News Index By a margin of more than 2 to 1, bloggers overwhelmingly expressed support for the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in Lower Manhattan on September 17 and spread around the country. Almost half (46%) of the conversation on blogs championed the movement compared with 18% which was opposed (35% was neutral or straight news). Polls show the general public is more evenly divided over the goals of the movement, but in the blogosphere the message was clearly one of encouragement - though with little added clarity as to what specific actions the movement is calling for.
Last week, October 17-21, also marked one month since the protests began. And while coverage devoted This edition of the NMI includes a special analysis of the blogosphere utilizing computer technology from the media monitoring firm Crimson Hexagon to examine the tone of conversation about the protests from their origination on September 17 all the way through October 25. Expressions of support took several forms. Some bloggers backed the movement by helping to organize and dispense information pertaining to specific rallies. Others shared the reasons why they backed the protests and what they hoped the outcomes might be. Those in opposition, a smaller cohort overall, declared the protests to be misguided and derided the character of those involved. The two sides came together, though, in complaining that the traditional press was being unfair in its coverage. Support for the Movement The blogosphere was an important space for those participating in the protests, both as a way of organizing specific occupations and of informing outsiders about what was going on. "#OCCUPYWALLSTREET is happening right now at Liberty Plaza!" announced the Adbusters blog two days after the first rallies in New York. "Now, it is crucial for everyone from all over the world to flock to the encampment. Call in to work sick, invite your friends and hop on a bus or plane to New York City." "We're still here," posted the Occupy Wall Street blog the next day. "Today, we occupied Wall Street from the heart of the Financial District. Starting at 8:00 AM, we began a march through the Wall Street area, rolling through the blocks around the New York Stock Exchange...We are building the world that we want to see, based on human need and sustainability, not corporate greed." Others, not necessarily directly involved, talked about the goals of the movement. "Since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, the talk about inequality has been greater than I can remember it being for a very long time," shared Jim Wallis of Sojourners. "Don't worry about endorsing the Occupy Wall Street movement (all the diverse elements involved wouldn't even endorse each other!), but rather engage it." "But, now, finally, the people hurt by the current system are making their voices heard. They are asking to be treated by the government and corporate America as though their lives were worth a damn," pronounced Pat Greene at The Wild Winds of Fortune. "When some people in the the 99% call for tax increases for millionaires and corporations, or question bonuses and bailouts, we stand accused of ‘inciting class warfare.' Bring it on: those who defend the status quo started it first."* Many complained about how the mainstream press was covering the protests. "It is a shame that so many are unaware of this [movement] because sponsored news organizations have no desire to cover this story due to political allegations," charged Amanda at Stupid My Cupid. "News is supposed to be unbiased. Not covering this shows EXACTLY how biased the mainstream news organizations are. It is obvious that they are merely trying to protect their own self-interests." "CBS has been the only media outlet actually offering any coverage of the ‘Occupy Wall Street' demonstrations that are on-going," wrote Bryan at Why Now a week after the protests began. "The only reference I could locate on CNN was a Tech article on the 16th about the use of social media, and even that only shows up on the International edition. The corporate media doesn't seem interested in thousands of people holding a week-long demonstration." More than anything, however, blogs were used to share the same types of opinions expressed by those in the movement itself. But, as has been said of the movement overall, the comments rarely included specific actions or outcomes being sought. "When I hear people say that the unemployed are lazy, I get angry," admitted Dr. Benton Quest. "When I hear about rich people getting breaks because they are rich (i.e. capital gains tax rates) I get angry. If the rich were actually making jobs, I would not get angry. But when I hear about oil companies making record profits while taking tax breaks, I get angry. And if you look at the crowds in Occupy Wall Street, I am not the only one who is angry." Opposition to the Protests While those who disagreed with Occupy Wall Street were not as prevalent online, there were a number that were not shy about their opposition. "My guess is that most of the protesters are against ‘profit' and fail to realize that profit is the fuel that keeps an economy growing," argued Robert Wenzel at Economic Policy Journal. "Unfortunately, the protesters are unlikely to understand this and are thus likely to call for more governmnet regulation, which will mean that the banksters most cozy with government will gain an even greater edge." "Sadly this is a group of mixed agendas, most of them having nothing to do with a real cause, but simply an opportunity to display antics, and the baser side of the humanity," declared Sheryl Devereaux at The Moral Liberal. "But to the slender remainder of those protesting, the invisible minority who are there beyond antics-at least as the media is portraying them-their participation is simply evidence of the lack of understanding to the way our system was designed to work and how to fix problems in our society." Others focused on the character of the people involved. "They moan in blogs written on their $1,600 Macbooks about their student loan debt, cry from the comfort of their living rooms about being expected to pay for the mortgages they signed up for, scream out with their $4.50 Starbucks lemongrass frappalattecinos in hand about how life isn't ‘fair' and that there's so much ‘inequality' in the world," criticized Rants of the Anti-Sheep. Some critics pointed to a New York Post article about complaints from some protestors that their items were stolen. "It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of moochers, socialists, communists and general riffraff," wrote Bluegrass Pundit. This group also criticized the press, though in this case arguing that the coverage of the protests was too favorable. "There has been no mainstream media investigation of who these people are,'" charged Derek Hunter at Townhall. "Instead of the truth, instead of questions, we get cheerleading and cherry-picked camera angles showing perfectly lit, perfectly well behaved, smiling people." "The Mainstream Media (MSM) has drooled over, cooed about, and coddled OWS, providing it with free publicity it could never afford to pay for itself and implicitly approving of its multitudinous aims," determined Edward Cline at The Rule of Reason. The Rest of the Week's News
Elsewhere on blogs last week, tech stories and a provocative interview mentioning Occupy Wall Street led the conversation. The top subject involved developments with several of Google's products. A number of bloggers linked to news that Google was going to close down several projects including Google Buzz and instead focus more attention on Google+. Some labeled this as a failure of Google's early attempts at engaging social media. Other blogs highlighted a post about the company's efforts to make searching more secure with improved encryption. Commenters noted how this change would make work for online marketers more difficult. And a number of blogs linked to reports that Google is in negotiations with major record labels to set up an MP3 music store to compete with iTunes and Amazon. Bloggers were most interested in the notion that the new site might let users "share" music with their friends. A New York Magazine interview with actor Zachary Quinto, which also touched on the Occupy Wall Street movement, was the No. 2 story. Quinto, who starred in the most recent Star Trek movie and the play Angels in America, talked about his sexual orientation and his conflicted feelings about the Occupy Wall Street movement. While he felt "resonance" with the position of the protests, Quinto also said that he was "deeply unsettled that people are rising up in movements against each other." The fourth and fifth subjects both involved popular smartphones. News about the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone running on Android software was No. 4. While the Samsung phone has not received quite as much attention as the Apple iPhone in recent months, it has been among the most popular subjects on blogs in four of the five previous weeks. The Samsung phone was also the top subject on Twitter last week as many users linked to an animated video introducing the device and its capabilities. The iPhone itself was the fifth largest subject on blogs. Bloggers showed their interest in the new Apple 4S by linking to reviews and stories about the Siri voice command function.
