News Index
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
Not only did that represent one of the unusual occasions when the same topic led both social media platforms, bloggers and tweeters also focused on the same element of the story-the honoring of singer Chris Brown. Although pop icon Whitney Houston died the night before the Grammy event, the conversation largely centered on Brown, the winner for best R&B album of the year who drew notoriety after a domestic violence incident three years earlier. Houston's death, however, did generate three of the five most popular YouTube news videos last week. Last week offered another example of just how potent a topic popular culture is in social media-particularly on Twitter. But this was not simply a case of bloggers and tweeters engaged in hero worship or embracing a popular entertainer. Instead it triggered commentary on the issue of domestic abuse. And there was something of a divide in the reactions to Brown's triumphant return to the limelight at the February 12 Grammys. Some admirers who enjoyed his performance shrugged off his history of domestic abuse. But most of the reactions condemned Brown, the Grammy Awards for honoring him, and the fans that seemed to downplay his domestic violence history. Brown himself added fuel to the fire by responding to his critics on Twitter. No Love for Chris Brown (Or His Admirers) Some of the stories that were popular among bloggers tackled the standard Grammy subjects. The AOL Music blog posted a photo spread of music stars on the red carpet. Bellasugar.com also focused on Grammy style ("Lady Gaga wouldn't let her fans down on a night like the Grammys, and her hair and makeup were just as avant-garde as you'd expect"). MTV.com posted a summary of the winners of major music categories, such as record and song of the year. But one story that lit up the blogosphere was a list compiled by BuzzFeed.com of "25 extremely upsetting reactions to Chris Brown at the Grammys." It consisted of culled Twitter reactions to the music star that referenced his 2009 domestic violence arrest after an altercation with his girlfriend at the time, Robyn Rihanna (known as Rihanna), also a popular recording artist. The tweets compiled by BuzzFeed came from users who were pleased by Brown's performances at the awards ceremony. "I'd let Chris Brown beat me up," wrote one. "chris brown could beat me all he wants, he is flawless," wrote another. Popular blogs linked to the list and condemned the tweets. Opinion L.A., a Los Angeles Times blog, linked to the list and criticized Brown for not taking his moment in the spotlight to speak out against domestic violence. "Brown could have dedicated some of his time in the spotlight to a PSA so that young women, such as the ones listed above, would better understand that there's nothing ‘hot' about domestic violence. But he didn't, leaving critics to rightly take him and the Grammys to task." Gawker weighted in with a Feb. 13 post, stating that the women who viewed Chris Brown's Grammy performances must have "decided that his sexiness trumped his wretchedness."
Amateur bloggers had their say, too. Some bloggers were more angry at the Grammys and Brown, such as sassyeditrix of One Unique Token: "This year's gathering was particularly abhorrent, however, because of the Recording Academy‘s two-armed embrace of notorious enfant terrible Chris Brown. And by "enfant terrible," I mean "sentenced domestic abuser.'" In a rare digression, one blogger writing for Daily Motion acknowledged that the Twitter users in BuzzFeed's list may have been writing with tongue in cheek, but still expressed disapproval: "I get that their joking, but to joke about such a sensitive topic like domestic abuse? That's unacceptable."* Those on Twitter reacting to the matter of Chris Brown were no more amused than were bloggers. User jimsterling (Jim Sterling) tweeted: "Milli Vanilli lip sync'd and became industry pariahs. Chris Brown smashed a woman's face up and won an award. America." Brown himself entered the fray with an answer to his critics. His tweet, from February 14, read in part: "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY." It was later deleted, but not before being noticed, captured and spread widely. To Brown's tweet, droidguy1119 (Tyler Foster) had this to say: "Yes, Chris Brown. I am a "hater." As in, I hate that you punch women and still get to walk around, rich and without a care in the world."
The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Other popular topics on blogs last week were heavily tech-oriented. The No. 2 subject focused on privacy concerns related to the latest iPhone version after it came to light that many popular applications collect names, email addresses and phone numbers from a user's address book, often without asking permission. At No. 3 was the subject of Google, with many bloggers linking to a story evaluating the pros and cons of the Google+ platform. The Nos. 4 and 5 topics revolved around APIs (application programming interfaces) and HTC Corp., a Taiwanese phone maker that is working on a set of new mobile devices that it hopes will revive its flagging fortunes.
