Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
With the White House producing a post-mortem on what went wrong, the Christmas bombing plot led the news agenda last week. And it was joined by a number of related terrorism topics in the news, harkening back to the days of nervous post 9/11 headlines.
A new PEJ study investigates where news comes from in today’s rapidly changing media landscape. An examination of local media in Baltimore provides insight on how the U.S. media ecosystem works. What role do new media, blogs and specialty news sites play in the news cycle? Who is breaking news? Which reports advanced the story? The study answers these questions and more.
The failed terror attack on NWA Flight 253 led the news on blogs, Twitter and in the mainstream press last week. The online community debated everything from who to blame for the close call to the impact on airline travel. On YouTube, a spectator’s view of a Christmas Eve attack on Pope Benedict XVI generated the most views.
This week’s News Coverage Index examines the agenda in one media sector—daily newspapers. And it reveals that the unanswered questions about the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner were still dominating coverage a week after the event occurred. Meanwhile, the state of the economy was the week’s second-biggest topic.
During a Christmas week when the Senate passed its version of health care reform, social media devoted more attention to the subject than it had at any time this year. Bloggers also focused on an international grassroots campaign. On Twitter, a Blackberry outage led the way, while on YouTube, questions about the attack on the Italian Prime Minister drew significant attention.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not issue a News Index report this week, but the data is available.
Due to inclement weather, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is not publishing a full Weekly News Index report for December 14 – 20. PEJ is, however, making the data available.
Last week, bloggers gave more attention to the subject of global warming than at any time this year. And while skeptics continued to focus on “Climate-gate,” defenders were more vocal than in previous weeks. On Twitter, the growing Tiger Woods scandal earned the most attention. And on YouTube, a feisty exchange between the White House press secretary and a reporter was the most viewed news video.
The economy and health care continued to lead the news last week as they have so often in recent months. But global warming, thanks in part to a controversy over emails, received a record level of coverage.
A vote in Switzerland to ban the construction of Muslim minarets and controversies over global warming research led conversations in the blogosphere last week. On Twitter, it was a story about a local billboard campaign with unintended consequences. And on YouTube, a pop singer made her second appearance in recent weeks.