On Twitter, the site itself was the second-largest subject. The most popular link was a Mashable article citi A story about an elderly couple in Iowa married for 72 years was the third most linked-to subject. The two died one hour apart holding hands. Word of the death of former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi-the subject that led mainstream coverage last week-was the fourth subject. In an example of the reflective nature of social media, many Tweets linked to a Mashable page featuring 25 reactions to the news on Twitter itself. The fifth most popular link was to a music video by singer Chris Brown that featured rapper T-Pain. (Warning, the video contains adult language.) YouTube A dramatic sporting event was the most viewed news-related video on YouTube last week. On October 16, a horrific 15-car crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway claimed the life of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon. A video replay showed Wheldon's car, unable to avoid the massive wreck, slamming into another car in front of his, going airborne and spinning before hitting the catch fence. Two hours later, the 33-year-old Englishman was pronounced dead.
About the New Media Index To see the new methodology for how PEJ arrives at the list of most discussed stories in social media, click here. This special edition of PEJ's New Media Index utilizes computer technology from the media monitoring firm Crimson Hexagon. Based on an examination of more than 118,000 blog posts, this report goes beyond the normal methodology of PEJ's index to look at the tone of conversation related to the Occupy Wall Street protests. Crimson Hexagon is a software platform that identifies statistical patterns in words used in online texts. Researchers enter key terms using Boolean search logic so the software can identify relevant material to analyze. PEJ draws its analysis samples from several million blogs. Then a researcher trains the software to classify documents using examples from those collected posts. Finally, the software classifies the rest of the online content according to the patterns derived during the training. According to Crimson Hexagon: "Our technology analyzes the entire social internet (blog posts, forum messages, Tweets, etc.) by identifying statistical patterns in the words used to express opinions on different topics." Information on the tool itself can be found at http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/ and the in depth methodologies can be found here http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/products/whitepapers/. The time frame for the analysis is September 17 - October 25, 2011. PEJ used the following list of keywords in a Boolean search to narrow the universe to relevant posts: occupy AND (protest OR "wall street" OR OWS) *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
In what looked like another week in which the news media would be focused above all on the 2012 election, the narrative abruptly shifted to Libya when images of the bloodied dictator appeared online and on television early Thursday. Overall attention to turmoil in the Middle East, almost all of which was about Libya, accounted for 18% of the newshole during the week of October 17-23, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. It was the first time in nearly two months that the region got so much attention, according to PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index (during the week of August 22-28, the end of Gaddafi’s grip on power drove the subject to 26% of the newshole studied). The chaotic nature of the scene and graphic nature of the photos of Gaddafi’s demise at the hands of Libyan rebels both tested the media’s traditional desire to play the role of gatekeeper. Major news organizations were reluctant to confirm that Gaddafi was dead for several hours after Libyan sources on the ground claimed he was. Outlets were also cautious about sharing shaky video and stills of Gaddafi at the mercy of the mob, even if the violent content was widely available to any who wished to see it on the web. The race for president followed close behind in the news agenda. Much of that coverage was driven by another Republican candidates’ debate, this time in Las Vegas. For the week, the 2012 presidential campaign filled 17% of the newshole studied. Campaign coverage was especially prominent on cable TV, where it accounted for 31% of the airtime studied, enough to make it the No. 1 topic. Much of the debate and overall campaign coverage focused on three leading candidates—Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Rick Perry. Romney was the top newsmaker in campaign stories, though, a dominant newsmaker in 31% of stories studied. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) The No. 3 story last week, the U.S. economy, was led by reporting on Barack Obama’s jobs bill and the Occupy Wall Street protests. Together, those two subjects made up about half of the 16% of the newshole focused on the economy. After peaking at 10% of the overall newshole two weeks ago, attention to the protests dropped last week, accounting for 4% of the overall newshole. The conflict in Iraq also returned to the news. That nation drew more attention than it had in over a year after President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would be coming home from the country before the end of 2011. In all, Iraq was the No. 4 story of the week, at 5% of the newshole. The last time Iraq appeared as prominently in the news was the week of August 30-September 5, 2010, when Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission there (it accounted for 8% of the newshole that week). Finally, at No. 5, was the story out of Zanesville, Ohio, of the exotic animal collector who released dozens of lions, tigers, bears and other creatures into the wild and then committed suicide. The story accounted for 4% of the newshole studied. Forty-nine animals were euthanized by authorities in an attempt to contain the situation.
The Death of Gaddafi In the hours after news broke that former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi might have been captured and killed, American news organizations reported the news with caution. Details were still sketchy on Thursday morning, October 20. NATO forces had fired on a convoy containing Gaddafi as he tried to escape his hometown of Sirte, which had been under siege by rebels. Gaddafi escaped, and hid in a sewage drain. He was removed from the drain alive, but died on his way to the hospital, possibly from a gunshot wound to the head. That afternoon, a CNN anchor described one of the many grainy, unsteady videos taken at the scene. The video “appears to show—look carefully—it appears to show Gaddafi in custody. He appears in this image, there, still alive. I know it’s jumpy, it’s hard to follow, but we do see a man, purportedly Muammar Gaddafi in a semi-upright position up against that truck, clearly under duress.” Later in the day, other news outlets would broadcast those same images, typically prefacing with a warning to viewers. “For more than four decades he ruled Libya with flamboyance and fear. But tonight, after months on the run, Muammar Gaddafi is dead,” said George Stephanopoulos in an opening segment on Thursday’s ABC World News Tonight. “We should warn you, this video is gruesome,” he said before showing the evidence.
“The pictures showing his last moments alive—fair warning—are disturbing. There are also graphic pictures showing him after death,” said NBC’s Brian Williams, also on Thursday, over a widely circulated video clip of a wounded Gaddafi in the hands of his captors.
By the next day, news outlets were fully on to the task of digesting the implications of Gaddafi’s death for the people of Libya. A USA Today story from October 21 contained the headline “Gadhafi era ends: What’s next for Libya?” The article said that “Libya and its long-suffering tribal society, sitting atop vast oil riches, faces an uncertain future as it tries to establish a real government in place of the dead leader’s personal tyranny.” By Sunday, some outlets had pieced together the details of Gaddafi’s final days in squalor. “After 42 years of absolute power in Libya, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi spent his last days hovering between defiance and delusion, surviving on rice and pasta his guards scrounged from the emptied civilian houses he moved between every few days,” reported The New York Times on October 23. Republicans Debate in Nevada The 2012 presidential campaign, the No. 2 story last week, centered on the leading Republican candidates facing off in an October 18 debate in Las Vegas. Of particular focus was Herman Cain, the former also-ran turned front-runner in some polls. Cain is undergoing a new moment of scrutiny. Some of that scrutiny last week was purely political—whether he will sustain his surge. An Associated Press article from the 18th questioned whether he could sustain his recent bump in popularity and interest by the press. “Herman Cain has risen fast. Now the question is: Will he fall?” “Herman Cain needs to prove that he is serious, and exactly where he stands on these issues,” said MSNBC daytime host Tamron Hall on October 18 after touching on the debate set off by Cain’s “999” tax code plan and his controversial statements about a U.S.-Mexico electrified border fence. For all the pre-debate attention on Cain, much of the post-debate coverage focused on the sparks flying between former Massachusetts Governor Romney and Texas Governor Perry. “Tensions run high between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry at Las Vegas Debate,” read an ABC News web headline from October 18. “In the midst of a particularly volatile period in the primary cycle, the candidates threw some of their sharpest elbows yet.” The Washington Post suggested that the tensions on stage between Romney and Perry were the result of a larger issue at play in the Republican Party. “The normally orderly process by which Republicans select a presidential contender has this year turned into a frenzied and fickle courtship that has seen opinion polls swinging from one infatuation to the next.”
