News IndexThe Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish a news index report this week; however, the NCI data is available here.
The online conversation began after Vanity Fair published a selection from author David Maraniss' new book-Barack Obama: The Story-in the June 2012 issue of the magazine. The excerpt went into great detail about Obama's relationships with two girlfriends in New York City shortly after he graduated from Columbia University in 1983. The author quotes from letters Obama wrote to one of his girlfriends, Alex McNear, as well as passages from the diary of another girlfriend, Genevieve Cook. For the week of April 30-May 4, the Obama story was the No. 2 subject on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The wide range of reaction from bloggers included positive and negative assessments of Obama and evaluations of his letter-writing style as well as commentary on the work of Maraniss, who also authored a biography of Bill Clinton. Another political story was popular on blogs for the week. Bestselling horror author Stephen King wrote an opinion piece for The Daily Beast on how the super rich, including himself, should be taxed more. Those sentiments generated a mixed response in the blogosphere. The Young Obama The Maraniss book excerpt generated a discussion on both sides of the political spectrum and for some-mostly conservative-bloggers, the piece provoked criticism of the president. "So, let me get this straight: in addition to all the vacations, all the golf games, non-stop fundraising and the continuous campaigning, as well as taking time out to pick the winners of college basketball games, President Obama has room in his schedule to reminisce about his old flames. Good thing he doesn't have a demanding job!" wrote CanadianCincinnatus. Some writers were also critical of Obama himself, but in more of a playful manner. In particular, they responded to the letters to McNear, which were written with an intellectual and philosophical tone. "OMG. Is this the sort of thing English professors have to wade through all the time? How do they stop their eyes from rolling long enough to finish grading papers?" wrote The Skeptical Bureaucrat, "Young Mr. Obama would have been better served by watching some Woody Allen movies with his girlfriend and cutting back on all the abortively pedantic letter-writing." "Everyone in college is a self-absorbed internationalist with delusions of grandeur. That's what college is for. To give you the self-esteem you'll spend the rest of your life losing," wrote Emily at NakedDC, "But Barack Obama was truly a piece of work. Not only did he wear Brut cologne and spend his Sundays sitting around his apartment doing the New York Times crossword in a sarong...but he wrote poetry to his college girlfriend...that reeked of a rudimentary liberal arts education." "Good Lord! Who writes this stuff to a girlfriend?" asked roxannadanna at Diary of a Mad Conservative. Other bloggers were more critical of Maraniss, who authored a well-known 1995 biography of Bill Clinton, than they were of the president. "On the whole, the article is a monotonous fluff piece highlighting twenty something year old Barack Obama meanderings around New York City back in the 1980s," wrote Mr. L's Tavern. "What is the world coming to when we can all buy a book and read about President Barack Obama's sex life as a 22 year old?" asked Missy Mistique. And there were some readers who were impressed by the article and the president. "I thought it was an exceptionally well written piece. It uses interviews with Obama, his old girlfriends, and his bestseller, Dreams of My Father to piece together an image of a man in search of self. I think the thing that struck me was the fact that Obama was constantly questioning and searching for a sense of place, amazing considering the man he is today but on some level all people who are either bi-racial or culturally displaced go thought this process of self-evaluation at some point in their life," wrote Ghillyb.
"I was reading the recent Vanity Fair excerpt about Barack Obama's early life after graduating from Columbia U And a few bloggers weighed in with disappointment that this chronicling of Obama's love life wasn't quite as sensational as they hoped. "Well, this has got to be good, right? What could be steamier than getting it on with the future leader of the world? Plus, Obama is HOT. So let's hear what his ex-gf...has to say... Eh? Where's the late night hang up calls and slashing of tires? Something? I'm getting a bit frustrated now. Okay, a LOT frustrated." wrote Kiri Blakeley at The Stir. "Why is this woman culturally significant simply for having dated the President nearly three decades before he was the President? The answer might lie within society's sex obsession, its compulsion to privy increasingly deeper into the personal lives of prominent figures, and its gradual transformation into a gossip rag reality show. I, for one, was indeed guilty of hankering for the juicy details. Too bad there were none," wrote DANA JEANius. Other Top News Stories on Blogs The No. 3 story on blogs for the week was a piece bestselling author Stephen King wrote for The Daily Beast, scolding the super rich for not paying enough in taxes and warning of an apocalyptic scenario if inequality is not addressed. The response on blogs was mixed. Some were supportive of the author's jump into a political forum. "It seems to me Stephen King should start a political blog. I'd read it," wrote Steve Benen at The Maddow Blog. But others had a dimmer view of King's sentiments. "How the person that wrote this poorly researched piece of garbage Monday could in any way be related to the genius - yes, I said genius - that totally enthralled and captivated me with ‘11/22/63' boggles my mind," wrote Noel Sheppard on News Busters. The other top stories on blogs last week were all tech related. The No. 1 story was news about search engine optimization. At No. 4 was discussion about a new tablet from Fujitsu. And wrapping up the top five subjects on blogs last week was excitement over the not-yet-released Samsung Galaxy S III cellphone.
