News Index
Most of the focus was on a single incident at a Wal-Mart in Southern California. One woman was so intent on getting an Xbox video game console on sale that she pepper sprayed up to 20 fellow shoppers. During the chaos, the suspect escaped arrest only to turn herself in several days later. Authorities, unsure if she actually walked away with one of the Xboxes, said the woman was "competitive shopping."
News of the event spread quickly online as some bloggers decried the frenzy that now accompanies Black Friday. A number of bloggers, however, found humor in the craziness surrounding the shopping holiday, and the notion of pepper spraying other customers developed into a common online meme. Other bloggers focused on Black Friday for a different reason-the overwhelming sales numbers reported by Apple retailers. Apple products such as the iPhone and the iPad are frequently leading subjects online, and the business records set by the company during this rush were no exception. On both YouTube and Twitter last week, a debate about racism triggered by an incident in a British subway, was among the most popular subjects. On Sunday, November 27, a user known as LadyK89 uploaded a two-minute video that shows a woman, later identified as Emma West of London, riding a crowded subway (known in England as a "tram") with a young boy on her lap when she begins to make racial slurs and spews a series of profane comments at other passengers. The video became a viral internet sensation during the course of last week. The subject was the third-largest on Twitter as the hashtag #MyTramExperience developed to label the conversation. And a separate video response to the clip from a teenager defending the woman was the most watched news clip on YouTube. The comments on Twitter were overwhelmingly critical of the woman, who was later arrested for a racially aggravated offence. The discussion was extensive on YouTube as well, as more than 650 people posted video responses and the comment sections filled up with thousands of written messages. There, a mix of opinions about her was part of an often profane conversation. Black Friday The incident in which a woman shopping at Wal-Mart used pepper spray on 20 other customers while trying to secure deals on video games led some bloggers to voice concern about what Black Friday had become. "Black Friday has risen in holiday popularity to the point where family around the hearth and turkey and mashed potatoes are a secondary afterthought to many Americans," asserted Gary Horton at The Santa Clarita Valley Signal. "Americans are sold that consumerism is our natural state of being...But consumerism is just a belief ‘ism' like any other dogmatic ‘ism.'" "We spend the day before giving thanks for all the things we have. Then at midnight we go out and resort to greed-driven animal behavior," wrote The OCD Diaries. "This holiday, reject the spirit of greed and consumerism: and not just because of the economy, do it for your family," advised Good Day, Regular People. "Teach them that the holidays are about sharing. A holiday season without any thought for the poor is an impoverished holiday." Some bloggers, however, took a more humorous view of the pepper spray incident. "I don't even know/am too lazy to look up what Wal-Mart's Black Friday Xbox deal was, but I seriously doubt it was worth getting pepper-sprayed/going to jail over. That said, I'd let you mace me in the face...for 50% off LEGO sets," joked Geekologie. "On the day after Thanksgiving in the San Fernando Valley there was no peace on Earth," posted Jack Huber at Stupid Criminals, reviewing the details of the encounter. "She unholstered her pepper spray and sprayed her fellow bargain hunters. Left and right they fell, unsure exactly what had happened to them. (To paraphrase Monty Python's Flying Circus ... nobody expects pepper spray in the face during a holiday shopping spree!)" And news of the story spread so quickly, that almost immediately, the notion of pepper spraying fellow shoppers became an online meme. "All-in-all, within 5 hours, we went to Starbucks, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Kohl's, Macys, then back to [Best Buy]," wrote Mejia Mamma while recounting her eventful weekend. "We didn't encounter any psycho people with pepper spray or theft in the parking lot at gun point-so I'd say it was a successful shopping adventure - zero drama for this mamma!!"* While some on social media were reflecting on the downside of Black Friday, others were more interested in the bargains and sales figures for major retailers, especially the Apple company. A report that Apple retail stores broke all of their sales records and exceeded their Black Friday forecasts drew the most interest from the business community. "Despite a less than vigorously healthy economy, Apple's retail sales on Black Friday this year were stellar," summarized Michael Essany at Mobile Marketing Watch. "In fact, Apple may have seen its single greatest day of retail sales in company history the day after Thanksgiving...Between iPhone 4S sales and a holiday shopping blitz of epic proportions, the tech team in Cupertino will finish out the year rolling in cash." "My Tram Experience" The clip of Emma West on a London tram screaming at nearby passengers and claiming that minorities were not "British" got the attention of many users of social media. For those tweeting about the incident, the conversation was overwhelmingly critical of her rant. "That woman on that tram needs a punch!" shared Emily Urso. "Doesn't matter where you come from or what skin colour you have. Open your eyes, we're in 2011." "That video of the racist woman on the tram in Croydon is actually vile. Ignorance is a disease," agreed Shann France. "I feel sorry for her children, the police should come down on her like a tonne of bricks," added British tweeter @tomufc. And on YouTube, hundreds of people posted video responses to the incident while speaking directly into the camera. Ten days after the original video was uploaded, more than 650 YouTube videos were labeled with the terms "My Tram Experience" and "response." The most viewed response was very different than the one seen on Twitter. Sean Allan, a teenager known as the video blogger MarmiteMan4, applauded West for having the courage to stand up to the minorities around her. "You can't have a first-world country with a third-world population," Allan argued while deriding political correctness and multi-culturalism. "That's showing British spirit." (Warning: the video includes racially charged language and profanity.) Allan's response was viewed more than 700,000 times in the first week, and thousands of people left conflicting comments-often with crude and insulting language. As with Twitter, a number of YouTube viewers found Allan's viewpoint reprehensible. "I cannot believe you are justifying this woman on the tram," wrote sopapiah. "What is wrong with you? Those people leave their countries to seek a better life. You should be proud that you live in such a wonderful country that the less fortunate are attracted to it because they can have a better life in it. This disgusts me." But some supported Allan. "There ARE INDEED too many immigrants in the UK and it's eroding our own national identity," wrote englishguy2010. "If you add too many different herbs to a soup, it ruins the soup. Many places in the UK are densely ethnic. That's not 'multiculturalism'. It's ethnic takeover." A few commenters thought that the arrest of West was the real issue. "Good video, Marmite Man 4, I agree with your sentiments, but even more important is the establishment of thought crime (by the UK) in pursuit of the ‘greater good' of political correctness," explained The Canine. "The central issue is GETTING ARRESTED for expressing those views. Hell, she was holding a baby, she wasn't threatening anyone or gettting in a fight. This incident demontrates how political correctness is, at it's core, contrary to liberty."
