Rare Net Positive Week For Tesla Media Coverage, But … (#Pravduh About #Tesla Report 23)

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Intro

We always say the media is treating the world’s only electric car mass manufacturer unfairly. This week, we have some unique opportunities to see this in action.

Generally, when someone works hard and sees growing success, getting closer and closer to achieving their biggest goals, you’d think this hypothetical hard worker would get a pat on the back. In the case of Tesla, for good news, it gets a slap in the face and scrutiny of anything it says.

For example, Tesla started delivering the Model 3 in Europe last week. This is huge news that only got told by The Verge, Engadget, Bloomberg, and the LA Times. While other outlets decided this wasn’t news, they highlighted things like cuts to US Tesla delivery jobs that resulted from Tesla finally shifting its Model 3 focus to Europe and China this quarter.

Other than that, it was generally a pretty positive week. There was lots of good news that had to be covered, like Tesla acquiring Maxwell (which the media didn’t find a way to discolor, or simply chose not to spin negatively). Volkswagen bought Tesla Powerpacks for EV charging stations, and there were reportedly Mercedes–Tesla electric van talks behind the scenes (and around the Twitter cooler).

Another interesting case study this week was Tesla’s $1,100 price cut for the Model 3. Here’s how different outlets decided to summarize this progress toward the $35,000 model:

Pay special attention to how creative most of the neutral headlines were.

It’s an interesting media world.

Starting this week, we are also rearranging the report a bit. From now on, the sections that inform you of the main news topics will be shown before the charts on how the media portrayed that news. Big thanks to one of our readers for this great suggestion! Also, from now on, the weekly report will come in front of the monthly one.

Note: Each week we share the raw data (headlines and scores) for these reports. You can scan through yourself if you want to double check our findings or just see the headlines. And you can check out our own Tesla stories for more context and comparison. For details on our methodology and broader context about this weekly analysis, see our previous Pravduh About Tesla report.


#Pravduh About #Tesla
Report #23 (February 2–8)

(Severely) Under-Reported Tesla News Last Week

Adding onto the summary in the intro, below’s a summary of Tesla news and potential news ordered by day. You can consider for yourself what the important updates in the “Tesla story” were last week.

  • Tesla developed better additives for its battery chemistry (Feb 2)
  • A Tesla Model S & X CCS adapter is now available and allows for a 120 kW charge rate (Feb 2)
  • Tesla is the highlight of Panasonic’s business — the rest of Panasonic isn’t doing that great  (Feb 4)
  • Tesla prepped Model Y casting lines at GF1 (Feb 7)
  • The first European customer Model 3s were delivered in Europe (Feb 7)
  • Tesla’s second biggest investor, Ballie Gifford & Co., increased its investment in Tesla by $32 million. (Feb 8)

The next matter on our itinerary is tracking the authors who covered this news. While the whole list is too long to put here since there are many authors who have written just one or two pieces about Tesla, here are the 33 authors who published more than 14 articles about Tesla since we started tracking on September 1st, ranked from least positive to most positive:

For this entire section, note: At major media outlets, there are often headline writers who control this part of articles, but we find tracking the authors is also interesting and potentially useful for considering what kind of stories the authors tend to write.

Some Sneaky Headlines Last Week

  • Will Tesla’s Latest Price Cut On The Model 3 Entice Buyers? (Forbes)
  • Tesla lowers the price of its Model 3 after drop in sales (USA Today)
  • Tesla Model 3 gets a price cut, but the $35,000 model is still nowhere to be found (BGR)
  • Tesla Model 3s hit Europe, but their Autopilot feature is disabled (LA Times)

#Pravduh About #Tesla
January 2019 Report

The next matter on our itinerary is tracking the authors who covered this news. Here are the 18 authors who published more than 5 articles about Tesla in January, ranked from least positive to most positive:

The more these #Pravduh About #Tesla reports get shared online through social media, the more people will take notice. If there is an ongoing heavily negative slant about Tesla in certain outlets — even as Tesla has so much positive news to share — people should be aware of this and approach each new story with that in mind.

Again, here is the data from this past week in case you want to have a closer look at the raw data.

For details on our methodology and broader context about this weekly analysis, see this previous Pravduh About Tesla report.


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Chanan Bos

Chanan grew up in a multicultural, multi-lingual environment that often gives him a unique perspective on a variety of topics. He is always in thought about big picture topics like AI, quantum physics, philosophy, Universal Basic Income, climate change, sci-fi concepts like the singularity, misinformation, and the list goes on. Currently, he is studying creative media & technology but already has diplomas in environmental sciences as well as business & management. His goal is to discourage linear thinking, bias, and confirmation bias whilst encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and helping people understand exponential progress. Chanan is very worried about his future and the future of humanity. That is why he has a tremendous admiration for Elon Musk and his companies, foremost because of their missions, philosophy, and intent to help humanity and its future.

Chanan Bos has 118 posts and counting. See all posts by Chanan Bos