Newsmakers of the Week Barack Obama was the top newsmaker last week, featuring prominently in a number of major stories (he spent the week lobbying for action on his jobs bill; he was the subject of a number of campaign stories; he gave a public speech following confirmation of the death of Muammar Gaddafi; and he ordered the exit of U.S. troops from Iraq). Obama was the lead newsmaker in 11% of stories studied, up from 7% the week before. At No. 2 was Gaddafi. He was the focus of 10% of all stories studied. The next three lead newsmakers were each prominent figures in coverage of the GOP race for president. At No. 3 was Mitt Romney at 5%; at No. 4 was Herman Cain at 4%; and at No. 5 was Rick Perry, also at 4%. It was the second week in a row that Cain led Perry in media exposure. 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
Indeed, the saga has consumed bloggers for the better part of a month. In July, Netflix announced a price hike for its video rental and streaming service. Then in September, it said the company would split into two parts with the online streaming operation to be called Qwikster. Many bloggers criticized those moves, complaining about the inconvenience and inefficiency of dividing those services. That response led company CEO Reed Hastings to offer an apology and explanation on September 18 of why the changes were necessary. Still, Netflix users were not satisfied. The No. 2 story on blogs from September 19-23 featured bloggers assailing Hastings' apology note, with many predicting that the proposed changes would harm the company. The next week, (September 26-30), that was still the No. 3 story in blogs.
Then on October 10, Hastings shared another letter on the Netflix website, explaining that DVD rentals would stay at Netflix.com. "In other words," he wrote, "no Qwikster." In response, bloggers applauded Netflix for abandoning its plans after the online feedback.
"Netflix has come to its senses and revised its strategy in favor of the customer," wrote Nigel Fenwick on his blog, "After a recently announced decision to split out its DVD business from its streaming business, Netflix received a barrage of criticism from customers-including my last blog post, where I questioned the wisdom of this strategy." "Netflix did the right thing in ceasing their Qwikster plans," wrote Steve Jones on Dominate, "It will still be an embarrassment that will stay on their record forever, but that's considerably better than the colossal failure of a DVD business they've spent over a decade to build." The New iPhone and Steve Jobs As is often the case in social media, events related to Apple were among the most popular topics last week. The new iPhone, introduced on October 4, registered as the No. 1 story on Twitter and tied for No. 4 on blogs, along with a continuing discussion of the October 5 death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Anticipation about the new iPhone had been a main point of conversation in the blogosphere for nine of the past 10 weeks. Two weeks ago, October 3-7, bloggers were less than enthusiastic about the iPhone 4S, with many complaining they had expected an iPhone 5, but instead got a 4S model that was looked physically identical to the iPhone 4. But last week, much of that grumbling dissipated as many bloggers and tweeters were delighted about the features of the new 4S, especially the phone's speed and its Siri feature, which allows users to give the iPhone voice commands. The processor in the iPhone 4S is not as fast as the one in the iPad 2, "However, its real-world scripting, browser and graphics performance currently puts it well ahead of its main Android competition, in the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Droid Bionic," wrote Electronista.* "It looks like we'll be able to trigger the AI secretary just by lifting the phone, allowing us to talk into it like an actual conversation, instead of speaking to it from afar like lunatics," wrote Sam Biddle at Gizmodo. On Twitter, the Siri feature was the major focus. A frequently shared Tech Crunch review proclaimed, "This is the best iPhone yet," and several sites providing funny responses from Siri were heavily shared. "SO FUNNY. Siri in iPhone 4S turns out to have QUITE a sense of humor," tweeted David Pogue, a tech reporter for the New York Times. "1) Spot new iPhone 4s user 2) Say ‘Siri, play Rick Astley.' 3) Win #rickroll," tweeted Rick Turoczy. Others on Twitter were excited that Sprint would be able to carry the iPhone. Previously only AT&T and Verizon carried the phone on their networks. "So far Sprint iPhone 4s = awesome," tweeted Dana Loesch. The week of October 3-7, Steve Jobs' death was the top story on twitter and No. 4 in blogs. Last week, it stayed in the No. 4 slot on blogs. Bloggers shared the news that Sony Pictures had acquired the rights to make a movie of his authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson. The book, which was expected to be released in 2012, will now come out on October 24, 2011. Bloggers also shared a humor piece from The Onion about the tech leader as well as a story about why he wore the iconic black turtleneck. "It's curious to look back and think about the kind of brand affiliation Apple would have if Jobs would have dressed like every other CEO," wrote Alex Heath at Cult of Mac, "It may seem like an insignificant detail at first, but everything Jobs did was intentional. He knew that creating a signature style would give Apple a unique relationship with its customers." The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Other tech news dominated the blogosphere this past week, with speculation about another smart phone and news that a computer virus had infected U.S. military drones. The No. 2 item on blogs for the week was the Samsung line of Galaxy smartphones. While an übergizmo review of the recently released Samsung Galaxy S II was popular, speculation over the next model, the Samsung Galaxy S III, took hold of bloggers' imaginations. A snapshot of a slide that was purportedly from an internal presentation on smartphone evolution at Samsung was released on Phandroid on October 10. And Android fans wasted no time in speculating about the future of the Galaxy, despite the fact that the slide seemed fake. "We haven't even finished rolling out the three U.S. flavors of the Samsung Galaxy S II and we're already starting to look at rumored specs for its successor. At least, that's what we believe we're getting here," wrote Scott Webster at AndroidGuys. "Technology in the mobile sector is moving so fast that you're device is outdated by the time you turn it on, and Samsung's right here on the cuff," wrote Chris Burns at Slash Gear. "We're still awaiting the release of the Samsung Galaxy S II on T-Mobile this week, and yet it's already starting to look like yesterday's half-eaten breakfast. That's because some fuzzy details are now leaking out about its inevitable successor, the mystical Galaxy S III," wrote Brad Molen on Engadget, who also speculated that the photo was a fake. At No. 3 was a story from Wired about a computer virus infecting America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging the pilots' keystrokes as they remotely fly the drones over Afghanistan and other war zones. While there were "no confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source," according to the article, multiple efforts to remove the virus were ineffective. Much of the response linked to the article itself, but several bloggers voiced concern about what it meant for national security. "Granted, it seems to be nothing but a lowly keylogger, but the prospects of this are pretty big," wrote Mohammad at Body and Soul. "So far the virus hasn't interfered with the drones' missions, but that only means that Skynet is biding its time . . ." said Walter Jon Williams on his site, alluding to the evil force in the Terminator movies, an artificial intelligence system that becomes self-aware and revolts against its creators. Registering as the fifth-biggest story on blogs last week was a comparison, by the E! entertainment site, of the Kardashian family to the British royal family. The basis of comparison might have seemed a little thin, however, since one area of common ground was apparently the fact that both Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton were "fashionistas." "Okay, so it ain't exactly the Royal Wedding-though there have been, er, comparisons-but we can't pretend we haven't been looking forward to the Kardashian nuptials with at least some of the same shameless excitement," wrote The Noryanna. In addition to glee over the new iPhone model, Twitter was solidly about tech news last week. The No. 2 story on Twitter was about Facebook, with tweeters sharing several Mashable articles about the social media giant. One piece listed reasons why job recruiters like Facebook better than the work-related social network LinkedIn. Another listed the most popular musicians to subscribe to on Facebook. One of the musicians listed, Jared Leto, tweeted a thank you for being included on the list, sparking hundreds of retweets. A new Facebook app, Giftiki, which provides a way to give money to friends on Facebook, was also popular on Twitter.