The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs The only subject to draw more attention on blogs last week than Black Friday was news that Microsoft's next-generation Kinect device, a motion sensing input device for the Xbox 360 video game system, will have improved capabilities so that it can read lips, track the volume of player voices and identify facial characteristics. Apple's iPhone 4 continued to be a popular focus as it was the No. 3 subject last week. Bloggers linked to a positive and extremely detailed review of the iPhone 4S on Ubergizmo, in addition to a report that an iPhone in Brazil caught fire following a similar incident in Australia. A post on Google's official blog announcing a new Google Maps feature giving smartphone users access to detailed maps of the inside of large buildings such as airports or shopping malls was the No. 4 subject. And condolences for the passing of Kimberly Webb Joyner, the wife of Dr. James Joyner, the publisher of the popular conservative blog Outside the Beltway, was the fifth-largest subject. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
Music star and social media favorite Justin Bieber was back among the top subjects on Twitter for the first time in a month. Last week's online Bieber fever included a video of him dancing while ice skating, and a tweet featuring a still photograph of the singer wearing A story that Facebook is considering an initial public offering that values the company at more than $100 billion was the second-largest subject. The British subway incident was No. 3, followed by news that a software analyst identified monitoring software called Carrier IQ that is installed on millions of smartphones without the knowledge of users. And a page from Childhelp, a non-profit charity that works to prevent and treat child abuse, was the fifth-biggest subject. The organization was encouraging users to participate in an online survey sponsored by Zoomerang. The survey included a list of non-profits and the group receiving the most votes would receive a $3,000 prize.
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
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s personal life once again drove campaign coverage last week, making it the No. 1 story. In the wake of earlier allegations of sexual harassment, the November 28 news that another woman—Ginger White—claimed to have engaged in a 13-year affair with Cain had the media frantically assessing the fallout for his troubled campaign. That question was answered definitively on December 3, when Cain suspended his run for the White House. Overall, the 2012 presidential campaign accounted for 23% of the newshole during the week of November 28-December 4, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Interest in the campaign was especially high on cable news, where the subject accounted for 47% of the airtime studied. It was there that Cain tried to get in front of the story in a November 28 interview on CNN, and there that Fox News’ Sean Hannity provided a friendly forum for the candidate—but to little avail. Following the late October allegations of sexual harassment against him, the former pizza CEO who rose from relative obscurity to frontrunner status has been dominating coverage of the volatile Republican nomination fight. Since the week of October 31-November 6, Cain has been the top newsmaker in campaign stories every week. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) As the No. 2 story last week, coverage of the U.S. economy was fueled by a variety of subjects, including the soon-to-expire payroll tax cut, unemployment numbers, holiday retail sales and evacuation orders in the Philadelphia and Los Angeles Occupy Wall Street encampments. Overall, coverage of the economy accounted for 17% of the newshole, and was the No. 1 story last week in three sectors: newspapers at 23%, online at 15% and radio at 27%. The European debt crisis kept that region in the media spotlight as the No. 3 story last week, at 8% of the newshole. The news media followed the drama as the Federal Reserve and other central banks took measures to ease debt in Europe, which was followed by a surge in stocks around the world on November 30. The No. 4 story last week (5%), unrest in the Middle East, was fueled by coverage of Egyptian parliamentary elections, the first since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak. Finally, the No. 5 story focused on relations between the U.S. and Pakistan, which reached a new height of tension after a U.S./NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The story accounted for 3% of the newshole. Cain’s Campaign Collapse After carrying on with his campaign despite multiple allegations of sexual harassment, Republican hopeful Herman Cain’s faced another challenge after Ginger White’s claims of a longstanding affair last week.
After Cain tried to pre-empt the damage by discussing those claims on the Nov. 28 edition of CNN’s The Situation Room, analysts immediately began assessing not if, but when his campaign would come to an end. Cain described how he saw the nature of his relationship with White to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Trying to help a friend because not having a job, etc., and this sort of thing.” On December 2, Cain was a guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel’s program, where he received a friendly reception. Hannity suggested that the evidence for White’s claims was suspiciously absent: “Isn’t this, though, something that would easily be confirmed? She’s saying that you flew her around the country. She’s saying that you were meeting in hotels. Can’t we get plane tickets confirmation? Can’t we get hotels?” But Cain demurred, saying “Sean, do me a favor. Let’s not play detective.” The Cain campaign’s public response to this and other allegations caused at least one commentator, Ken Vogel of Politico, to say on the December 2 edition of Ed Schultz’s MSNBC show that “this campaign has been just a study in how not to handle crisis communications” As the week wore on, and as Cain’s fate as a candidate looked shakier, media outlets discussed how the GOP field might be affected if he dropped out of the race.