Twitter Twitter remained a bastion of celebrity news last week, with tweets from a few pop musicians dominating the list of top subjects, which also included a movie preview. Perennial Twitter boy band superstars Super Junior were No. 1 with several tweets, including a video and photo of one of the band members dressed in Marilyn Monroe drag. At No. 3 were two tweeted photos from Lady Gaga, one where she wishes her fans, or "little monsters" a good night. And One Direction, another Twitter favorite boy band, came in fifth place with a photo of a creative clock, tweeted by one of the group members. The No. 2 subject was two tweets from user ThisDopeKid, who tweets "deep posts" that seem aimed primarily at teenagers. Last week's included a photo about having strong feelings and another about cuddling. The No. 4 subject was a movie trailer from the new Batman movie due out this summer, The Dark Knight Rises, starring Christian Bale as Batman and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. YouTube Anti-government protests in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia dominated YouTube last week, accounting for three of the five most popular news-related videos. Thousands of people rallied on April 28 to demand electoral reforms ahead of national elections that could be held as early as June. The demonstration--which started out peacefully and was organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections-turned violent after protesters and police clashed in the Malaysian capital. The No. 1 news video showed a police car losing control after being attacked by protesters and crashing into a wall. The No. 3 video showed riot police firing a water cannon and tear gas at a crowd, which had broken through the barricades and barbed wire sealing off the city's historic Merdeka (Independence) Square. The fourth most popular video showed two versions of the BBC World News report about the Malaysian protests, with the BBC's original broadcast on the left and the censored version aired by the Malaysian satellite television, Astro, on the right. The 2012 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C, on April 28 also drew considerable attention on YouTube. The second-place video, from C-SPAN, was footage of President Obama's remarks poking fun at himself, other politicians and the media. The No. 5 video featured emcee Jimmy Kimmel, host of the ABC late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" delivering remarks at the same event as he joked about the president, the General Services Administration and Secret Service scandals and Mitt Romney.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish their regular news index report this week. Instead, PEJ published this campaign report. The NCI data is available here.
Written more than a year after the onset of the "Arab Spring" and headlined "Why Do They Hate Us?" the piece by Mona Eltahawy argues that women in the Arab world suffer from systematic injustices that are unlikely to change despite the revolutions and upheaval occurring in the region. For the week of April 23-27, the discussion surrounding the Foreign Policy piece was the fourth largest subject on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The commentary on blogs-including from a number of Arab women-was for the most part highly critical of Eltahawy's views, as respondents suggested that her view played into gender stereotypes of the region. The piece also generated interest on Twitter and Facebook, though it did not rank among the top stories. On those social media platforms, the tenor was mixed, but generally more supportive then critical. "Why Do They Hate Us?" Eltahawy's column was published online on April 23 as part of a Foreign Policy special report called "The Sex Issue." Set against the backdrop of the "Arab Spring" occurring throughout the Middle East, the piece described problems facing women in Arab countries. Eltahawy cited a wave of child marriages in Yemen, declared that sexual harassment is "endemic" in countries such as Morocco and Egypt, and recalled how 15 Saudi Arabian girls died in 2002 in a fire because they were not allowed to leave a building without headscarves and cloaks. "Name me an Arab country, and I'll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend," summarized Eltahawy. The column ended with a call to action. "Call out the hate for what it is. Resist cultural relativism and know that even in countries undergoing revolutions and uprisings, women will remain the cheapest bargaining chips...Our political revolutions will not succeed unless they are accompanied by revolutions of thought--social, sexual, and cultural revolutions that topple the Mubaraks in our minds as well as our bedrooms," Eltahawy declared. The piece generated such an intense response that Foreign Policy created a page where six "smart observers" weighed in. There, journalists, professors and researchers shared their own experiences regarding how women are treated in the Arab world. A number of people felt compelled to share the column with their friends using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. For most of those users, the comments were supportive. "An excellent piece on women's liberation in the Arab world by a very thoughtful Egyptian-American lady," posted Bill Rhea on Facebook. "an article that should be read by all women and men," added Leila El Sidaoui.