Index, incident: Ursa Major cargo ship sinks in Mediterranean, peak 94.1 on 25 December 2024. maritimeattentionindex.com/incidents/2024-ursa-major-cargo-ship-sinks-in-mediterranean/