"This is a really smart app, should do really well. Giftiki - Everyone gives a little - together you give a lot," wrote Joe Frohlinger. The third-biggest story was news that computer scientist Dennis Ritchie had died. The computer language designer co-created Unix and was a C programming language designer, but was not as well known as some other eminent computer scientists. Several tweeters were critical of that fact that Ritchie's death did not receive even a fraction as much attention as Steve Jobs' did the week before. "If Steve Jobs was a key player in our field, Dennis Ritchie wrote the field itself," wrote Gustavo Niemeyer. "dennis ritchie is gone but the memory we've allocated to him will live on forever," tweeted pinboard. "printf("Dennis Ritchie: %d-%d", 1941, 2011); /* RIP */" tweeted Duncan Davidson in C, the language Ritchie designed. Tied for fourth place was a video of a statue of the Android logo that looks like an ice cream sandwich being erected on Google's campus. The new operating system for the Android phone is called Ice Cream Sandwich. That story was tied with attention to a music video from the rapper Tyler, The Creator. YouTube Sometimes the most popular videos on YouTube reflect a kind of gruesome interest in unusual and dramatic incidents. That was the case last week, as the No. 1 video was of a Spanish bullfight that went horribly wrong for the matador. Television footage from Canal+ captured the October 7 bullfight that resulted in a bull goring matador Juan Jose Padilla, piercing him through the jaw and emerging through his left eye socket. The Associated Press reported that Padilla was likely to suffer facial paralysis and lose sight in one eye. The No. 2 news video, also from Europe, showed French Socialist party candidate Ségolène Royal in tears in front of the news cameras, expressing her disappointment after coming in fourth with 7% of the vote in the first round of her party's presidential primary.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
The U.S. economy topped the news last week, powered in large part by increasing attention to the Occupy Wall Street protests. At the same time, the narrative about the protests became decidedly partisan and political. From October 10-16, the economy filled 24% of the newshole, up slightly from 22% the previous week, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. This also marked the third consecutive week in which coverage of the protests grew, according to PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index, which tracks the media agenda, or the attention paid to different topics in the news. Last week, the Occupy Wall Street storyline increased to 10% of the overall newshole compared with 7% the previous week and 2% the week before that. While it is complicated to compare different news events several years apart, the Tea Party protests began with little media notice in February 2009. But they filled 7% of the newshole studied the week they went national with widespread protests on April 15 of that year. Last week, the narrative about the protests focused intently on politics, as Democrats more fervently embraced the demonstrations and Republicans became more pointed in their criticism. Some of that media attention was clearly negative. The subject of the economy got the most attention last week in the radio news sector (43% of the airtime studied), which includes the ideological talk shows dominated by conservatives. Politics was also at the core of the No. 2 story last week, the 2012 presidential election, which filled 19% of the newshole. That is up slightly from 18% the previous weeks and represents the high water mark for coverage of the campaign to date. Last week, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney generated the most coverage. It was a busy week for Romney. He basked in an important endorsement, found his religion under attack and started to see the “I word”—inevitability—show up in some stories. Herman Cain, the one-time long shot who has finished among the frontrunners in recent polls, was also a major newsmaker, thanks in part to rivals training their guns on his “9-9-9” tax plan. The week’s third-biggest story was Iran (13%) after the U.S. publicly alleged that the Islamic Republic was behind an ill-fated attempt to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. on American soil. Some coverage discussed the Keystone Kops element of the alleged plot. Next, at No. 4, (2%) was coverage of the economic problems plaguing Europe as the European Union members tried to come up with a new debt reduction plan. And the fifth-biggest story, also at 2%, involved continuing Mideast unrest, most notably the deaths of about two dozen people that followed the breakup of a protest by Coptic Christians in Egypt. Occupy Wall Street There were other elements to economic coverage last week, including the defeat of President Obama’s jobs bill in the U.S. Senate. And the subject of unemployment and jobs accounted for about one-quarter of the week’s economic news.
But the Occupy Wall Street protests were the prominent economic theme. “Responses are following along party lines,” stated an MSNBC report on October 10. “Republicans are slamming the movement [with one] of them calling it a mob aimed at class warfare.” The story also showed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor charging that “we have elected leaders that are inflaming this sense that we ought to be pitting Americans versus Americans.” That same day, the New York Times was reporting on Democrats moving to support the protests as they spread across more cities. “Leading Democratic figures, including party fund-raisers and a top ally of President Obama, are embracing the spread of the anti-Wall Street protests in a clear sign that members of the Democratic establishment see the movement as a way to align disenchanted Americans with their party,” the story stated. Some of the attention to it came from conservative talk radio hosts condemning the movement. One element of that criticism was cultural. On his October 12 radio show, conservative host Sean Hannity said the protests were turning off many Americans who “look and watch people walking around naked, smoking pot, having sex in public…and chanting slogans” about “the evils of capitalism.” He added, “I think the country is looking at this and saying…that’s what leftism is, that’s what socialism is.” One day later, on its nightly newscast, NBC anchor Brian Williams declared that the “center of the [protest] message is increasingly resonating,” a statement followed by news of a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicating that 37% of Americans now support the protests, including 40% of those making $75,000 or more a year. The Presidential Campaign The 2012 presidential campaign was the top subject in two sectors last week, newspapers (15% of the front-page coverage studied) and on cable news (32% of the airtime studied). In that coverage, Mitt Romney was the top GOP figure. He registered as the primary newsmaker in about one-third of the stories about the campaign. (In order to register as a primary newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of that story.) Some of that news was welcome, including the landing of a big endorsement. “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in New Hampshire today, providing the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination with a boost on the verge of tonight’s New Hampshire debate,” the Washington Post reported. “Christie, a favorite of tea party and establishment types alike, has emphasized the need for the GOP to nominate someone not who they agree with on every issue but rather someone who can win.” An old issue, Romney’s Mormon religion, also surfaced after Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Rick Perry supporter, called Mormonism “a cult.” Part of the media discussion focused not only on Romney, but on whether Perry needed to do more to distance himself from those remarks.