* Not all, however, agreed. "As a Muslim and an Arab, Mona Eltahawy does not represent me," tweeted @Y_salameh. On blogs and commentary-based websites, the conversation expanded as well-although it went in a largely different direction. Some applauded Eltahawy's courage in arguing that the Arab Spring, being lauded by some as a democratizing change in the region, will not automatically improve conditions for women. "Experience shows that switching governments does not put an end to discrimination against women in the Middle East, which transcends political systems," described Sohrab Ahmari at Tablet. "To anyone familiar with the daily humiliations meted out to women from the Maghreb to the Gulf-including the entire patchwork of laws and cultural mores limiting women's travel, dress, and sexuality-Eltahawy's claim is self-evident." Overall, however, the blogosphere commentary was mostly negative. While almost all respondents agreed with her ultimate goal of equality for women, there were a number of vocal critics. Their primary complaint was that Eltahawy's narrative was overly simplistic and played into negative stereotypes about Arab women. "The entire article is framed in a way that portrays Arab women as helpless, and in need of rescue and protection," wrote Samia Errazzouki at Al Monitor. "The issue is framing and presenting women in the region as a monolith and pitting their struggles against the backdrop of an argument which points to ‘hate.'" "But for many Arab women...this column is offensive and is nothing but a combination of old cultural practices and undemocratic government actions that are described in a way to represent women as the Oriental Other, weak, helpless and submissive, oppressed by Islam and the Muslim male, this ugly, barbaric monster," condemned Tahrir Spirit. "As a Muslim Arab woman, I therefore by no means see myself being represented fairly in Eltahawy's column." "Many Arab women are perturbed that her article...has received so much attention while millions of women leaders throughout the Middle East are reduced to a footnote by Western media," wrote Sahar Aziz at The Huffington Post. "By failing to cover the courageous efforts of the millions of women leaders who incrementally chip away at patriarchy, as opposed to bulldozing it with a sledge hammer, Western media exacerbates the underlying problem - the objectification and infantilization of Arab and Muslim women." "Being a liberal Arab-American explains a lot of the rhetoric Eltahawy uses in the Foreign Policy piece," suggested Mona Kareem at Al Monitor. "The photos that accompany the article also rely on stereotypes. The images of a woman painted in black, except for her eyes...are exactly what Eltahawy professes to be against; they are stereotypical depictions of Arab women, and this makes them dangerous." "Though you may have usurped our voices without our consent and begun marketing yourself as having the authority to speak on behalf of all Muslim and Arab women, we contend that we could not have found a better self-appointed media darling," read a sarcastic letter on Colonial Feminism addressed to Eltahawy. "Mona, may you continue in your fight for media slots...despite a slew of Arab women from all walks of life refuting your oversimplification of our plight." Among all of the critiques, however, there was a sense that Eltahawy accomplished at least one goal. "Whether they agree or disagree, people are talking," noted Nadia S. Mohammed at altmuslim. "Sometimes, a sensationalist jump start is what we need to get us moving, as Fatima Dadabhoy cheekily states, ‘Maybe ‘hate' is a strong word but I think the title ‘Why Don't They Like Us Enough or Trust Us Enough or Value Us Enough to Grant Us Our Rights' would just get too wordy.'" The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs The rest of the popular topics on blogs involved a wide variety of high-tech subjects-from the internet cloud to smartphones to classic cars. Two of the biggest topics involved the race for market share in the world of online cloud storage. The No. 1 topic was the April 24 unveiling of Google Drive, Google's foray into the fast-growing tech world. With this service, users can get up to 5GB of storage for free that is integrated with other popular Google products such as Gmail and Google Docs. This marked the second week in a row that the service was the most discussed topic on blogs. The fifth topic was Dropbox, a network storage system that has been around since 2008. On April 23, Dropbox unveiled a new feature that allows users to send links of their stored files to others. Then, on April 27, Dropbox announced it was updating its service to make it easier to upload photos from any camera, smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. The combination of these subjects demonstrate the growing interest and competition surrounding the online storage market from services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and MicroSoft's SkyDrive. Stories about Samsung Phones, including news that Google started selling Galaxy Nexus phones from a new Devices section in the Google Play web store, was the No. 2 subject. A photo gallery celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Shelby Cobra automobile was the number three topic. The car, which debuted at the New York Auto Show in 1962, has become a coveted object for collectors and has been used in numerous road racing competitions through the years.
The News of the Week on Twitter On Twitter, four of the topmost subjects involved male pop singers and groups. Tweets and a radio interview with teen idol Justin Bieber made up the top subject last week, followed by tweets from the boy band Super Junior. Tweets from another boy band, One Direction represented the fourth-biggest topic, followed by links to a new album and video by the band The Wanted. The only non-musical topic among the leading Twitter subjects involved several tweets from Twitter user Derrick, aka @illPosts, featuring his statements about love and relationships, which were the No. 3 topic. This is the second time that tweets from Derrick, who has nearly 350,000 followers, were among the most popular topics on Twitter in the past month. YouTube The most watched news video on YouTube was a news story about a Japanese man with an uncommon hobby. Kenichi Ito, a 29-year-old man living in Tokyo, earned a Guinness World Record for the fastest time running 100 meters on all fours. Long a fan of simians, Ito has spent more than eight years developing the running technique that got him into the record books based on the movements of the African Patas monkey.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Paul Hitlin and Sovini Tan, PEJ The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish their regular news index report this week. However, the NCI data is available here.