The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter On Twitter, the most popular subjects other than the Grammys also focused on celebrity and pop culture. Tied for No. 1 along with the Grammy awards were two conversations, one about how to treat a woman nicely, and another about people's pet peeves. Two popular celebrities-Justin Bieber at No. 2 and Will Smith at No. 3-also made the rounds on Twitter. In Bieber's case, a video of him promoting a new singer circulated, and Smith got attention for a joke he posted on Twitter. The No. 4 subject was Zynga, a social network gaming company that launched a new game for Facebook during the week. YouTube While bloggers and tweeters focused on Chris Brown, singer Whitney Houston's sudden death at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11 at the age of 48 dominated YouTube last week. The No. 2 video, shot from a cell phone, captured Houston's last public performance at R&B singer Kelly Price's pre-Grammy party before her untimely death. The singer performed "Jesus Loves Me" with Price at Tru Hollywood on February 9 in Hollywood, California. The No. 3 video showed MSNBC Paige Hopkins anchoring the live coverage about the death of Houston, a news story broken by the Associated Press. Entertainment reporter Courtney Hazlett gave additional information about the singer's career and personal life over the phone. The No. 5 video showed ABC News anchor David Muir reporting Houston's death with a quick overview of her career that included her interview with Diane Sawyer in 2002, and a phone conversation with Chris Connelly about the singer's career and struggle with drugs.
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 Jesse Holcomb and Sovini Tan, PEJ
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not publish a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
The website Letters of Note received more than two million views of a missive written in 1 For the week of January 30 to February 3, Anderson's 147-year-old letter was the third-most linked-to subject on blogs, according to the tracking of social media in The New Media Index by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The discussion took several directions. Many people admired the letter for its poignancy and wit and shared it with friends. Others questioned the letter's authenticity. A handful of people took advantage of the breadth of information available online to try to verify the letter's genuineness. For others, the letter became the trigger for a complex discussion of race and slavery. "To My Old Master" Anderson's correspondence was believed to have been first printed in the New York Daily Tribune in August 1865 (a picture of that newspaper is available here). However, the inclusion of the letter on the Letters of Note website gave the story new life after Yahoo News highlighted it in a story coinciding with the start of Black History Month. "A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz," reported Yahoo's Eric Pfeiffer. "Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm." The contents of Anderson's letter, who had escaped from slavery and was doing paid work in Ohio with his family, quickly fascinated bloggers-particularly the artfulness that Anderson used to decline his former master's request. "Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living," Anderson wrote his former owner. "I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance." With a tinge of sarcasm, Anderson, who as a freeman now earned 25 dollars a month and sent his children to school, described what it would take for him to return to work at the farm where he had been enslaved. "We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you...I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars," he calculated. "If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future." Finally, Anderson signed off: "Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me." After Yahoo publicized the letter, a number of news organizations posted stories about the subsequent surge of interest in it, including The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Britain's Independent and the popular blog Boing Boing. As for Bloggers, many were taken by the richness of the text. "Please take a minute, if you have one, to read it through," recommended Gaius Publius at America Blog. "You won't be displeased - it's a treat from end to end." "When I reached the apex of the letter, which is a request of ‘some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly', I laughed out loud," shared Motley News.* As with much information posted online, a few people immediately raised questions about the letter's authenticity. Some wondered if the language was too modern or if a former slave, unlikely to be fully educated, could have written or dictated it. In response, a number of people including historians tried to use the web to dig up clues about the letter's origin. Jason Kottke, for example, used the site Ancestry.com to uncover a census from 1870 showing a Jourdan Anderson living in Ohio with Mandy, his wife, and four children. Kottke also found a record of Anderson's death in a 1905 issue of the Dayton Daily Journal by searching the obituaries available from the Dayton library system. David Galbraith tweeted a link showing details about Anderson from a 1900 census. On Snopes.com, a website known for investigating online rumors, a discussion on the message boards uncovered even more information such