“I think at some point, Perry has to address it because it becomes about his leadership,” CNN analyst Gloria Borger ventured on October 11. “It becomes about whether he, by not saying anything directly, would endorse any kind of bigotry.” And with recent problems in his campaign knocking Perry out of the top spot in polls, some coverage last week began exploring the idea that this was now Romney’s Republican nomination to lose. A story on the ABC News website led with the headline, “Is Mitt Romney Inevitable?” a theme that Romney aides were quick to quash. “Even the Romney camp itself is trying to temper the ‘sure thing’ label with a senior adviser telling ABC News the end is not near,” the story added. As he has risen in the polls, businessman Herman Cain also began to face some closer scrutiny of his record and ideas, much of the sort that Michelle Bachmann and Perry have experienced in this campaign. It was a sign of a familiar cycle—that as a candidate appears to become more viable, they get more media scrubbing. “Businessman Herman Cain, rising fast in the polls, absorbed several blows from his fellow Republican presidential contenders on Tuesday, as they went on the attack over his 9-9-9 plan,” Fox News reported. “Most aggressive in their criticisms of the plan for a 9 percent sales tax, 9 percent income tax and 9 percent corporate tax were Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who said it will never come to pass.” The Rest of the Week’s News The coverage of the reported Iranian plot against the Saudi ambassador was the third-biggest story last week (13%), generating the most attention (20%) in the cable news sectors. Some of the coverage suggested that the U.S. resident implicated in the plot, Manssor Arbabsiar, was an unlikely and unqualified figure to be given a major role in such a complex and high-stakes plot. An October 12 profile of Arbabsiar on NPR’s All Things Considered offered this portrait from reporter Wade Goodwyn. “Fifty-six-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar was a small business owner for much of his life. Friends say he liked to be called Jack. He enjoyed a good time and didn't seem religious or political at all. He had some minor brushes with the law. He was arrested for not having a valid drivers license, a charge which was reduced. A check fraud charge was dropped. He was married twice with children. Business associates described Arbabsiar's organizational skills as marginal.” Continuing attempts to solve the fiscal problems plaguing European countries accounted for 2% of all the coverage last week, while the renewed violence in Egypt fueled attention to the No. 5 story, Mideast turmoil, also at 2%,
Newsmakers of the Week President Obama was the top newsmaker from last week. He was a primary newsmaker in 7% of the week’s stories, the same level of coverage as the previous two weeks. The next three most prominent newsmakers were men who hope to take his job next year. Mitt Romney figured prominently in 5% of the week’s stories, Herman Cain in 4% and Rick Perry in 3%. Rounding out the list of top newsmakers (also at 3%) was one of the key figures in the alleged Iranian plot that surfaced last week, Manssor Arbabsiar. 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. Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ
For the week of October 3-7, discussion of the new Apple iPhone was the top story on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. And the passing of Jobs was the top story on Twitter and the fourth leading subject on blogs. Bloggers have been anticipating Apple's unveiling of its newest iPhone for more than two months as the company released little information about the device. In fact, rumors about the new iPhone have been one of the top stories on blogs for eight of the past 10 weeks. And much of that speculation came to an end when new Apple CEO Tim Cook finally delivered an October 4 address introducing the iPhone 4S. The unveiling, which was streamed online, allowed the blogosphere to continue its fascination with the product-especially now that it had actual specifics to discuss. Despite the fact that the Apple online store was flooded with orders in the first 24 hours, the initial responses mostly voiced disappointment that the new smartphone was not more advanced-perhaps reflecting the level of pre-release excitement about the device. Those complaints, however, seemed to become almost irrelevant one day later as news broke of Jobs' death. Not only had the company been popular online, but its former CEO also generated a lot of attention. The week in August when Jobs announced his resignation, the news was the leading subject on Twitter.
The news of his passing hit fans hard and many used social media to share their thoughts. According to Twitter, there were 6,049 posts per second immediately after the news broke at 8 p.m. Eastern time, one of the highest levels of activity in the site's history. In all, there were nearly 5 million posts on Twitter about the subject that evening, according to the firm Crimson Hexagon. By Thursday, there were more than 3,000 videos posted on YouTube labeled "Steve Jobs" according to the New York Times, most of which included people sharing their appreciation for the inventor and their sadness in his passing. A video of his 2005 commencement address at Stanford was viewed more than 1.5 million times in the 24 hours following the news. Reactions were almost universal in their praise for Jobs, and came from a wide array of sources from President Obama-who said that Jobs "exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity"-to actor Ashton Kutcher who changed his avatar to honor Apple's founder. The iPhone Unveiled Prior to the official unveiling of the iPhone 4S, bloggers had speculated for months about what the new Apple phone would consist of, and whether the phone would be a new iPhone 5, or simply an upgrade of the iPhone 4. That anticipation led to enormous expectations. "I felt disappointed at first that we wouldn't be getting a new svelte unibody phone, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made for Apple to decouple industrial design from the internals," shared Kevin Fox at http://fury.com/2011/10/grading-my-iphone-predictions/. "The 4′s industrial design is still unique and, with the changes made to the antenna in the 4s, the only major shortcoming I have is reportedly overcome in the 4s." In general, though, the initial reaction to the new gadget was less than enthusiastic. "Apple showed off their newest iPhone today, and it seems that most were disappointed that it was only an iPhone 4S and not an iPhone 5," wrote John Chow. "There's nothing really notable, physically, about the iPhone 4S in comparison to the iPhone 4," wrote Joshua Topolsky at This is my text. "Do you have an iPhone 4? Pick it up. Look at it. Turn it over. There, you've just done an iPhone 4S hands-on. Congratulations!" "So yesterday was the day all the Apple fanboys have been anticipating for 16 months now (including me) and to say it was a bit disappointing is an understatement," added David M. at Virtual-Hideout. "As much as I've fallen in lust with the design of the iPhone 4 over the last 16 months or so, I really expected so much more than a simple hardware update...Am I disappointed with the Oct 4th keynote? Yup. The fever pitch of the rumors was so deafening, I'm not sure I wouldn't have been disappointed either way." And at least one blogger found a silver lining. "You can also think about it this way; at least we have many more months of iPhone 5 rumors to look forward to," posted Alex Gardner at iPhone Alley. The Death of Steve Jobs The tributes to Jobs came in numerous forms online. Mashable posted a page featuring 15 of his most inspirational quotes such as, "Stay hungry, stay foolish," and "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." A number of bloggers and tweets included links to obituaries from places like the Wall Street Journal and All Things D. And in a sign of the unique way social media can serve as a reflection of itself, many on Twitter highlighted a unique image of Steve Jobs that was made up from the text of tweets remembering him fondly. The New York Times chronicled a number of the messages using the hashtag #stevejobslegacy. "To explain why Steve Jobs was so important is simple: Every Apple product I've ever owned felt like it was built for me," tweeted Kevin J. Hardy. "Genius. Heart. Soul. Passion. Cool. Sleek. Simple. Efficient. Branding Guru. Geek. Innovator," wrote browneyedANDREA. "Surreal to be blogging and reading about Steve Jobs on a computer that would not be here without him," noted matvic. Tributes on blogs were no less gracious. "He was, indeed, a world leader, and he touched your life," insisted Alan Zeichick. "Even if you don't own a single Apple product, even if you've never seen a Pixar movie, you have been affected by Steve's drive, determination and vision. Steve wasn't always right, but he never stopped innovating, never stopped trying to improve the world (and sell products)." "His ingenious way of making something as complex as transcendentalist philosophy accessible to the masses mirrored the way he brought personal computing to the masses, by making it seem accessible to all," declared Alexia Tsotsis at Tech Crunch. "Steve Jobs has the kind of effect that Princess Di had on the world," proclaimed Down the Avenue. "Yes, really. He ‘touched' people. He ‘inspired' people. He moved people to stretch beyond their own limits and beliefs and build something more. Be something more. Care about design in their own creations in a way that would transform people." The Rest of the Week's News Even beyond Apple and the iPhone, other smartphones generated significant attention on blogs last week. The second-biggest subject was the discovery of massive security vulnerabilities in Android devices. The software running devices such as the EVO 3D and 4G was found to have logging tools that collected information and could be used to uncover emails, addresses and other information. HTC promised to fix the problem after the discovery was made. The specs of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone were the third-largest subject on blogs. Codenamed "Nexus Prime," this phone is expected to compete with the new iPhone. The only top story not focused on technology in blogs last week was the No. 5 subject, an expose by the conservative blog Big Government which purported to show photographs proving that Barack Obama appeared and marched with members of the New Black Panther Party while he was campaigning in 2007. On Twitter, the rest of the top subjects involved online star Justin Bieber and more tech-related news. The No. 2 most linked-to subject involved videos of pop star Justin Bieber during his recent tour in Mexico. This marks the fourth time in the past five weeks that the singer has been among the most popular topics on Twitter. A collection of advice from Mashable about ways to reduce the amount of spam in "your inbox, mailbox and voicemail" was the third-biggest subject. That was followed at No. 4 by a report that Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker was joining Twitter. The report also noted that he apologized to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for joining a rival service. And a Mashable post criticizing Google's senior management for not having their own Google+ accounts, thus suggesting they don't value their own service, was the fifth-biggest story. YouTube The most-viewed news video on YouTube last week involved a country musician getting himself into hot water. Williams' comparison of Obama with Hitler drew sharp rebukes, and ESPN, the channel that airs Monday Night Football, removed his musical number from the broadcast. Three days later, ESPN announced it would no longer use Williams and his song although Williams claims it was his decision to end the relationship. In five days, the clip was viewed 1.8 million times on YouTube.