The New Media Index has repeatedly found that bloggers tend to be excited by tech news, much of which is generated by the industry leaders. And last week marks the seventh time in 16 weeks this year that Google has registered among the top five stories for bloggers. The upcoming release of Google Drive, a cloud drive like the popular Dropbox, became the primary focus of conversation last week. Google Drive will provide users of Mac, Windows, Android and iOS with 5GB of space for free. Bloggers also responded to design changes coming to Google+. Most of the comments about Google Drive greeted that news warmly, although some bloggers cautioned about overly high expectations. A smaller number of bloggers wrote about Google+ and many of those were pleased with the expected changes. Most of the top stories on blogs last week were technology-related including: the upcoming release of a new Samsung Galaxy cell phone; a website for Harry Potter fans; a controversial comment about the photo app Instagram; and an IPO (initial public offering) date for Facebook.
While the majority of blog posts about Google simply relayed the news that the new Google Drive would be released sometime in the next week, many bloggers couldn't contain their excitement over another product integrated into their Google-dominated world. "It's exciting to think of the possibilities that Google can offer with Google Drive - Gmail and Google Docs integration, or even integration with YouTube or Google+ so that media content stored in Google Drive could be available to publish immediatedly," wrote Darren McCarra at the Sociable.* "This new release of this Google Drive will obviously be a great news for many iOs, Android, Mac and PC users out there," wrote Tim M. at NextPhones4U.* "I've been a long time Dropbox user, but may replace it with Google Drive as my virtual storage of choice depending on its implementation," wrote George Heymann at Technology-Headlines. A few bloggers were a bit more skeptical about the not-yet-released Google Drive. "Google Drive also has its downside. As of now the only systems supported by Google Drive are Windows, Mac OS X, iOS & Android. There is no linux support currently available for Google Drive, whereas Dropbox seamlessly supports all flavours of Linux," wrote Debjit on digitizor. "Then again, Google is no stranger to shoving their heft where it arguably doesn't need to be - just look at Google+. Considering how long Google Drive has been gestating deep in the dark womb that is Mountain View, I expect Google to take every possible opportunity to push their new storage offerings in our faces. But hey, if it works as we all hope it will, that may not be such a bad thing," wrote Aniket Sharma at NewMobileArrivals. And some bloggers cautioned against too much speculation about Google Drive. "But then again, rumours have claimed this before and have been wrong. So, we'll wait and see," wrote Terence Hyunh at TechGeek Australia. Google+ users also got good news last week. The social network, which has 170 million users, is not as widely used as Facebook and the company announced it was revamping the site to make it more aesthetically pleasing, providing a new place for "hangouts" and updating the profile page. Bloggers liked the proposed changes. "[W]e think that the new Google+ interface is a great improvement," wrote Jacqui Keep on Powwownow, "However, it will be interesting to see whether the redesign will encourage an increased up-take of Google+!"
