The UK media is among the most positive in Europe, according to a global analysis of the tone of the news, across print and broadcast media by global communications group ION.

The survey showed that the UK has the second highest percentage of positive media stories in Europe (22 percent) behind only Spain (24 percent) and considerably more than the European average of 14 percent.

The UK has over three times the volume of positive stories as the Netherlands (7 percent) and almost twice the amount of Australia (12 percent). The amount of positive stories highlights the impact of big events in 2012—including the Olympics, Paralympics and Diamond Jubilee—continuing into the later stages of 2012, with many stories on the Olympic legacy.

However, the UK does still rank top for the amount of negative stories across the world, with 55 percent of headlines being negative in tone, significantly higher than the global average of 40 percent. Television news programmes, came out as the most positive, with 26 percent of headline stories being upbeat in tone, compared to print media (22 percent) and radio (17 percent).

“This higher than expected number of positive articles makes interesting reading for comms professionals,” said Kate Mills, director of ION at Octopus Group, the group’s UK hub agency. “With a hunger and appetite for upbeat stories, content must be tailored to the media agenda, to get the best chance of being featured. It will, however, be interesting to see if this positivity continues into 2013 after the effect of the events in 2012 wanes.”

Negative news is still high across the globe, at 39 percent, with neutral stories accounting for 41 percent and positive stories for 20 percent. Asia Pacific was the region with the least positive news overall, at 12 percent, followed by Europe with 14 percent and USA at 27 percent. Latin America came out on top with Brazil recording 38 percent of stories as positive; the only country that’s positive stories exceeded the amount of negative or neutral news, showing the ‘Olympic affect’ once again.