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 Paul Hitlin, PEJ
The economy reclaimed its perch at the top of the news agenda as the No. 1 story last week, largely driven by dramatically increasing media attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Overall economic coverage accounted for 22% of the newshole from October 3-9, up from 14% the week before (when it was No. 2), according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The protests largely aimed at Wall Street constituted the largest single thread in that coverage, making up about one-third of the economic storyline. That amounted to roughly 7% of the overall newshole, or nearly four times the amount of protest coverage from the week before. The debate over President Obama’s jobs bill was largely responsible for the second biggest theme of economic coverage last week, the employment situation, which accounted for an additional one-third of economic coverage. Last week was also the biggest yet for 2012 campaign coverage, at 18% of the newshole. That subject generated the most attention on cable TV, accounting for 34% of the airtime studied. For the past month, the campaign, at 14% of the newshole, has been the No. 2 story behind the economy—suggesting the media have entered a new phase of the election cycle in which the presidential race is a weekly priority. Much of the coverage last week hung on the buildup to a big announcement by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who—despite a growing clamor for his candidacy—announced on October 4 that he would not run. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also announced last week that she would not run for president. But the timing of that announcement—the same evening the world learned of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death—may have tamped down media attention to her. Among the other top stories last week was the October 5 death of Jobs, a man who for years had struggled publicly with pancreatic cancer. The next morning, Jobs’ image was emblazoned on major newspapers from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal. Fueled largely by his death, news involving Apple—which included the release of the latest iPhone version—was the No. 3 story, at 11% of the newshole. At No. 4 last week was the dramatic acquittal of an American woman, Amanda Knox, in an Italian court on murder charges. The story was No. 1 on network television at 14% of the airtime studied, and accounted for 7% of the overall coverage. News about the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize represented the No. 5 story last week, at 4% of the newshole. Among the winners featured in news reports were three women from Libya and Liberia who have advocated peace and women’s rights in war zones. Occupy Wall Street Occupies the Media Media attention to the Occupy Wall Street protests has increased as the protests have gained momentum.
On September 17, demonstrators first set up camp in
Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, positioning themselves in the city’s
financial district. The leaderless group of activists, standing against
“corporate greed and social inequality,” generated negligible media coverage
during that first week. But as the protests grew in size and intensity, as on September 24 when many marched toward Union Square, the press began to take more notice. On October 1, more than 700 demonstrators were arrested as they marched across Brooklyn Bridge. During the week of September 26-October 2, the protests got a little more media traction, accounting for 2% of the overall newshole. Last week, similar protests emerged in major cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and elsewhere. It was at this point that coverage began to spike, with the volume of coverage increasing each day. On Monday, October 3, the protests amounted to 4% of the newshole, and by Thursday, October 6, they accounted for 12%. By this time, labor unions and Hollywood celebrities had joined forces with the crowds. Early in the week, media outlets were still trying to grasp what the protests were about. ABC’s Dan Harris took a tour of the temporary village set up at the heart of the protests in New York, pointing out an information booth, a media center, and food stands with free, donated goods. “The one thing they don’t have—a clear focus,” he said during a World News Tonight segment on October 3. The Washington Post on October 4 described the protesters as “having no single leader and no organized agenda.” Among cable and radio talk programs, where attention to the demonstrations was heavy, the tone of analysis depended on the politics of the outlet or host. Conservatives jeered the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Bill O’Reilly during his October 3 program described their agenda in his own words: “This is ‘I hate capitalism, I want this socialist nirvana, and I’m going to disrupt everybody’s life to make my point.’ That’s wrong.” Liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz defended the protestors in a live broadcast from Wall Street on October 5. “This just might be the movement that starts a major change in this country,” he said. Campaign: Christie Bows Out Before He Was Ever In Last week, presidential campaign coverage focused on a handful of developments, including Chris Christie’s and Sarah Palin’s decisions not to run, the problems afflicting Rick Perry’s campaign, and Herman Cain’s moment in the spotlight. Christie’s October 4 press conference from the New Jersey State House in Trenton was the culmination of weeks of anticipation, and was carried live on all the major cable news channels. It was, in the words of a Wall Street Journal story, a decision that “will dash the hopes of the many donors, operatives and leading figures in the Republican Party who have clamored for him to run.” Christie stated his wishes to finish his work in New Jersey as a major reason for his decision.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry found himself on the
defensive after an October 2 Washington Post story reported that a hunting camp
he had once leased had a racial slur painted on a rock. It was the latest in a
series of setbacks for the Perry campaign. According to CBS political analyst
John Dickerson the following day, “If the Perry campaign was running along
smoothly and always going well, this might’ve been the kind of thing he could
weather. But he’s been having a very rough spot dealing with a number of
difficult troubled issues.” Christie and Perry were the leading figures in campaign coverage last week, each registering as a dominant newsmaker in about one-fifth of all the election stories. (To be considered a dominant newsmaker, a person must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) One candidate enjoying a boost in the polls and some positive coverage in the news media was Herman Cain. An Oct. 6 New York Times profile suggested that “this could be Mr. Cain’s moment. With Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey taking a pass and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas struggling, the yearning for a candidate who can combine fiery conservative populism with concrete policy proposals has led a growing section of Republican voters to embrace, or at least take a hard look at, Mr. Cain.” The Rest of the Week’s News Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death at age 56 elicited wall-to-wall news coverage on Thursday and Friday last week, including lengthy obituaries chronicling his impact on the world of technology and consumer behavior. And fittingly, his death generated the most attention, 21% of the newshole, in the online news sector. A 2005 Stanford commencement address by Jobs in which he meditated on mortality circulated online and on television. Mostly, the “visionary in the black turtleneck,” as an October 5 CNN story put it, was revered in the press for his looming influence and his big ideas. But some reports described his intensity and his demanding nature.