"Because the layout is essentially the same as that of Facebook, users will feel more comfortable and at ease, and the rearrangable icons definitely make for a smoother experience, but that, in turn, brings up the question of differentiation," wrote Matt Smith at insightpool (author's emphasis). Samsung Galaxy The upcoming release of the new model of the Samsung Galaxy S was the No. 2 story was on blogs last week. Most tech bloggers repeated the rumors that the phone would have multiple models and would be the official device of the 2012 Olympic Games. Still, many warned their readers to be wary of any unconfirmed buzz over the phones. "Of course this is all chasing after the wind. While the device that'll be shown on May 3rd at Samsung's press event will almost certainly be the much-rumored Galaxy S III, there's very little verified information to be had even at this late stage," cautioned Michael Crider at Android Community. "Samsung has kept this device and anything official to do with it under pretty tight wraps this time. We are gonna file this one in the rumor bin, for now anyways," wrote Stormy Beach at Android Spin. Other Stories on Blogs Tied with Samsung as the No. 2 story on blogs last week was a discussion about OpenSecrets.org, a site that lists political donors. Two Huffington Post/Center for Public Integrity articles linked to OpenSecrets.org, and the articles were widely shared. One was about how beer and wine wholesalers have played a role in pushing voter ID laws and linked to Open Secret's list of Top All-Time Donors. The other article discussed the salary and lifestyle of the conservative political organization FreedomWorks chairman, Dick Army, and included Open Secret's list of which candidates received money from FreedomWorks. Several subjects were tied for the No. 3 spot. One was the passing of TV rock n' roll pioneer and American Bandstand host Dick Clark, at age 82. Many bloggers wrote that they would miss Clark and reminisced about the past. "Nearly every person with access to television at some point in the last thirty years has had their life at least mildly impacted by the presence of Dick Clark," wrote James at Under the Gun Review, "Rest in peace, Dick. You will be missed." Another No. 3 subject was the photo sharing app Instagram, which was recently purchased by Facebook shortly after it was made available to Android users. Apple's senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, wrote a disparaging tweet about Instagram, saying "It ‘jumped the shark' when it went to Android." "Jumping the shark" is an expression commonly used when television shows start to decline in quality. It refers to an episode of the 70's and 80's sitcom Happy Days when one of the main characters, Fonzie, literally jumped over a shark on water skis. Schiller later clarified his statement saying that Instagram is "a great app and community," but said he missed the time when it was "a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs. Now that it has grow[n] much larger the signal to noise ratio is different." Bloggers quickly grasped onto Schiller's words, making fun of him for being a snob. "Really Phil? Just because of Android? Ouch," wrote Chris Chavez at Phandroid. Another top story was about the Harry Potter fan site, Pottermore, opening up to the general public. And that was followed by speculation about the date of Facebook's initial public offering, which according to reports, is expected to happen on May 17.
The week on Twitter was dominated by pop singers and trending hash tags. In first place were tweets from user @ThisDopeKid, who shared images and his thoughts on some trending hash tags, like this one on #ThingsPeopleDoThatGetOnMyNerves. In second place, was another trending hash tag, this for #ThatsTheTruth, where people shared updates, like this one of a user's typical week. The rest of the top five Twitter stories for the week were about pop stars. R&B artist Drake came in at third place with an image of a teenage girl who showed some resemblance to the singer. At No. 4 was singer/actress Miley Cyrus, sharing two photographs, one of her with a new pair of sunglasses and the other with her pet dog.
YouTube A tragic road accident in Kyoto, Japan was the most viewed news-related video on YouTube last week. The top two videos featured footage of the April 12 vehicle tragedy that killed eight people, including the driver, and injured at least eight others. Thirty-year-old Shingo Fujisaki drove a minivan through a red light at a crowded intersection and struck many pedestrians before running into a pole. The accident took place in Gion, Kyoto's main geisha district and an area packed with tourists, many of whom were visiting the cherry blossoms. Fujisaki's family told public broadcaster NHK that he had epilepsy. His doctors said that they urged him not to drive because of his condition. On the No. 1 top news video, a YouTube user was filming near Gion when the tragedy occurred and captured the sound of the impact of the accident. The No. 2 video was an eighteen-second-video showing the minivan smashing into a telephone pole after hitting a crowd of pedestrians.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. Note: For the week studied, Technorati was down four out of five days and Twitturly was down for all five days. Top stories on the NMI were determined via the remaining sources. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish their regular news index report this week. However, the NCI data is available here.
For the week of April 9-13, the internet business acquisition was the most discussed topic on blogs and the third most discussed on Twitter, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Instagram, a photo-sharing network that has more than 30 million users, is perhaps best known for the quick filter options users can apply to improve the look of their own photos. Despite the fact that the company, which started in 2010, has grown rapidly in the past two years, most people thought the price was far too high for a service that has no current revenue. Many others feared that Facebook would somehow change Instagram in a negative fashion by making it less user friendly or commercializing it. In addition to the Facebook purchase, the Trayvon Martin case, which left the 17-year-old dead after being shot by George Zimmerman, remained a large component of the social media conversation. Last week, fully six weeks after the incident occurred, the story was the second biggest subject on blogs and the fourth largest on Twitter.