as pictures of the letter as it appeared in the Pennsylvania newspaper The Agitator in 1865. While none of evidence was determinative, most of the discussion seemed to lean toward believing the letter was real. Michael Johnson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, did his own research and concluded that the people were real and that the letter is "probably authentic." After looking through census data and slave records, Johnson told The Huffington Post, "That in itself is not conclusive proof that the letter is real, but the slave owner was real and he had plenty of slaves." Johnson added that Anderson could not read or write, according to the 1870 census, but the letter could have been written by his 19-year-old daughter, Jane, who was listed as literate. Rob Baker, a graduate student studying American history and author of the blog The Historic Struggle, who did his own digging and determined that the letter was likely legitimate, summarized the process. "As historians we would like nothing better than the smoking gun but more often than not we are left only with the trail. This trail suggests that the letter is real," Baker wrote. "The theory presented here is that the letter is legitimate, written by Jourdon, intended for Colonel P.H. Anderson and not just advancing an emancipation agenda. As always, this is open to debate and improvement." The subject matter also initiated some discussion about race. "I'm glad my white family was from the North. I'd be ashamed to know my ancestors took part in such disgusting behavior," Luke, a commenter on the site Twenty-Two Words, proclaimed. "Why would you be ashamed of what your ancestor's did?" asked Amber in response. "My family lineage is pretty clearly telling that I am a direct descendent of what used to be a very large ranch that owned dozen, if not hundreds, of slaves...Am I ashamed of them? No. Because they aren't me. They were idiots and cowards, but they weren't me. To act like you are better than me because your ancestry might be cleaner is arrogant and horrifying." "This could be the first case for reparations," suggested Charles McGee in a comment on Black Like Moi. "For those who do not know that some folks have always known that the game is rigged they will be disappointed. For those who have known that the game was rigged this is fuel for the cultural revolution in America." Yet for some, the journey into history left them with other thoughts. "If Mr. Anderson had taken up writing professionally, he could have given Mark Twain and Bret Harte a run for their money," praised Peg at Life and Other Goofiness. The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Elsewhere on blogs last week, the largest subjects included internet marketing and entertainment. For the second week in a row, and the third time so far in 2012, the subject of Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, was the top subject tracked by PEJ on blogs. Last week, bloggers focused on a post on Search Engine Watch which recommended questions to ask companies that provide SEO services. A post promoting the O'Dwyer rankings, a list rating many of the top public relations firms in the country, was the second most linked-to subject. A Vanity Fair cover shoot and article focusing on eleven of Hollywood's "thoroughly modern actresses" including the Oscar nominated stars Rooney Mara and Jessica Chastain was No. 4. And news of the apparent suicide of Soul Train creator Don Cornelius at the age of 75 was fifth. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
On Twitter, meanwhile, pop culture and entertainment were the dominating topics of conversation. For the third week in a row, viral tweets from the feed @The90sLife showing pop culture references from the 1990s and reminiscences from childhood drew significant attention, last week finishing as the top subject. Tweets and pictures from teen singing star Justin Bieber were No. 2. Third was a YouTube highlight from a professional basketball game featuring a dunk by Los Angeles Clipper Blake Griffin. Some fans felt the play was the best dunk of all time. YouTube And on YouTube last week, the country of Russia was widely represented as three of the top five videos involved Russian people-although the subject matter varied significantly. The top video, coming from news channel Russia 24, showed Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), speaking during a State Duma session about allegations of massive vote fraud in the December 4 parliamentary elections. These elections allowed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party to retain its majority in parliament and sparked the biggest anti-government protests in two decades. And a six-second clip showing Russian hockey player Alexander Radulov of the Kontinental Hockey League's Salavat Yulayev hitting his team's goaltending coach Ilari Näckel with a hockey stick was the fourth most-watched video.
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 a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
In the realm of social media, Facebook is a major and enduring topic. Since PEJ began tracking the conversation on blogs in January 2009 and Twitter in June 2009, Facebook has been among the top five topics on one of those platforms in 39 different weeks. And that interest seems to have grown over the past year. In 2011, Facebook was among the most popular subjects on either blogs or Twitter 18 weeks compared to eleven weeks in 2010 and 10 weeks in 2009.
