“Schengen“ with 37%, “Dubai chocolate“ with 26 percent and “sanitary cordon“ with 24% of the votes are the key words and expressions for 2024 for Bulgaria. This is how people voted in the traditional survey of public attitudes “Words of the Year with “How is it spelled?“. Following them in the top ten are “Gundy“, which was on the verge of entering the top three, “elections“, “disinformation“, “anhydration“, “Trump“, “New Beginning“ and “Olympics“.
The initiative once again highlights the most important topics and stories of the past year, examining language use both among people and in the media. In the final stage, everyone could vote in a poll for three words and expressions that marked 2024, and the media analysis was again provided by the global media monitoring system Sensika. It is interesting to note that there are only two coincidences between the two rankings – one intersection is the name of US President Donald Trump, which tops the ranking of the most popular personalities in the media, and the other word is “elections“.
The winning word “Schengen“ clearly signals the European orientation of Bulgarians, who appreciate the benefits of our membership in the EU, note the organizers of the initiative – Dr. Pavlina Varbanova, creator of “How to write?“, and Dorothea Nikolova, a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature and journalist. Here we can make a comparison with last year's winner – the phrase “artificial intelligence“, which connected us to global trends. “Cordon sanitaire“, on the contrary – shows our society from the inside – the dividing lines and polarization, the impossibility of reaching an agreement on the development of our country, they add.
It would be interesting to analyze the phrase that took second place – – “Dubai chocolate“, believes Dr. Varbanova. One of its interpretations, according to her, is that our native reality has bored us and we are looking for pleasure in something external and outside of politics. Another and much more worrying interpretation is that the power of social networks creates ever greater risks and just as this year we are choosing Dubai chocolate, we may soon give a chance to some TikTok politician to gain enormous power.
“Gundi“ failed to rank among the top three by a very small margin. I think we need good and bright examples in this confused time“, says Dorotea Nikolova. According to her, the content of the word that remained in sixth place – “disinformation“, because we are increasingly imperceptibly and voluntarily involved in the distortion of reality, and this has a detrimental effect on the choices we make for our future.
“The words of the year were born with difficulty this time. Almost every one of the 10 words proposed in the final hovers around a paradox or is loaded with irony. Just like in our lives. “Schengen“ - so long awaited that the joy passed with its arrival. “Dubai chocolate“ - the luxury of a satiated and at the same time hungry life. “Cordon sanitaire“ - the illusion that politics has something to do with hygiene“, is the analysis of Vesselina Sedlarska, a member of the jury.
According to Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, the selection of words from people shows that we have appropriated the English proverb "Don't worry about worrying before it worries you". "We find ourselves, despite everything, satisfied with our own fate in 2024 and do not lose optimism even in the face of increased geopolitical threats, probably according to our proverb "Every evil for a good reason."
The survey of people's attitudes took place in three stages. In the first - from January 6 to 10 - everyone had the opportunity to give suggestions for words of the year on the pages of "How to write?" on Facebook, Threads and in X. The summarized list contained 227 different words and word combinations. In the second stage, the 6-member jury selected 10 of the 30 proposals with the most votes. We chose which 3 of them are the most significant for us as a society in a poll from January 13 to 18 in the third, final stage.
For 2023, the leaders were “artificial intelligence“, “assembly“ and “time shelter“. In 2022, the top positions were “war“, “inflation“, “Ukraine“ and “elections“. And in 2021, the first three places in the poll were occupied by the non-literary word “I estimate“, “anti-vaxxer“ and “scrawling“.
The jury for 2024 was again composed of long-time observers and participants in public processes in our country and language experts: Dr. Pavlina Varbanova - creator of the platform “How to write?“, Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov - philosopher and media expert, Vesselina Sedlarska - journalist and writer, Dorotea Nikolova - teacher of Bulgarian language and literature and journalist, and Dr. Ivan Landzhev - poet and essayist. In order for the voice of the younger generation to be heard, this year they were joined by actor and vlogger Stefan Popov - Chefo.
Media analysis
9 million and 600 thousand publications in 10,123 online information sources in Bulgarian for the period January 1 - December 31, 2024. are verified within the media analysis of the global media monitoring and analysis system Sensika.
The 20 most frequently mentioned words are: „Bulgaria“, „Europe“, „USA“, „Russia“, „child“, „war“, „Ukraine“, „aid“, „politics“, „minister“, „president“, „support“, „elections“, „price“, „party“, „family“, „government“, „social“, „management“, „doctor“.
„Child“ and „war“ are again, as last year, leading the media and are ranked immediately after the most circulated proper names – Bulgaria, Europe, USA, Russia. Concern for children has permanently settled in the public and media discourse. Two new words are included in the top 20 – „social“ and „doctor“, which shows that the social sphere and healthcare are among the most current topics in the media along with political ones.
For the second time, a ranking of the most mentioned personalities in the media is also presented.
In first place is Donald Trump, followed by Boyko Borisov, who has very close results to the two after him – Vladimir Putin and Delyan Peevski. Further down the list are Rumen Radev, Joe Biden, Kiril Petkov, Volodymyr Zelensky, Nikolay Denkov, Ahmed Dogan, Assen Vassilev, Maria Gabriel, Cornelia Ninova, Kalin Stoyanov, Emmanuel Macron, Vasil Terziev, Kostadin Kostadinov, Elon Musk, Borislav Sarafov, Grigor Dimitrov.
It can be noted that Boyko Borisov cedes his first position from last year to Donald Trump, Delyan Peevski visibly climbs up the ranking, and this year Ahmed Dogan also enters it. The presence of presidents is strong - they occupy five of the first eight positions. The indisputable news here is that Donald Trump tops the ranking, but this is actually not surprising, since he and US policy are also of key importance for what is happening on the Old Continent. It is worth noting that Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev also finds a place among the top 20. The only figure in the ranking who is completely outside of politics is Grigor Dimitrov.