After four years in prison, Amanda Knox was acquitted of
murder charges in Italy last week. The onetime American student living abroad
in Italy had been convicted and imprisoned on charges of participating in the
murder of her roommate. American television networks, especially broadcast, covered
the acquittal news, and played and replayed Knox’s emotional speech thanking
her family and supporters in the United States. The subject generated its
second highest level of coverage (10%) on cable news. Finally, the Nobel Peace Prize awardees accounted for the No. 5 story last week, generating the most attention in the online and broadcast news sectors (7%). A number of news reports paid special attention to three women who shared the prize for their work on women’s rights: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakul Karman of Yemen. Newsmakers of the Week From October 3-9, Barack Obama topped the list of newsmakers, appearing prominently in 7% of stories studied last week, the same as the week before. At No. 2 was Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old American acquitted of murder charges in Italy at 6%. The No. 3 newsmaker last week was Steve Jobs, at 5%. The No. 4 and No. 5 top newsmakers last week were two key Republican presidential figures, both at 3%. One of them, Chris Christie, announced that he would not enter the race. The other, Rick Perry, was the subject of more controversial stories last week as the press continued to vet the Texas governor and then chronicle his campaign’s stumbles. 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 September 26-30, no subject received more of that attention than the new iPhone, which was introduced on October 4. It proved to be the No. 1 story on blogs and No. 2 on Twitter, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. And that follows an intense buildup of interest in social media that lasted for more than two months. Indeed, the new iPhone has been one of the top stories on blogs for seven of the past nine weeks and three of the past four weeks on Twitter. The name of the game last week was speculation, and although some bloggers were sharing unverified information about the iPhone 5, those rumors were debunked when Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage to announce the iPhone 4S, which looks like the already-released iPhone 4, and is an upgrade of that phone. Fascinated tech bloggers also speculated about the nature of that rollout, which marked Cook's first major appearance as the company's new boss. (Cook became CEO after the late August resignation of Steve Jobs, who passed away on October 5.)
iPhone 4S Tech blogs dominated discussion of the iPhone, posting articles related to the new phone, from expected details about the announcement, to a potential lost prototype for the iPhone 5 and even protective cases that looked slightly different than ones made for previous versions of the iPhone. What pervaded almost all of the responses was a sense of breathless anticipation. "As of now we have to just wait and watch to see how all these rumours and speculations pan out," wrote Abdul Waheed Makki at Technology Pak. "This is really interesting, as the so called tear drop shape of the new design came from this lost prototype," wrote Gary Ng of iPhone in Canada, "We'll find out on Tuesday, October 4th at Apple's ‘Let's Talk iPhone' media event." "Although none of this is written in stone, where there's smoke there's fire, and we'd be very surprised if Apple only introduced a single new iPhone come Tuesday," wrote Aayush Arya at The Next Web. "Rumors surrounding a new teardrop styled iPhone 5 design have almost taken on a life of their own. Whether it be via leaked case schematics, alleged iPhone 5 case moldings, or even artist renderings, Apple fans have been fed a consistent stream of information that has led many to hope for a larger screen iPhone 5 this fall," wrote Luis Estrada of MiPhoneAppCity. On Twitter, more news about the new iPhone was shared, with many people simply retweeting pieces they found interesting. The most popular were from the tech blog Mashable. One was an infographic about whether or not users would upgrade to the new phone, and another piece explained what to expect from the launch. "iPhone 5 Leak! It has a keyboard! joked Breanna Hughes, linking to a photo of an old Nokia phone. Another hot topic last week was Facebook, which had been expected to introduce its new iPad app at the October 4 Apple event. (As of October 6, the app has not yet been updated.) Changes to the Facebook interface also generated attention. Facebook was the No. 1 story on Twitter and also tied for third place on blogs. And many of the online responses reflected skepticism about the social media giant. "To be honest, at this point I'm not holding my breath and will believe it when I see it in the App Store," blogged Andrew Wray at Andreas' Blog, in response to reports that Facebook would have a new iPad app. Others were concerned that Facebook would be tracking all internet activity, even when a user has logged off of the site. "If you're a Facebook user and haven't logged out-and for a while recently, even if you have logged out-Facebook knows your identity," wrote John Mark Ockerbloom at Everybody's Libraries, "And if Facebook knows who you are and what you're looking at, it has the power to pass along this information." Still, there were a few pleased with the company's new features. "While many of us are typically resistant to the network's changes at first, the upcoming developments sound promising in many ways. These recent changes also seem to be much bigger than the typical small changes the company implements all the time," wrote Danielle Edberg at Make it Work Blog. On Twitter, many shared articles about changes to Facebook, including one entitled "No, You Aren't Going to Quit Facebook," which refuted the idea that users who express dissatisfaction with the social network are actually going to quit using it. "Facebook is the Saturday Night Live of the web. They keep changing things, it still sucks and we keep watching," tweeted Scott Hanselman. "Let's just be honest about what Facebook really is, guys: a birthday reminder service masquerading as a social network," wrote Baratunde. "I swear, if Facebook changes their layout one more time, I'm going to post a status update about it & then use their site as much as always," joked Sexy Spec. News about Google+, a new social network created by the internet giant, also had people talking last week, with the subject tied for second place on blogs and in fourth place on Twitter. Google+ has been a site for over three months now, and the company announced some new features last week, including upgraded online "hangouts." Most bloggers simply linked to Google's blog post on the subject, but a handful commented on the changes. "Google+ has just gotten much better, and we definitely can't wait to try out the new features," wrote Edgar Cervatnes of Android and Me, "Google+ is still a very young social network, though, and there's always room for improvement." On Twitter, people were chattering about being able to share their Google+ circles with others and were pleased about the development. "You can now share Google+ Circles. Good for journalists who use curated lists," tweeted Liz Heron.* "Good News! :) Google's changing fast! : Now You Can Share Your Google+ Circles With Others," wrote Sean Choe. "You can now share your Google+ Circles. Your move Facebook," wrote Damien Basile. Google Analytics also released an announcement that it would have real-time data so its users can access analytic information instantly. Twitterers were pleased with the advancement. "Google Analytics is going real-time. This is massive news," tweeted ArtemR. The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Tech news was not limited to the iPhone, Facebook and Google on blogs last week. Tied for second place on blogs was a story about an update to the Android phone. Although the response to this development was not as widespread as iPhone discussions, users seemed cautiously optimistic about the new operating system. Tied for third was discussion about Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' letter to customers. Hastings recently made some significant changes to the popular movie rental service, including a new payment structure, which were not well-received by customers. "I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation," Hastings wrote in the letter, which did not sit well with those online. "Is that what we deserve, after all we've been through together?" wrote Chris Taylor in an op-ed letter to Reed Hastings on Mashable. Wrapping up the most popular blog posts was a conversation about taxation based on class division. Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, law professors at Yale, wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post about how the richest Americans saw their income more than double from 1979 to 2006 while paying only a small increase in taxes in that period. In their article, Ackerman and Alstott provided links to Congressional Budget Office data about pre-tax incomes and tax rates broken down by household income category. These two data sets were frequently shared on blogs. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