“It is having an effect,” said John Dickerson, CBS News political director, on November 29, referring to what Cain’s withdrawal could mean for contenders Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. “Gingrich benefits…but it’s not a clean transference. Cain’s message was ‘I’m not of Washington, I’m not a politician.’ Gingrich is both of those things. Mitt Romney might benefit a little because he’s a businessman and that was a key Cain appeal.” When Cain did bow out of the race on December 3, an Associated Press story described him as “defiant.” The same story characterized his announcement as “a bizarre piece of political theater even for a campaign that has seemed to thrive on defying convention,” noting the festive atmosphere surrounding the event and the fact that his staff was rallying supporters to vote for Cain just minutes before he took the podium to end his candidacy. The Rest of the Week’s News Last week, coverage of the No. 2 story, the U.S. economy, took a number of different directions. About a quarter of the economic newshole focused on the impending expiration of the payroll tax cut—with the debate in Washington over how to fund those tax cuts breaking down along familiar partisan lines. Other prominent economic storylines included a new jobs report that showed the unemployment rate had lowered to 8.6%; new developments in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the early returns on holiday retail sales. Media attention to the Occupy Wall Street protest movement has died down substantially, however, since its peak during the week of November 14-20, when it accounted for 13% of the overall newshole. Last week, it made up just 3%. Given the context of a deeply troubled economy, many media accounts suggested that post-Thanksgiving retail sales—starting on “Black Friday”—seem to take on a more urgency as analysts saw the numbers as an economic bellwether. “Retailers were under a lot of pressure to perform well given how important the post-Thanksgiving days are,” reported the Wall Street Journal on December 1. A number of reports suggested that sales were strong with Black Friday sales were said to be up 6.6% from a year before. Other news reports about the economy tracked the continued clashes between Occupy Wall Street protesters and law enforcement officials. In Los Angeles, “a chaotic scene…Hundreds of officers, in riot gear started tearing down tents at midnight, firing rubber bullets, making hundreds of arrests, as you can see here, even plucking chanting demonstrators from trees,” described Josh Elliot at ABC’s Good Morning America on November 30. The No. 3 story, the European debt crisis, created drama for news outlets to follow last week as President Obama met with European Union leaders to discuss how to address the deepening Euro crisis. When it was announced that the Federal Reserve would work with European central banks to extend money, a sigh of relief was almost audible as news outlets reported stock increases around the world. Much of the Middle East coverage (the No. 4 story) focused on Egyptian parliamentary elections, which were held on November 30, the first such elections held since the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. The New York Times on December 1 reported on the surprising popularity of the Islamist parties that, together, won a majority of the votes. “The unexpected rise of a strong ultraconservative Islamist faction to the right of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is likely to shift Egypt's cultural and political center of gravity to the right,” said the Times. Finally, the No. 5 story last week was U.S. relations with Pakistan, which were strained even further when a U.S.-NATO strike killed 24 Pakistani troops on November 25. Much of the coverage last week focused on the launch of a U.S. military investigation into how the strike happened, as well as how the U.S. would attempt to repair its relations with Pakistan. Newsmakers of the Week Herman Cain, the GOP candidate whose mortally wounded campaign was the focus of coverage last week, was also the lead newsmaker overall in the news, a dominant subject in 10% of stories studied.
Except for a brief reprieve during the week of November 14-20, when Penn State former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was the top newsmaker, Cain has been at No. 1 since the week of October 31-November 6. At No. 2 last week was another Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich, who has found himself at the top of the polls and who may benefit from some of the voters who had been loyal to Cain. Gingrich was a dominant newsmaker in 6% of stories last week. His chief rival at the moment, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, was the No. 4 newsmaker last week (5%). Barack Obama, typically the No. 1 newsmaker, was No. 3 last week, the focus of 6% of stories. Finally, at No. 5, was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2%) who became the first top U.S. official to visit Myanmar in 50 years. About the NCI PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index examines the news agenda of 52 different outlets from five sectors of the media: print, online, network TV, cable and radio. (See List of Outlets.) The weekly study, which includes some 1,000 stories, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of that media narrative and differences among news platforms. The percentages are based on "newshole," or the space devoted to each subject in print and online and time on radio and TV. (See Our Methodology.) In addition, these reports also include a rundown of the week’s leading newsmakers, a designation given to people who account for at least 50% of a given story. Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