This past week, the discussion moved beyond the specifics of the case to focus on three media controversies The first involved the firing of an unnamed NBC producer who edited the audio clips of Zimmerman's 9-1-1 calls to make the incident appear racially motivated. The second was a report, later disputed, that a group of neo-Nazis had traveled to the area where the incident occurred. And third was the firing of writer John Derbyshire by the National Review after he wrote a controversial column consisting of racially-charged advice, inspired in part by the discussion surrounding the Martin case. In all three cases, commentators accused the news organizations involved of having hidden biases and political agendas of their own. Facebook Buys Instagram For most that commented on the Facebook purchase, the headline was the large sticker-price-especially given that fact that the young photo-sharing service has yet to generate revenue. "Facebook paid $1 billion for a free app that isn't ad-supported and has no (apparent) business model in place. Wow," tweeted Erik Malinowski. "I can't believe $0 = $1 billion. I really hope this isn't real, because this is a gross miscalculation of reality," responded Brian Wong. "I remember when pictures used to be worth a thousand words. Talk about inflation," wrote a commenter Shehryar Siddiqi on TechCrunch. A few analysts saw the purchase differently. "For Facebook, buying Instagram looks like one of the smartest acquisitions the company has ever made," wrote Christina Warren at Mashable. "Why try to build a competing photo app when you can just buy the best and most viral?" "This acquisition is an improvement to Facebook's already-dominant photos product, and it's a way to tie more Facebook activity to a mobile experience that, unlike Facebook's own apps, does not suck at all," agreed Jon Mitchell at ReadWriteWeb. Another large cohort, though, feared that Facebook would have a negative impact on the service they had come to enjoy. The website The Next Web conducted an online poll showing that 40% of respondents would stop using Instagram because Facebook now owns it, compared to only 21% who would continue. "Facebook is going to ruin instagram too..." worried Jake McGuire. "I swear to god if Facebook do one thing to instagram I'm having an intervention. #dontwantfacebooknomore," warned Emily Ashton. * "I could be proven terribly wrong but it seems to me this is the high point for Instagram before it begins what almost certainly will be its slow decline," predicted Greg Sterling at Screenwork. The ultimate impact of the deal on both Facebook and Instagram, as well as on their users, remains to be seen. Trayvon Martin Case Continued On April 6, NBC announced it was firing an unnamed producer for editing the audio tapes of George Zimmerman in a misleading way. Despite the move, criticism of NBC continued among bloggers, and came primarily from conservatives claiming that NBC was trying to push a racial agenda. "Their [NBC's] actions in the editing of the 911 tape were malicious, designed to start race wars and get George Zimmerman killed. There is no other answer for their lies," charged Ron Reale at Coach is Right. "This dishonest behavior has characterized NBC for many years," added Stranger at Extrano's Alley. "It is of course time to stop it. But I am reasonably sure it will take more than a little negative publicity to straighten things out at NBC. And MSNBC, CNBC, and the rest of that group." Some went even further, claiming NBC was participating in a cover-up. "I want to know if the person who was fired actually exists, or is it just a figment of a lawyerly imagination, which leaves NBC and other mass lying media to promulgate falsehoods and gin up race wars (for fun and profit? for the LULZ? or deeper agenda?) free to continue as they were, with no consequences or punishments," demanded The World According to American Goy. Others bloggers focused on reports that a group of neo-Nazis had traveled to Sanford, Florida, in order to ensure the safety of white citizens in the area. Initially, bloggers passed along the report adding their own thoughts on the group. "You know all that rhetoric about ‘race war' that's showing up at Breitbart.com and many other right wing sites these days?" asked Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. "It's not just rhetoric. There are some people in Sanford, Florida right now who are taking it very seriously indeed." "It's nice to see the white power movement cater to the racial divisions brought up by the Trayvon Martin murder, surfacing as ‘good citizens' like this," added a sarcastic Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend. Some bloggers focused their attention on a local Orlando Fox television affiliate that ran a news report referring to the rumored patrol as a "Civil Rights Group" without challenging their radical views. "It is not surprising that they [Nazis] would be attracted to a spot where racial hostility has the potential to boil over, they are trouble looking for trouble," responded JIMK at Teach the Facts. "But I was not really prepared to see how sympathetically the local Fox News channel would play it." "A Foxnews affiliate in Orlando referred to the Nazis as a ‘Civil Rights' group," shared Clay Jones at the Fredricksburg.com blog. "Yes, you read correctly. The all-white-supremacist-neo nazis who were inspired by the guy who had 6 million Jews murdered has been recognized by Fox as a civil rights group." The discussion changed, though, when the original story was called into question. A Miami New Times blog, widely cited as the original source for the story, later acknowledged it did not have independent proof that a neo-Nazi group was in Sanford, only that a leader of the group was claiming they were there. Bloggers responded with strong media criticism. "In what has become a prime example of media malpractice, none of the major publications spreading the rumors bothered to check with local law enforcement," wrote William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection. "I did, and the Sanford Police deny any indication of neo-Nazi patrols." At the same time, a third controversy was brewing at the conservative publication, the National Review. Staffer John Derbyshire was fired after writing a column where he advised parents of non-black kids to convey certain warnings to their children. Among them, he suggested to "Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods" and "Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians."
