As chaos erupted over the sale of prescription medicines, Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga undoubtedly became the most popular minister in both traditional media and social media. The media monitoring and analytics company “Mediaskopas” decided to check how the number of ministers’ mentions changed after the scandal began. During the first three weeks of November, the Health Minister was mentioned in 1,397 items in the traditional media, accounting for as much as 25.7% of all mentions of ministers.
By comparison, in October A. Veryga was mentioned in 1,207 items, accounting for 15.4%. Given such popularity of the Health Minister, the question arises whether the minister may have surpassed by visibility the politician most often named in the media—Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis? Despite the fact that S. Skvernelis was mentioned in 2,051 items in November, while A. Veryga was mentioned in 1,397, Mediaskopas rankings show that A. Veryga can enjoy a significantly higher number of mentions within the articles themselves and in headlines than the other ministers, and even than the prime minister.