The Occupy protests have been a subject of internet chatter since they began in mid-September, some weeks ranking high on YouTube, some weeks on Twitter and others on blogs. Much of the discussion surrounding the protests has been in support of the protestors, oftentimes sharing and commenting on footage or photographs taken by people at the protests themselves; in other words, not as much direct, live tweeting or commentary from the protests themselves as support from others outside the events. The first Occupy story to make the Index came the week of September 26-30. The video of a protester in New York getting pepper-sprayed was a top story on both Twitter and YouTube. From there, the Occupy protests rose to the top in at least one new media sector almost every week, with users sometimes voicing disgust at how police were acting, talking about the goals of the movement, or complaining about how the press was covering the protests. Some have voiced disagreement with the Occupy movement, but they have continued to be just a small minority of the commentators overall. For the week of November 21-25, the online discussion of the Occupy protests focused on the same subject that ignited online conversation back in September: Pepper-spraying seemingly non-threatening protesters, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. There was an overwhelming response on blogs to footage of a police officer calmly pepper-spraying a group of students at the University of California, Davis, who were sitting on the ground. "I was stunned and appalled by the UC Davis Police spraying protestors, but struck by how many brave, curious people recorded the events," wrote Andy Baio at Waxy. "...it's almost like he'd never heard of the internet -- like he'd been magically transported through time from the 60s or 70s or something!" wrote RoboPanda at UpRoxx. There were some, though, who were not as sympathetic to the protesters. "Two of the oh-so-tragic ‘victims' of the now legendary UC Davis Pepper Spray Massacre foolishly gave an interview to KTVU, appearing perfectly healthy while smiling and almost giggling as they describe the unbearable agony of getting pepper sprayed," complained Zombie at PJ Tatler. "But the way the left is acting about this, you'd thing the kids were each shot in the foot or something," wrote The Right Scoop.* The video of the event that captured the No. 1 spot on YouTube was of UC Davis' Chancellor Linda Katehi walking back to her car while the student protesters silently watch her pass. After the pepper-spraying incident, Katehi fought calls for resignation from students and faculty as well as condemnations from state lawmakers for the perceived police brutality. Katehi later said that campus police officers defied her orders when they used pepper spray on the peaceful student protesters, and she apologized for the use of pepper spray. A handful of other Occupy-related stories sparked commentary from bloggers as well. One was an offer, reportedly later rescinded, from the city of Los Angeles for office space and a farm at reduced rent. Another was a clip of Fox News anchor Chris Wallace interrupting commentator Juan Williams when he defended the Occupy movement on Fox News' Sunday panel and stated that most Americans identify with the problems of economic inequality. Much of the response came from liberal bloggers criticizing Wallace's interruption. "While it made for great TV, it also made us worry for Juan," wrote Betsy Rothstein at Fishbowl DC, "We like your spunk. But interrupt Hall Monitor at your own peril." "Juan Williams apparently forgot what network he was working for if he thinks ‘fairness' is something we're going to get from Chris Wallace," wrote Heather at Crooks and Liars. David Frum Another story last week inspired liberal bloggers to support an unlikely figure. Conservative author and former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote an article for New York magazine in which he questioned whether the Republican Party has lost its touch with reality. Discussion of the article ranked fifth on blogs for the week, with liberal bloggers widely embracing the points raised by Frum.
"I appreciate Frum's writing because he criticizes the GOP, not with ridicule or disdain, but with deep concern - concern, because he identifies as a Republican, and he knows that there are many good people in the Republican party who recognize that it has lost its way," wrote E "Sage words from a conservative who can still see the bigger picture, and not only the GOP's alternative reality," said Lefty Coaster at Daily Kos. Others who did not identify themselves specifically as liberal also found the piece valuable. "One hopes that, by bravely speaking out on these issues, David Frum will galvanize what might be called the Great Silent Majority of Republicans to take back their party. Because the sooner America returns to having two reasonable alternatives, the better," wrote Henry Blodget at Business Insider. "Well worth your time to read the entire piece," wrote Christian at Homebrewed Theology. "An extremely well written essay by David Frum about how the GOP has gone completely off the rails," said Irenicum at Little Green Footballs, "As a former Republican myself, his account rings very true." The Rest of the News on Blogs Technology dominated the rest of the news discussion on blogs for the week. In second place was talk surrounding the new operating system called Ice Cream Sandwich for Samsung Galaxy mobile phones. Samsung announced last week that the new system does not have Adobe Flash Player installed. Bloggers were quick to share the news and to share their sense about the future of Adobe Flash which many see as already on its way out. (Adobe announced on November 9 that it would no longer be developing a Flash browser plugin for mobile phones.) "Flash is only used on 26 percent of all websites, and is in decline...Even if Flash does get released for Android Ice Cream Sandwich, it might not be as useful as one thinks," wrote Ingrid Lunden at paidContent.org. But at least one blogger thought users would miss having Flash. "Despite what folks (Apple and more) think, there are still plenty of instances in which Flash is necessary for a full Web experience," wrote Tech-Ex. In third place on blogs was news about Apple products, always a popular topic online. This past week, the discussion covered purported early details on the 2012 updates to the iPad, iPhone and MacBook Pro and Black Friday discounts the Apple store was offering - which most thought were not great deals. The epicenter of these deals, the Apple store itself, was the No. 4 story with buzz about a new Apple store in New York's Grand Central Station and discussion over a Harvard Business Review article written by the former senior vice president for retail at Apple, Ron Johnson, about what he learned building the Apple store.
On Twitter, users shared news that the huge social network Facebook had introduced sponsored notifications on its news ticker. This means that companies can pay for "likes" to show up on Facebook users' feeds. Twitter users thought this could be useful for advertisers - but also annoying to users.