These are some findings of a special edition of the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence
Overall, it has been users of the competing social network, Twitter, far more than bloggers that have shown a strong interest in news about Facebook. During the past two and a half years, Facebook made the top story list on Twitter in 35 weeks, compared to seven weeks on blogs (there were three occasions when Facebook was on the list of both platforms). Some of that discrepancy may be tied in part to the more tech-centric nature of Twitter and because Twitter, more than blogs, is often a vehicle for simply passing along new information. Looking across the 39 weeks of attention, two prevalent themes emerge: changes to Facebook's interface and technology, and the business aspects of the growing enterprise. The reaction to network developments depended in large part on the issue at hand. Privacy related issues tended to spark the greatest concern while new functions and technology generated a more positive response. Facebook may well continue to wrestle with issues of privacy since, as many analysts have suggested, the personal data of the site's 800 million users is a large part of what is being leveraged during the IPO. Facebook Changes: Good and Bad When Facebook made changes involving privacy settings or its privacy policy, there was often widespread outrage in blogs and on Twitter. In May 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published an opinion column in the Washington Post in response to an outpouring of resistance to the site's changes to privacy settings. Consumers were concerned that Facebook could sell information to third-party companies and that Facebook's polices were purposely complicated. "For starters, you didn't know the first thing about respecting my privacy," responded blogger Joelle Pearson in an open letter to Facebook. "You told everyone everything. You sold my secrets to every fatcat company-the music I liked, the places I shopped-you even showed my chats and pictures to anyone who asked...I don't care how much you apologize. To me, or anyone else. We're through." More than a year earlier, in February 2009, bloggers were outraged when a consumer advocacy blog noticed wording changes in Facebook's terms of service. "Facebook's terms of service (TOS) used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire," identified the blog The Consumerist. "Not anymore. Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." "I think the said change of terms is a BIG issue," responded blogger madhavgopalkrish at My Green Meadows. "in the face of society of information and flow of availability, the act of facebook is unthinkable. They are providers (and earn much from that) and not owners of the information that flows through the system."* Last February, twitterers took notice when two media artists imported 250,000 publicly available Facebook profiles to a dating site without permission to demonstrate potential dangers of identity theft. "Facebook, an endlessly cool place for so many people, becomes at the same time a goldmine for identity theft and dating - unfortunately, without the user's control," the artists wrote. "If we start to play with the concepts of identity theft and dating, we should be able to unveil how fragile a virtual identity given to a proprietary platform can be." Alterations to the site's interface and functions were also generally met with resistance. This was especially true in September 2011 when Facebook revamped its layout and key functions by overhauling user profiles and adding a timeline function. Many users objected to the new live activity feed called the "ticker" which highlighted information the site thought users would enjoy. "FB knows what's important to me? Obviously not!" tweeted Joyce Barrass. "Gimme back 'most recent' layout, new FB no good!" demanded @karenevans01. When change meant improved capabilities, though, social media users often cheered. In September 2009, Twitter users heavily shared the news that Facebook was creating a voice chat function and "status tagging," a way to identify and link to other people in their status updates. The combination of the "like" and "share" commands into a single "like" button drew more interest on Twitter than any other subject the last week of February 2011. And in August 2011, bloggers praised the introduction of Facebook's new mobile Messenger app. Facebook as a Business The business aspects of Facebook were also of great interest on social media. Last November, when reports first surfaced that Facebook was considering a public offering, it was the second most linked-to subject on Twitter that week. "Facebook Inc. is inching closer to an initial public offering that it hopes will value the company at more than $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter," reported a Wall Street Journal article that was widely linked to at the time. Six months earlier, Twitter users focused on a report that Facebook was partnering with media companies for a new feature that would integrate video and music into users' profiles so that the site could one day become a "central hub" for multimedia online. Even an advice column on how to land a job working for Facebook drew attention last April. "For those of you applying to non-technical roles, be sure you're active users, understand the company culture and have a resume filled with leadership and ‘builder' activities," recommended Ben Parr of Mashable. "It's more impressive if you launched an organization or product than if you simply took it over." And the personal wealth of Zuckerberg earned focus when he signed onto the "giving pledge" created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to donate most of his wealth to charity in December 2010. "If you think that Facebook's main aim is only to increase its user's base manifold and stand as a giant figure in the social networking arena, you may have to reconsider that," responded Padameshwar Singh Nongthombam at the WATBlog. "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, who is just 26 and has become one of the world's youngest billionaires, has probably decided not to keep all his wealth to himself and agreed to donate majority of it to charity." Other Facebook Topics On multiple occasions, reports about potential negative Facebook impacts on teens drew attention. In August 2011, many tweets highlighted a study conducted by a professor of psychology at California State University that suggested overdosing on Facebook may lead to the development of psychological disorders in teens. And in February 2010, a report about a Wisconsin teenager convicted of using the social networking site to blackmail classmates was the third most popular subject on Twitter one week. The fascination with Facebook also brought social media users to Hollywood. A rumor in September 2009 that a movie was going to be made about the founders of Facebook was the third-biggest topic one week on Twitter. That movie, released about a year later with the name "The Social Network" made more than $200 million worldwide and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three. Last Week on Blogs Last week, the leading subjects on blogs involved topics regarding other aspects of the web such as search technology and privacy.
