report | Jun 9, 2011

Bloggers Return to Politics and Palin

For the first time in two months—driven largely by the Sarah Palin bus tour—the news discussion on blogs turned back to politics. On Twitter, business strategies for social media and concerns about global warming led the way. And on YouTube, the economic crisis in Spain was the subject of the two most popular videos.

report | Jun 5, 2011

The Economy Leads, but Politics Lurks

Bad economic news became a political story last week as analysts evaluated the impact on President Obama’s fortunes. Sarah Palin’s bus tour drew as much attention as Mitt Romney’s presidential announcement with the campaign generating its highest level of coverage yet. And two political scandals provoked much speculation and one indictment.

report | Jun 2, 2011

Crime and Punishment Lead on Blogs

A Supreme Court decision forcing California to release thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding received harsh criticism from bloggers last week, while others weighed in on the arrest of a suspect in a brutal baseball game beating. On YouTube, an interview with Jon Stewart on The O’Reilly Factor garnered the most attention.

report | May 30, 2011

A Heartland Tragedy Seizes the News Agenda

The latest outbreak of violent spring storms proved to be the biggest weather story in PEJ’s four years of tracking news coverage. An election in New York State turned into a major economic story and the prospect of a Palin candidacy helped drive coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign last week.

report | May 27, 2011

Social Media Express Strong Support for Israel

How have social media responded to President Obama’s controversial speech about the conflict in the Middle East? This special edition of PEJ’s New Media Index is an in-depth look at the tone of the complex conversation on blogs, Twitter and Facebook that occurred as President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met in Washington.

report | May 22, 2011

DSK Arrest Leads the News, but Politics Looms Large

It was a diverse news week that started off with the arrest of the IMF chief, but ended with the media focused on strained U.S.-Israel relations and the problems with the GOP presidential field. Meanwhile, attention to the aftermath of the bin Laden raid continued to diminish dramatically.

report | May 14, 2011

Bin Laden Coverage Still Leads but the Narrative Changes

The fallout from the killing of Osama bin Laden continued to generate the most attention of any story in the mainstream media last week, though coverage fell off substantially. On cable news, where politics often dictates news agenda, the level of attention varied widely: CNN devoted the most attention to the story and Fox gave it the least.

report | May 12, 2011

Social Media React to Bin Laden’s Death

The death of the al Qaeda leader drove the social media conversation last week, as bloggers and Facebook and Twitter users examined numerous themes—ranging from fear to humor—that emerged in the wake of the May 1 raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.

report | May 8, 2011

Osama bin Laden’s Death Continues to Dominate the News

The killing of Osama bin Laden accounted for more than two-thirds of all news coverage last week as the media spent much of it trying to piece together exactly what happened in that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. And that proved to be an ever-changing and evolving narrative.

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