"Good news for advertisers on #Facebook," wrote Myles Runham. "Could be HUGE for political/news orgs," tweeted Peter Passi. "Facebook Throws Sponsored Stories Into Your News Ticker. Annoyed yet?" asked Jeff Pabian. Separately, an article from TechCrunch reported on a study saying that 50% of ecommerce site visitors are also logged into Facebook. Tweeters were impressed by the findings. "Great proof of Social Commerce," wrote Dave Knox. "eCommerce + Facebook = love" wrote Matei Psatta. In second place was a new television advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy phone that made fun of iPhone users. Twitter users were fans of the snarky ad. "LOVE the Samsung Galaxy ad. My favorite is the blonde girl's sarcastic response :-)" wrote Nick Bilton. "New Samsung Galaxy ad goes in for the kill... flames Apple hipsters," tweeted Iain McDonald. "Samsung Galaxy ad is pretty hilarious, especially the blonde girl. Unfortunately ads don't sell me on a phone," said Alex Tillotson. Also in tech, in fourth place, was a story and video about the "desk of the future," an interactive desk that lets you perform tasks in a virtual space. Tweeters were impressed. "Desk of the future!?!?! So cool," tweeted BuzzBuzzHome. "The future needs to get here soon! This is awesome," wrote Emily Kinread. And in fifth place was a story about TweetMap, a new site that allows you to see what countries your Twitter followers are in, broken down by percentage. While some tweeters were impressed by the service, others were not fans. "Oh, I'm digging @TweepsMap to show me followers! Used it for the corp account first, makes a nice screenshot for presentations & whatnot," wrote Becky B. "We don't recommend these tweepsmap people. They tweeted our stats without asking - and we don't believe them either," wrote The QI Elves. "This @tweepsmap thingy could be useful if it would actually show you WHO lives WHERE. Who cares about percentages? #priorities" tweeted Ingo Bousa. Still, more made jokes about the site. "100% of my followers don't care. #tweepsmap" tweeted Red Square Agency. "42% of my followers are from #Venus, 32% from #Mars, 21% live under a #rock, 4% are from #Nibiru & 1% from #Hell. What's your #TweepsMap ?" wrote Samuel Sanders. YouTube The top news video on YouTube for the week was of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi walking past Occupy protesters on campus. In the video, the protestors are silent as she walks to her car. Students and others had called for her resignation after police pepper-sprayed peaceful student protesters on November 18. The second-place video was of a heated exchange between a congressman and a professor during a Natural Resources Committee hearing on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Representative Don Young (R-Alaska) accidentally called the professor "Dr. Rice," when he called his testimony "garbage." The professor, Dr. Douglas Brinkley, corrected the congressman, saying, "It's Dr. Brinkley, Rice is a university." Brinkley continued, saying that, "I know you went to Yuba College and couldn't graduate ..." when Young cut him off saying "I'll call you anything I want to call you when you sit in that chair." The testy encounter went back and forth until the chairman of the committee stopped the squabble.
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. Note: This week's sample for blogs and Twitter did not include stories from November 24 and 25 for technical reasons By Emily Guskin, PEJ
Last week, the U.S. economy was the No. 1 story at 22% of the newshole, with the majority of that coverage focused on the confrontations between protesters, law enforcement, and the city governments that preside over the public spaces that have become encampments. All totaled, the Occupy Wall Street story accounted for 13% of the overall newshole during the week of November 14-20, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That coverage marked a major spike from the week before when media attention to the protests had dropped to just 1% of the newshole. It surpassed even the week of October 10-16, when the protests, largely focused on income inequality, filled 10% of the newshole as the demonstrations expanded around the country and partisans began turning it into a major political issue. News about the demonstrations unfolded dramatically last week, as Occupy sites in Oakland, Portland and other cities were cleared by law enforcement, precipitating a spike in arrests and several injuries. And coverage really took off when New York’s Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the movement, was cleared of encampments for cleaning on Tuesday, November 15. The Penn State University sexual abuse scandal maintained its prominence in the news agenda, filling 15% of the newshole, down modestly from 17% the previous week. In each of the past two weeks, the Penn State saga has generated more coverage than any other sports-related scandal since PEJ began tracking news coverage in January 2007. While much of the earlier attention fell on the iconic head football coach Joe Paterno, last week’s coverage revolved around former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who is alleged to have sexually abused young boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky’s high-profile November 14 television interview with NBC’s Bob Costas made the embattled coach the No. 1 newsmaker last week, as he registered as a dominant newsmaker in 9% of the week’s stories. It also helped make the scandal the No. 1 story on cable (29% of the airtime studied last week) and network TV (21%). (To be a dominant newsmaker, a figure must appear in at least 50% of a story). Coverage of the No. 3 story last week, the 2012 presidential campaign, plunged to 12% of the newshole, half the previous week’s total of 24%. The media’s interest in sexual misconduct allegations against GOP candidate Herman Cain largely faded, in part because of another distraction facing the Cain campaign after the former pizza restaurant CEO fumbled on a question about what he would do in Libya. Last week, Cain was the No. 3 newsmaker overall, featuring prominently in 4% of stories. At No. 4 last week was the Obama administration’s health care law, which resurfaced in the news when the Supreme Court announced on November 14 that it would decide on its constitutionality. That subject accounted for 4% of the newshole last week, the most attention it has received since the week of January 31-February 6, 2011, when a federal judge in Florida ruled against the law. (That week, it registered as the No. 3 story, at 7% of the newshole). And further unrest in the Middle East accounted for 4% of the newshole as the unrest and violence in Syria caused the Arab League to suspend that country’s membership. The media reported on the fighting that claimed at least 90 lives there. Occupy Wall Street The Occupy Wall Street protests, which had been slowly fading from the media’s radar screen, generated plenty of headlines last week when several cities around the country, including New York, took steps to control the encampments. On Monday, November 14, law enforcement officials in Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore., cleared out encampments, resulting in dozens of arrests. On Tuesday, police in New York cleared out Zuccotti Park, resulting in dozens more. Much of the media attention throughout the week focused on New York, but several clashes with police drew attention as well, including an 84-year-old woman who was pepper sprayed by Seattle police. And a late-week “national day of action,” marking the two-month anniversary of the protests, attracted more media interest as well.