For the fourth straight week, the subject of Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, was among th A blog post by Jorgen Sundberg-a world renowned social media trainer with connections to the popular social media sites LinkedIn and Link Humans-about how he plans to change his blogging strategies for the coming year was the No. 2 subject. A post on Google's blog about changes to the company's privacy policies and Terms of Service was third. Some commentators and politicians feared that the company would be storing more consumer information and could not be trusted. A related controversy over online piracy legislation-which drew online protests the previous week-was the fourth-largest subject and bloggers continued to follow the specific members of Congress who have come out against the unpopular SOPA and PIPA bills. A similar subject was the No. 1 video on YouTube last week (see below). And an article in the New Yorker based on hundreds of internal White House memos from Obama's first months in office came in at No. 5. The story served as a rare glimpse inside the decision-making process of the president during his efforts to promote a stimulus package and health care reform. Last Week on Twitter Pop culture references and a freedom of speech issue involving Twitter itself led the conversation on Twitter last week. The Korean boy band Super Junior was the No. 1 story, making it the fifth time in the last six weeks where the group ranked among the most linked-to subjects on Twitter.
For the second week in a row, viral tweets from the feed @The90sLife showing pop culture references and characters from the 1990s were popular, finishing this time at No. 2. Twitter itself was the third subject with most of the links going to a blog post on the Twitter site announcing that the company would now have an ability to censor some content from certain countries, while leaving it available in others. For example, countries such as France and Germany have bans against pro-Nazi content. In order to prevent such content from appearing in those countries, Twitter used to have to remove the content altogether. Now, however, it can remove that content from certain countries without removing it from the site completely. Twitter argued that this change is good for freedom of expression because it allows opinions-even those that are unpopular-to appear in more places than before. Links to a live stream of the January 26 Official Hand and Footprint Ceremony for Michael Jackson at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood were the fourth most popular subject. And a picture tweeted by actor Ashton Kutcher of him surfing in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, during a heavy rain storm was the fifth most-tweeted subject. YouTube The debate over online piracy, which was the top subject on both Twitter and blogs one week earlier, moved to YouTube last week as it registered among the most watched news videos. A similar video produced by a different advocacy group was the top video last October. The No. 4 video focused on the American piracy bills. The clip came from the HBO program Real Time with Bill Maher and showed the comedian defending SOPA and PIPA. Maher, who admitted he had not read the bills, complained about how much he lost from people illegally downloading his own movie Religulous and argued that people just want "free stuff." His three panel guests, who represented a range of political opinions, strongly disagreed with him and voiced concerns over the unintended consequences the bills might have on an open internet.