"They [Derbyshire and his supporters] hate black people as a group because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of statistics, sociology, and controlling for non-biological factors," challenged Bryan Lambert at You Are Dumb. "They're trading in the white robes for a suit and a thoughtful look, in the hopes that their wardrobe will convey respectability. And for the most part, it's worked." "For far too long periodicals and conservative organizations have provided legitimate cover for the likes of neo-Nazis and white supremacist like John Derbyshire," asserted BTX3's blog. "Conservatives would be claiming to be holding their noses - but it's hard to see, after such a long association that they were holding their noses tight enough to affect their breathing the foul miasma drifting from these scumbags." At the same time, a number of conservatives also criticized the National Review and its editor Rick Lowry, but for a very different reason-for not defending Derbyshire enough. "It's official, the neocon rag National Review has fired John Derbyshire for writing an entirely reasonable and realistic article," complained Satre at NeoCon Watch. "Looking at mundane crime statistics, Derbyshire wrote a piece advising white parents to tell their kids not to visit black neighborhoods, etc. The leftist and neocon media went ballistic." "John Derbyshire is an honourable man who will not apologise for the crime of pointing out the truth and God knows we need more like him," posted BrokenSymmetry at Meanderings. "But there is also the issue of cowardice in caving in to the demands of ones ideological opponents for the head of one of your best writers. I would have stuck by JD if only for this reason. I really, really wish that I had a subscription to the NR if only for the pleasure of canceling it." The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the No. 3 topic was a column by actress and activist Ashley Judd where she disparaged the media for reporting that her face looked "puffy" and implying that she had surgery. Judd argued that this focus on how women look is a misogynistic assault on women. The presidential campaign was the fourth subject with most of the attention directed at the news that Rick Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10. And the passing of reporter Mike Wallace at the age of 93, best known for his work on the CBS show "60 Minutes," was the fifth biggest topic. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter On Twitter, the other top subjects included tweets from singers and a meme based on the body-image for women. A number of tweets from pop star Miley Cyrus, including one about Easter and another featuring a picture of her with her mother, were the most linked-to subject last week. Tweets from the popular boy band One Direction were the No. 2 subject. And a hashtag, #ThingsIHateOnFemales, was the fifth biggest subject. Many users retweeted a picture that decried the fact that women today are only considered attractive if they are especially skinny, as opposed to earlier film stars who were not as thin. YouTube On YouTube, a variety of videos ranging from science to sports to economics, received the most views. The No. 1 clip consisted of a supposed UFO sighting caught from an airplane over Seoul, South Korea. Filmed by a passenger on April 7, the footage showed a white round-shaped object flying past the window. The No. 2 video featured a tense moment on a sports talk show. On the April 10 edition of ESPN's program First Take, former professional basketball player Jalen Rose called out his co-host, commentator Skip Bayless, for lying about his high school basketball career at Northwest Classen High. According to an investigation by the website TheLostOgle, Bayless had previously misrepresented his playing career on Twitter.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Paul Hitlin and Sovini Tan, PEJ The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish their regular news index report this week. However, the NCI data is available here.
On April 4, Google released a video previewing its planned augmented-reality glasses, or "Project Glass." In the video, an unidentified user starts his day by checking his schedule and monitoring the weather by looking in the glasses. The glasses also inform him of a subway delay, provide walking directions to his destination, and help him with other small tasks that would currently be done through a smartphone. The man ends his day playing the ukulele for a lady friend who he is chatting with through the glasses. The reaction online was both instantaneous and voluminous. Project Glass became the top story on blogs for the week of April 2-6 and the No. 2 story on Twitter according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. But there were some differences in how bloggers and Twitter users responded. While tech bloggers were largely impressed by the potential of the device, they tempered that excitement with some concern about whether the glasses would work as well as advertised. (Google has not announced a release date for the product.) Twitter users seemed more unabashedly enthusiastic about the technology, sharing jokes and videos about Project Glass. Project Glass For many bloggers, the new device was seen as a potential game changer. "This could be a massive hit among a global tech-savvy gen-y audience. A relevant piece of art, not just a gadget. A disrupting force that could fuel the Google brand, as well as a brand new business model," declared Igor Beuker at Viral Blog. "The smartphone has become our gateway into digital social networking: any disconnect between it and the real-world arguably comes about because the method of delivery is inefficient. Google's concept of bouncing icons and pop-up dialog bubbles may not address that entirely, but if the recent avalanche of smartphones and mobile apps is anything to go by, put hardware into developers' hands and - no matter how rudimentary - the software will swiftly progress...science-fiction becoming science fact," wrote Chris Davies at Slash Gear, quoting Steve Mann, a pioneer of the technology. Some bloggers however, leavened their excitement with skepticism about the device