The actions by officials around the country prompted the
media to weigh in on the movement, with some of that commentary falling among
predictably partisan lines. Rev. Al Sharpton, on his new MSNBC program Politics Nation, spoke over live footage of the national day of action demonstrations on November 17. “We are now looking at a live picture of thousands of protesters who are planning to get across the Brooklyn Bridge … We that march, we that engage in civil disobedience, are not doing it because people like to get arrested, or people like to be out in the cold. We do it because you must dramatize what is going on to have those that are ignoring it have to address the problems.” Others were not so sympathetic. Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly described the lurid side of Occupy Wall Street, including the discovery of drug paraphernalia and instances of theft and violence. “So, the Occupy Wall Street movement is dead, finished as a legitimate political force in this country. And that’s a good thing,” concluded O’Reilly on his November 16 program. As for the future of the movement, news outlets explored that angle too. On November 15, CBS reporter Michelle Miller interviewed one protester who sounded hopeful on that evening’s newscast. “Was this a preemptive strike?” asked Miller, in reference to the evacuation of Zuccotti Park. “I assume so,” said the protester, “but it was really badly calculated because it’s only going to galvanize us. We’re only going to be stronger because of this.”
But on that same day, The Huffington Post described a
movement that seemed at least momentarily disoriented. “By 4 a.m., the park was
cleared and hundreds of protesters, uncertain of their next move and blocked by
police barricades, wandered the financial district.” And a November 15 Washington Post story summarized one of the chief challenges that the Occupy Wall Street movement faces going forward. “The movement began as a protest of major economic and political issues, but lately the most divisive issue has become the protests themselves,” the story noted. “The Occupy Wall Street encampments that formed across the country to spotlight crimes committed on Wall Street have become rife with problems of their own.” Penn State Abuse Scandal The Penn State scandal spotlight shone brightly on former football coach Jerry Sandusky last week after his prime-time NBC interview raised more questions about the sexual molestation charges against him. The scandal was the No. 2 story last week at 15% of the newshole, with much of the focus on Sandusky’s response to questions by Bob Costas about the allegations. “His words, in his voice, were as hard to listen to as they were difficult to turn away from. And the interview instantly became admissible evidence in a future trial,” reported Brian Williams on the November 15 broadcast of Nightly News. In the interview, conducted for NBC’s new program Rock Center, Sandusky admitted to showering with the young boys he mentored through a charity he had founded for troubled youth, but denied any sexual intent on his part. When asked if he was attracted to young boys, Sandusky repeated the question aloud, ultimately taking 14 seconds to answer in the negative. Much of the coverage of the scandal was concentrated early in the week after Sandusky’s Monday interview. In the first few days of the week, November 14-16, the story accounted for 21% of the newshole. But in the latter portion of the week (November 17-20) attention waned, and the story registered only at 6% of the newshole. Shortly after the interview came the media assessments. Many of them analyzed Sandusky’s performance, interpreting his words as further evidence of guilt. And a few questioned the judgment of Sandusky’s attorney for allowing his client to speak openly on the air. There were virtually no reports suggesting Sandusky had improved his image by granting the interview. The Rest of the Week’s News The No. 3 story last week (12%), the presidential campaign, drew significantly less coverage than it had the week before. In part this was due to fading media interest in sexual misconduct accusations that had been leveled by a number of women at Herman Cain, whose rise in the polls had placed him in the spotlight. Yet Cain still made news thanks to a video showing him trying in vain to respond to a policy question about Libya during a visit to a newspaper. Cain was the chief subject of election news last week, a significant newsmaker in 37% of all campaign stories studied. (To register as a significant newsmaker, someone must appear in at least 25% of a story.) The Obama administration’s signature health care reform bill was the No. 4 story last week (4%) when the Supreme Court said on November 14 that it would hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the law. In part because the ruling is likely to come during the summer of 2012, shortly before the November presidential elections, some of the coverage turned to the political impact of any decision on the president’s reelection bid. Much of the attention on the Middle East last week (No. 5 at 4% of the newshole) was on Syria and its embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. As former Syrian troops joined the anti-government uprising and violence increased, video footage from the region chronicled the chaotic and dangerous situation in a country on the brink of civil war.
