Johannesburg – Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux is being mentioned three times more than prosecutor Gerrie Nel, reveal figures from media monitoring group Data Driven Insight (DDI).

“If you plot the coverage about the legal representation in the trial, the conversation and reporting around Roux hit 74.86%, compared to the 25.14% of Nel, said DDI spokesperson Tonya Khoury on Friday.

This was in regards to conversation and media coverage.

Media coverage during the past 24 hours mentioning the word “blood”, in relation to former police officer Colonel Schoombie van Rensburg’s testimony was 48.03%, said Khoury.

Van Rensburg, a former commander of Boschkop, Pretoria, police station, began his testimony in the murder trial on Thursday.

The data from the survey also showed that media interest in the trial had dropped by about 50% from the first week.

Media coverage of the trial was still, however, higher than coverage of the elections, Marikana and Johannesburg rain and flooding.

Khoury said the trial had generated more interest from abroad.

“The US, Germany, UK and Australia are covering the story more than South African media,” she said.

The data was compiled from 6.2 million social media platforms including blogs, forums, social networks and commentary, 60 000 global online newspapers, 2 000 South African print publications, and 66 radio and television stations.

SAPA