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 a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
Last week, Congress was scheduled to vote on two bills aimed at combating illegal downloading and streaming of movies and TV shows on the internet-the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA). However, bloggers, Twitter users and social media giants like Google united against the bills because of fears the legislation would give media companies too much power and constitute internet censorship. The online pressure was so strong that despite efforts from 115 companies and organizations that had lobbyists working on the bills, both houses of Congress announced on January 20 they would postpone the legislation. For the week of January 16-20, the protests over the piracy legislation was the No. 1 subject on both blogs and Twitter, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. And on both types of social media, there was overwhelming agreement that the bills would be detrimental to freedom on the web. In a related finding, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that nearly one-quarter (23%) of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 followed the SOPA battle more closely than any other topic last week, making it a bigger story among that youthful demographic than the presidential race. That level of interest was in full display online. A massive online protest was staged on Wednesday, January 18, with Wikipedia taking its site down for the day and thousands of other sites following suit. At the same time, millions of individuals signed online petitions and voiced their opposition to the bills. The relationship between the protests and the reaction by Congress was seen as a clear and crucial victory for online activism. As Columbia Professor Tim Wu told the New York Times, "This is the first real test of the political strength of the Web, and regardless of how things go, they are no longer a pushover...The Web taking a stand against one of the most powerful lobbyers and seeming to get somewhere is definitely a first." The Argument Against the Bills Supporters of the SOPA and PIPA bills claimed the intent was to give media companies recourse against websites that host pirated material, even if the website was not responsible for producing or posting the content. On social media, however, there was widespread concern that the legislation would do more harm than good. "The way it's written - which is not very well - makes it so that the people creating original content (the studios, etc.) have far-reaching, unbridled, free reign to take out anyone who they have a ‘good faith belief' is stealing their stuff," explained Bobby Hundreds at Hype Beast. "The Internet, for all its benefits and burdens, is built upon freedom - free information, free thought, free expression - and...SOPA falls nothing short of censorship." Many believed the bill would alter the nature of the internet forever. "These two poorly worded bills are a futile attempt to crack down on piracy on the web in the US," wrote Amy E. Boyte. "If the legislation passes, it will ruin social sites. Can you imagine a world without Twitter, Google, Facebook and YouTube? There is no way that all these sites can successfully police their content 24/7. We will be forced into a world without free knowledge." "SOPA basically means that anyone (read: Hollywood) can accuse anyone else (read: small businesses like yours and mine) of copyright violation, and punitive action will be taken (read: our sites will be taken down indefinitely) with no recourse, no chance for appeal, and with a ‘guilty until proven innocent' mentality that is completely antithetical to Western democracy," warned Danny at Firepole Marketing in an email posted on Social Caffeine. Online Activism The January 18 protests were massive. Large sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Moveon.org went dark for the day. "The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy," read the Reddit blog explaining their move. "There are powerful forces trying to censor the Internet, and a few months ago many people thought this legislation would surely pass. However, there's a new hope that we can defeat this dangerous legislation." "For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history," explained Wikipedia. "Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia." Google organized an online petition that generated signatures from at least 4.5 million people. "Members of Congress are trying to do the right thing by going after pirates and counterfeiters but SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to do it," declared Google. Many bloggers linked to editorials condemning the bills on sites such as Mashable and Gizmodo. On Twitter, an informational page on Wikipedia which included talking points for opponents was widely disseminated. According to a project called Fight for the Future, a non-profit organization leading opposition to the bill, the protests included more than 115,000 distinct sites, more than 2 million mentions on Twitter and 10 million petition signatures in total. Calls to action for contacting representatives or signing petitions were ubiquitous. "You may feel like you're one person with one vote, small and unheard. If these bills pass you will be unheard!" determined Itchin' Stitchin'. "These are some links with more information and some petitions." "You can't just complain about it. If you just sit there and get outraged, discuss it with your friends and family, ‘rally' behind all the sites going dark, and dedicate your Facebook for a day by making a meaningful post about it," pleaded Becky Bean at The Blog of Becky. Even many people who usually stayed away from politics and technological advances got involved. "While generally I do like to be political, I try to avoid all of that here. This is a beer blog. But on one particular issue I can no longer stay neutral," wrote the author of the blog I'll Have a Beer. "Today, in support of the protest of SOPA and PIPA, I'll Have a Beer will be blacked out for 24 hours. Please contact your Senator or Congressman to ensure that this attack on civil liberties is put to a stop." And in an unusual moment of unanimity, even those questioning the form of the protests agreed the bills should be stopped. "Quite a few