Newsmakers of the
Week The No. 2 newsmaker last week, Barack Obama, has not been the No. 1 newsmaker since the week of October 24-30. Normally the most-covered individual by the mainstream media, Obama was featured prominently in 6% of stories last week. At No. 3 was Cain, whose prominence in the media overall was down substantially to 4%, from 12% the week before. Another Republican presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich, enjoyed not only a resurgence in the polls last week but also in media attention. He was the No. 4 newsmaker and the focus of 4% of stories overall last week. Finally, at No. 5, was Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, the man charged with attempting to assassinate President Obama in a shooting incident the previous week. Ortega-Hernandez was arrested after a several-day search which ended in western Pennsylvania. He was the focus of 3% of stories last week. About the NCI PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index examines the news agenda of 52 different outlets from five sectors of the media: print, online, network TV, cable and radio. (See List of Outlets.) The weekly study, which includes some 1,000 stories, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of that media narrative and differences among news platforms. The percentages are based on "newshole," or the space devoted to each subject in print and online and time on radio and TV. (See Our Methodology.) In addition, these reports also include a rundown of the week’s leading newsmakers, a designation given to people who account for at least 50% of a given story. Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
For the week of November 7-11, the No. 1 story on blogs was the November 4 death of venerable commentator Andy Rooney, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Rooney's popular essays capped CBS's 60 Minutes broadcasts for more than 30 years. He was a writer even before the age of television as a correspondent for The Stars and Stripes during World War II, and he had worked at CBS for more than 60 years. His first on-air essay debuted July 2, 1978 after he had served as a producer and narrator for a series of broadcasts on CBS. And by his final send-off on October 2, 2011, Americans knew him as the bushy-browed and somewhat cantankerous observer of American life. Despite Rooney's status as an old-school newsman, bloggers revered him for bringing a distinct new mode of communication to the news. "Rooney was a staple in our weekly ‘Let's spend 2 minutes complaining about something pretty mundane' routines, and when he retired 6 weeks ago, we knew we'd miss him terribly," wrote Michelle Collins at the pop culture blog Best Week Ever, "Today, we're sad to say goodbye forever. His stopwatch ticks no more." "I want to live and die like Andy Rooney," wrote Maurilio Amorim, "After watching Mr. Rooney's life from my seat in front of the TV since I was a child, I have come to the realization that when it came to work, he got it right." "As grumpy as he was, though, I think he did so with the best of intention," wrote cpu at The Mad Computer Scientist's Mind, "He always seemed to be able to cut through the sentimental crap and get right to the point on things. This is what I admired about him and, in many ways, I think how he inspired me." "The world has lost a special man in Andy Rooney," wrote Gillian at Baby Talk without the Babble, "With deep respect, his homespun philosophies will be greatly missed. ‘Yes, Andy, I wish you could write forever, too!'" Since PEJ began the New Media Index in January 2009, one trend has been the tendency of bloggers to devote considerably more attention than the mainstream press to the deaths of notable celebrities. Actors ranging from Leslie Neilsen to Elizabeth Taylor and musical icons such as Les Paul registered among the top five stories on blogs the week of their deaths. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline The blogging community showed much less harmony over the No. 3 story: The State Department's decision to study an alternative route for the TransCanada Keystone pipeline that would avoid environmentally sensitive regions of Nebraska. This story, while popular online, filled less than 1% of the newshole in the mainstream media for the week of November 7-13. In the blogosphere, the response primarily came from liberals applauding the decision, often with links to articles from sites like Inside Climate News and Think Progress. "And, as improbable as it might have seemed only a few months ago, Nebraska stands poised to become the symbol of how unions and environmentalists and ranchers and young people from the Occupy Movement may be uniting to forge a kind of new progressivism," wrote Ted Genoways at OneEarth. Conservatives criticized President Obama, arguing that the delay in routing the pipeline essentially meant stopping a project that would have provided jobs and cheaper energy. "Obama has killed a desperately needed pipeline. We lose 25,000 jobs and CHEAPER energy costs," wrote Pamela Geller on Atlas Shrugs, "Obama needs to be called out... Where are the Republican warriors on the right? Aren't they more afraid of what Obama and the uber left are doing to destroy this country than they are of the ankle-biting press? Considering the dire straits this nation is in, this is criminal." Tech News on Blogs The fourth-biggest story in the blogosphere last week was news about Google, both its updated search algorithm and changes to the Google Reader RSS feed. Bloggers generally supported the changes in the search algorithm meant to improve the "freshness" of search results. The new algorithm impacts about 35% of searches. "Apparently, freshness is getting even more rewarded, having an impact on one out of three searches," wrote Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Land, "That's huge--though it's unclear what it was before. For all we know, 35% of searches were already being impacted by freshness ranking." The response to Google Reader changes was much more negative. In a blog post entitled "Reader Redesign: Terrible Decision, or Worst Decision," Brian Shih, a former Google employee, wrote that he thought the redesign was terrible. Several bloggers agreed. "Aesthetic uniformity across products makes perfect sense," wrote E.D. Kain at Forbes, "Unfortunately, the new Google Reader look is ugly. Really ugly... It's not pleasant to read on at all, which sort of defeats the purpose of an RSS service... There's almost no way Google could have blundered more disastrously here." (Emphasis author's.) The other top stories on blogs related to mobile phones. The No. 2 topic involved a not-yet-released Sony Ericsson phone while the fifth-biggest story was the omnipresent iPhone. Mobile phone bloggers were jazzed to see pictures of the Xperia Nozomi LT26i, a Sony Ericsson phone that does not have a release date or set price yet. "It looks like the mobile phone has been well worth the long wait after watching its marvelous sleek and stylish design," wrote MSN India. And the new iPhone's Siri personal assistant also had people talking. The iPhone 4S has a proximity sensor so the phone is able to determine how far away the user's face is and whether or not to activate the Siri system, according to iFixIt. Bloggers were a little wary of this feature. "Apple's Siri virtual assistant is a bit of a creeper," wrote Devindra Hardawar at Mobile Beat. The Week on Twitter 