and its implications. "No offense to the glasses wearers out there, but I've worked my whole life to not wear glasses," wrote Chris Spags at Guyism. "Pounding carrots, pretending I meant to walk into a particular wall. So sorry, Project Glass, but I'm not exactly dying for your invasive and nerdy solution. Take that, billion dollar company with brilliant ideas." "[I]t's also slightly scary for anyone concerned about the prying eyes of government surveillance," cautioned Peter Suderman at Reason." One element of the bloggers' wariness about project seemed to be a suspicion of Google's corporate motives. "There is nothing inherently wrong with the world Google imagines: checking in at a coffee shop, texting with friends or video chatting with a partner," wrote Navneet Alang for The Atlantic, "In as much as digital can place these in front of us, this is good. But Google has always had its own ends for how it has organized information, and other companies do too." "Project Glass might well, in the future, prove to be more than a little amusement. We might all be wearing these things and even learning how not to barge into each other on Fifth Avenue. Currently, though, Google's putting this out there to make you like the company more," wrote Chris Matyszczyk at CNET. On Twitter, there was less of the skepticism seen in the blogosphere about Project Glass, with users sharing their thoughts on the project, jokes about the glasses, as well as video parodies of Google's original announcement. "Awesome!:)))" tweeted Mariano. "Google is working on an augmented reality project that melds your phone, your glasses and your brain. #jawdropping" wrote Terry Vandrovec. Some made cracks about Google and the device. "I changed my mind, google should call their new augmented reality product Googly Eyes," joked Richard Minerich.* And at least one user made light of the fact that the man in Google's video was using Google+, the company's relatively unpopular social network. "Most unrealistic part of Google's vision for augmented reality glasses is that someone in the future would use Google+," said Eric Fenstermaker. The Rest of the Week on Blogs
News about another tech giant was the No. 2 story on blogs last week. Some of Apple's iPad 3 devices were reportedly not easily connecting to WiFi signals. Leaked documents published by the website 9 to 5 Mac, indicate that Apple has decided to replace the affected units and is investigating the issue. Bloggers largely shared this data, informing their community of readers that there was a problem and directing them to the 9 to 5 Mac article that included the Apple documents. "If you're having problems getting your brand new iPad to connect to Wi-Fi, you aren't alone. Speak up! Let AppleCare know and Apple will replace your unit," advised Emily at PadGadget. A politically-tinged debate surrounding the Supreme Court's pending decision on the Obama Administration's health care law was the third-biggest story in the blogosphere last week. The reaction was to the president's comment that a decision against the measure would represent, "an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress." The blogosphere responded quickly, with many critical of the president. "Obama's news conference reply seemed stunningly ignorant for a lawyer, someone who's touted his credentials as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago," wrote Andrew Malcom at Investor's Business Daily. "It is a sad comment on the present state of politics in America that the Republicans are only interested in seeing Obama-care collapse," countered Nomad at Nomadic Politics. News from the fashion world completed the list of the top five news topics on blogs last week. The No. 4 story was an article on how to style your hair like 1940s movie actress Veronica Lake that was recently shared by Dana Oliver at Styleist. That was followed, at No. 5, by a photo diary from fashion blogger Bryan Boy of his birthday trip to Las Vegas.
Twitter As is often the case, pop culture icons were a hot topic on Twitter last week. The No. 1 subject was the Irish-British band One Direction, which is a recurring top story. Last week, the band was on Saturday Night Live, a sign of its growing celebrity in the U.S. And it has already been one of the top five subjects on Twitter six times in 2012. Popular tweets from the group included one from band member Harry Styles, asking his fans if they would judge him for wearing a pair of sunglasses that he dropped in the toilet and a photo of the group with last week's Saturday Night Live host, Sophía Vergara. In third place were some tweets about the Fox show, Glee. One was a photo of several of the show's cast members, tweeted by star Lea Michele and the other was a video clip of a song from an upcoming episode, featuring the popular song "Somebody That I Used to Know." In fourth place was a quick clip of teen heartthrob Justin Bieber plugging his new album on iTunes. And the No. 5 story on Twitter was a rage comic of a manicure gone wrong with the hash tag #YouKnowWhatsAnnoying. YouTube The top video on YouTube for the week was a practical joke played on a major presidential candidate while he was campaigning in Wisconsin. In the video, Governor Mitt Romney walks into a ballroom that he is expecting to be full of supporters enjoying a pancake brunch. With great fanfare, Congressman Paul Ryan announces Romney as "the next president of the United States!" as the governor walks into the room with Senator Ron Johnson. Except, when Romney enters the room, he notices that there are only a handful of staffers in the ballroom. "Happy April Fools!" a staffer yells. "This really is a small crowd," Romney responds, in good spirits about the prank, "You guys are really bad."
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Emily Guskin |
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A look at President Barack Obama's social life three decades ago was a hot topic on blogs last week.
niversity and it was so relatable!" wrote 
erent reactions in social media last week: shock at the price tag and skepticism about how Facebook would impact the popular photo-sharing app.
surrounding the coverage, often inside a political frame.