sites...are ‘going dark' in protest of the proposed SOPA and PIPA accts...I won't, because of my distaste for the sanctimonious political theater the Left is so fond of," described Public Secrets "However, this issue is one of those rare ones that brings both Right and Left together...So, while I won't be draping this site in black, today, I do urge you to contact your senator to urge the withdrawal or defeat of PIPA." "I agree; SOPA and PIPA need to be stopped," shared Steve's Blogspot. "I'm unimpressed with the going dark thing, however. Seems a bit like giving up your guns to protest a gun ban." Impact on the White House and Congress Even prior to the January 18 protests, the White House responded to earlier online petitions by announcing on January 14 that it would oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills. The focus of the online organizing became members of Congress-and the efforts to influence lawmakers were successful. On January 18 alone, 19 senators announced their opposition to the bill including seven who had initially co-sponsored it. One co-sponsor, Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) published a tweet in response to the pressure: "Unfortunately, Sen Leader Reid disregarded those concerns & is pushing forward w/ a flawed bill that still needs much work." By Friday January 20, the main sponsors of both the House version and the Senate version announced they would postpone further action on the bills. While the legislation was not completely dead, their passage had been thwarted for the time being. On Twitter, many people followed the Congressional positions closely as numerous tweets linked to a tally on TechCrunch of the supporters and opponents of the bill and how the support had fallen due to the protests. While the online community applauded the apparent victory, some warned the conflict was not over. "While the activism got a lot of sponsors of the bills to switch positions or agree to rethink their strategy, the fight is not yet won. SOPA will be reintroduced next month," noted Corey Blake. "You can write Congress...I also highly encourage calling your representatives, as that type of input can make the biggest difference." "Having tentatively won this first round, though, we can only hope that the Internet remains vigilant against similar legislation in the future," warned Shawn Musgrave at Dig Boston. The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs
In addition to the controversy over internet legislation, most of the other top stories in blogs last week involved politics and technology. The No. 2 subject involved Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the process aimed at improving the visibility and presence of a web page. Bloggers linked to two blog posts with recommendations of how to improve the visibility of one's website. This is the third straight week that the subject has been among the most popular in the blogosphere. The presidential campaign was the third-biggest topic as bloggers focused mostly on news that Jon Huntsman had dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination and was endorsing Mitt Romney. A blog post by the Public Editor for the New York Times, Arthur S. Brisbane, asking readers whether journalists should challenge questionable "facts" asserted by newsmakers was the fourth most popular link. Brisbane encouraged readers to weigh in on a philosophical question related to the role of modern-day journalism: can journalists be objective and fair when identifying falsehoods repeated by newsmakers? Many in the online community criticized Brisbane for asking a question-which they framed as: should journalists try and report the truth?-that they thought had a very obvious answer. And speculation that Apple is going to announce new products related to digital textbooks which would expand the ease of receiving books on iPhones and iPads was the No. 5 topic. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
Elsewhere on Twitter, the most popular subjects included pop culture references, internet attacks and a clip of a singing Commander-in-Chief. The popular Korean boy band Super Junior continued to be a popular subject on Twitter as tweets from the group were the second most linked-to subject last week. This marks the fourth time in the last five weeks that the group has been among the most popular subjects on Twitter. Viral Tweets from the feed @The90sLife showing pop culture items and characters from the 1990s were the third biggest subject. In another story related to the question of internet freedom and online piracy, news of cyber attacks conducted by the group Anonymous was the No. 4 subject. Following the government's bust of the website Megaupload for hosting pirated media, Anonymous, a group of individuals who promote internet freedom by hacking public websites, protested by taking down a number of prominent pages including that of the U.S. Copyright Office and the Recording Industry Association of America. YouTube For the second week in a row, the January 13 Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy dominated the news videos on YouTube, as three of the top five videos were on the subject. The luxury cruise liner, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew members, ran aground off the Tuscan coast after the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, made an unapproved deviation from the correct course. So far, 16 bodies have been recovered and about 16 remain missing. Two videos posted by Russia Today that were among the top news videos for the previous week were still among the most popular. The video showing the Costa Concordia lying on its side with a 160-foot gash in its hull became the most viewed news video and the amateur video showing the dramatic evacuation of passengers on lifeboats remained at No. 5. The No. 4 video, posted on January 17, was a scratchy audio recording of the conversation in Italian between Schettino and the captain of the Italian coast guard, Gregorio De Falco. The clip revealed that De Falco ordered Schettino to return to the ship multiple times after he had allegedly abandoned the people remaining on board.
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 a news index report this week. However, the data is available here.
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