Occupy Wall Street For the second time in three weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests were the top story on Twitter--even in a week when coverage in the mainstream media diminished notably. Last week, users shared videos of police actions at Occupy Cal and Occupy Oakland protests and overwhelmingly voiced their support of the protesters. In one video, police are seen hitting student protesters with batons at the University of California at Berkeley while students responded by chanting "stop beating students." "I don't usually like group chants, but "Stop beating students" is 1 I support," tweeted Alex UA. "A PLAGUE UPON THOSE WICKED POLICE THAT DID THIS," tweeted Deborah Maya. "Real loss of professionalism by the police here," wrote John Robb, "#Occupy Cal Keep going this way, it'll become an insurgency." The other video shows a line of police at Occupy Oakland where one police officer shoots the videographer with a rubber bullet. That video was also among the most popular last week on YouTube. "If you haven't seen this clip by a photographer shot by police with a rubber bullet at #Occupy Oakland, it's chilling," wrote Steve Silberman. Adobe Flash The second-biggest topic on Twitter was a story about Adobe announcing that it would no longer be developing a Flash browser plugin for mobile phones and instead focus on HTML5. The mobile Flash plugin is a way to watch video on mobile devices and was not supported on Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad. In a Tech Crunch article about the demise of Flash, the author, MG Siegler, noted Steve Jobs' dislike of Flash mobile plugin technology and wrote that Jobs "knew he was right. In his post [on Apple's website] he outlined the need for a move towards technologies like HTML5, and now that's exactly where Adobe is heading." Twitter users generally agreed. Italian Prime Minister Silvio "Berlusconi and Adobe Flash retreating on the same day. The world is definitely moving forward!" wrote Kornelius Kalnbach. Celebrities Interaction with celebrities has become yet another popular use for Twitter. This past week singers Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars were among the hot topics on Twitter, as users shared and responded to posts from the stars. At least one or more celebrities--most often popular singers, with a particular focus on Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga--have been featured among the top five stories on Twitter in eight of the last nine weeks. The No. 3 topic last week included photos that pop singer Demi Lovato tweeted, one of her with a new hair color and the other of her wearing a somewhat risqué outfit on the red carpet at the Latin Grammy Awards. Fans responded with their support of the singer and entertainment networks and publications asked fans what they thought. Also in the top five, were a photo tweeted by Lady Gaga of her in a yet-to-be-released video and a link to a Bruno Mars video that has a tie-in to the popular Twilight movie series. Gaga has been one of the top topics on Twitter for two of the last six weeks. The Rest of the News on Twitter Tied with Lady Gaga at fourth place was a story that the western black rhino was declared extinct, according to the latest assessment of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Tweeters were upset over the news and blamed humans. "The African Black Rhino is officially extinct due to unchecked poaching. Not a good day to be a human being," wrote Ben Mulroney. And tied for fifth place with Bruno Mars were a handful of tech stories. One covered Facebook page apps that help business users communicate with their fans. Some ideas included posting tweets to Facebook and adding a contact form. Another story widely shared was about using Google+ to connect with things users are fans of (much like the Facebook pages discussed in the previous story). The other tech story tied for fifth place was a piece on the future of interaction design, where the author writes about what he hopes digital tools will look like in the future. YouTube On YouTube, two good Samaritans who apprehended a hotel robber in Los Angeles drew the most attention last week. The November 2 surveillance video, released from the Los Angeles Police Department, showed the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Luis Rosales, who had entered the hotel lobby with a backpack and walked around the front desk. With a gun pointed at him, the hotel employee at the desk opened the cash register and handed money to the suspect. Two hotel guests from Oregon--mixed martial arts experts in town for a mixed martial arts conference, according to press reports--stepped out of the elevator as the robbery was taking place, wrestled with the suspect and held him on the ground until the police arrived. The third most popular YouTube video was connected to the top story on Twitter last week. The footage showed a line of police officers at the Occupy Oakland protest and during the filming, the videographer was shot with a rubber bullet by one of the riot police. Unfortunately, this was a trend for the week, with the No. 5 news video on YouTube showing a Brazilian TV network cameraman shot in the chest while covering a confrontation between police and drug traffickers in a slum west of Rio de Janeiro. Press reports said the cameraman, Gelson Domingos da Silva, 46, did not survive the gunshot wounds despite wearing a bullet-proof vest. It was also reported that four alleged suspects were killed in the raid.
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The day following Thanksgiving, referred to as Black Friday, is traditionally considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. And for the week of November 28-December 2, Black Friday triggered a discussion about commercial excess that helped make it the No. 2 subject on blogs, according to the 
heavy winter clothing.
ric Byler at 
A series of police crackdowns resulted in the biggest
week of Occupy Wall Street media coverage since the protests began two months
ago. And for the second week in a row, the stunning sexual abuse scandal at
Penn State University registered as the No. 2 story in the nation.
agazine--prompted wide-ranging tributes on blogs last week.
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 and Sovini Tan, PEJ
Two simmering scandals—one involving a presidential candidate and the other, a major university—fueled coverage of the two top news stories last week.
A November 7 CNN story reported that the Pennsylvania attorney general “would not rule out…the possibility of additional charges or the discovery of more victims in the case of a former Penn State university football coach accused of sexually abusing boys between 1994 and 2009…Sandusky is accused of abusing eight boys… He was released Saturday [November 5] on $100,000 bail.”
ash
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