In addition to discussion of Facebook, iPhone and Google, two pop stars and a protest sparked discussion on Twitter. Pop idol Justin Bieber, a frequent topic on Twitter, came in third place. People shared a photo of him dancing with Santa Claus and a video of him hitting a golf ball. Tied for fifth place was a piece about Lady Gaga's next single from her current album, Born This Way. The song is called "Marry the Night" and Gaga explains it as a song about her "husband, New York." Also finishing at No. 5 was a video of female protesters at the Occupy Wall Street protest getting pepper sprayed by a New York City policeman. The same video was No. 2 on YouTube for the week. Twitter users repeatedly shared information that the same officer spraying protestors in the video had several lawsuits filed against him for false arrest and civil rights violations during protests surrounding the 2004 Republican National Convention. YouTube The global financial crisis dominated YouTube last week thanks to a UK trader whose remarks made him an overnight internet sensation. The No. 1 and No. 3 news videos featured a London-based independent trader named Alessio Rastani being interviewed by the BBC's Maxine Croxall on September 26. His comments included, "the market is toast," "I go to bed every night dreaming of another recession," and "governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world." He also urged people to protect their assets, warning that the markets would crash again in less than 12 months. His appearance caused a stir and raised speculation that the BBC interview was a hoax and that Rastani was a member of the Yes Men, a group of activist impersonators. The Yes Men and BBC denied that Rastani was a member of the group. And The Telegraph, Forbes and CNN, which have all interviewed him, reported that he is not registered with the Financial Services authority and he is "an amateur trader using his own money." The No. 2 video was a clip from a group called The Other 99 Percent that is leading the Occupy Wall Street Protest. The clip shows a New York police officer pepper-spraying a group of female protestors penned in by an orange mesh barricade during the protests against corporations in downtown Manhattan.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the news agenda of social media, with a focus on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. These platforms are an important part of today's news information narrative and shape the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of blogs and other social media sites has allowed news-consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. Through this New Media Index PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compares with the narrative in the traditional press. A detailed description of the NMI methodology, which was recently modified in August 2011, is available here. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from online postings. By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
Speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie might enter the fray made the 2012 presidential election the No. 1 story in the news media the week of September 26-October 2, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Coverage of the campaign accounted for 15% of the newshole studied last week. That was the third-biggest week for campaign coverage this year—and the biggest not to involve a candidate debate. The fervor over Christie last week came on the heels of a shaky debate performance by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, followed by his failure to win the Florida straw poll. And Christie’s intimations that he had not ruled out running were enough to make him a significant newsmaker in 25% of campaign stories examined last week. Some of this came from heavy coverage of his speech at the Ronald Reagan Library on September 27. Christie received nearly twice the amount of attention drawn by Perry (14%) who, up until last week, had been the most-covered Republican candidate since the week of August 8-14, the week he formally entered the race. A fair amount of campaign coverage last week also fell on another candidate, Herman Cain, the pizza restaurant magnate from Georgia who won the Florida straw poll on September 24. Cain was the No. 3 campaign newsmaker, the focus of 20% of election stories last week. A straw poll victory, however, does not guarantee that Cain will remain in the media spotlight for long; last week Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, winner of the August 13 Iowa straw poll, was the No. 7 campaign newsmaker last week, prominently featured in only 2.2% of those stories. (To register as a prominent campaign newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 25% of a story about the 2012 election.) Close behind the campaign in overall coverage last week was the flagging U.S. economy, the No. 2 story at 14% of the newshole, down somewhat from 23% the week before. This ended a three-week stretch in which the economy was the top story in the news. No single economic event dominated the coverage, though the nation’s weak employment situation drew more attention than other items. A demonstration in New York City referred to as Occupy Wall Street accounted for about 12% of the economic coverage last week. The trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor at the time of the pop star’s death was the No. 3 story last week, filling 5% of the newshole. Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009, believed to be the result of a lethal drug cocktail, was a top story, accounting for 17% of the newshole during the two weeks after his death. At No. 4 last week was the death of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in an airstrike in Yemen by a joint CIA-military operation. Questions over the ethics and legality of killing a U.S. born person without a trial became the subject of much of the coverage, which amounted to 5% of the newshole. Finally, unrest in the Middle East was the No. 5 story, at 4% of the newshole. Coverage focused on a mob attack on a U.S. diplomatic envoy in Syria and on Saudi Arabia’s move to honor women’s right to vote.
A New Contender for the GOP Nomination? Last week, the 2012 campaign received much wider play on television and radio than in other sectors of the media. That was especially true of cable news, which devoted 29% of the time studied to the campaign, led by MSNBC (37%) and Fox News Channel (34%). The campaign, by contrast, drew much less attention in newspapers and on news websites; on newspaper front pages, it was the No. 14 story of the week, at 3% of coverage. Questions about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s national aspirations, of course, did not begin last week. They had made perennial appearances throughout the early months of the campaign as the GOP primary field was taking shape. But they began in earnest prior to the beginning of the week as reports emerged that Christie had met recently with a number of powerful GOP fundraisers. In a segment that included a montage of the many denials by Christie that he would enter the race, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on September 26 puzzled over the rumors. “The GOP field this year is still not satisfactory, and the one name that comes up over and over again—I don’t know why—is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.” But Matthews might have answered his own question. He was also only one of many in the media who pointed to the general sense of dissatisfaction among Republicans with their choices. “They’re looking for a candidate who can win next year,” explained CNN’s Anderson Cooper on September 27. “That’s obviously not unusual, but this is: This time around, the Republicans are also struggling, and struggling titanically, to find a candidate they actually want to win. We’ve seen Michele Bachmann rise and fall, Rick Perry enter and now stumble, now it’s New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.”
Add to that how ABC News’ John Karl described the Chris Christie phenomenon on the Sept. 27 broadcast of World News Tonight: “Even when he says he won’t run for president, the way he says it—blunt, direct, no B.S.—makes many Republicans want him to run even more.”
Christie’s speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California on Tuesday was a significant part of the tinder fueling the fire. “Everything about Christie’s speech screamed national campaign,” said NBC News chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd on the September 28 edition of the Nightly News. The flattery was also accompanied by cautionary notes about obstacles Christie would face. Those, according to the coverage, included the scrutiny a campaign brings, image issues brought on by Christie’s weight, and the challenges of entering late. “Assembling a staff and raising money takes time, and Christie will have to move very fast,” declared a CBS News report from September 30. Joblessness and Its Discontents Coverage of the economy hovered on no single theme or event, but on a range of items including jobs, the banking industry, and consumer reactions to conditions in the country. Media outlets continued to follow President Obama’s travels around the country as he pitched his job creation proposal. One of those events, a September 26 town hall meeting at the LinkedIn headquarters in California, was covered by NPR. “Many of the president’s recent events to push his jobs package have had a campaign rally feel to them, with cheering crowds and partisan red meat. This one was still conversational, but still partisan,” reported Ari Shapiro. And a small piece of encouragement, both for the administration and the unemployed, came when a September 29 report showed jobless claims appeared to have dropped to their lowest level since April. That piece of news, however, came with warnings not to read too much into the data. The jobless claims report certainly did not seem to stem the tide of public unrest, a sentiment measured in press coverage of Bank of America’s new debit card usage fees and the angry consumer backlash, as well as attention to the demonstrations on Wall Street criticizing corporate greed. “Consumers are tired of being nickel and dimed,” said consumer advocate Norma Garcia in a September 30 Wall Street Journal story on the new fees, which Bank of America claims are an unintended consequence of lost revenues due to new federal regulations on other debit card fees. In Manhattan last week, a sit-in known as Occupy Wall Street that began in mid-September born of a general anti-greed sentiment, gained more media attention when hundreds were arrested over the weekend in acts of civil disobedience. Though their goals are “not entirely clear,” according to the Los Angeles Times from September 30, the mood of the group is. “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.” The Rest of the Week’s News Last week, the trial began for Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s doctor charged with manslaughter and negligence which ultimately may have led to the artist’s death. It was the No. 3 story. As with much of Jackson’s life, his death too has become something of a spectacle, and last week, the media had plenty to focus on as the Jackson family entourage loomed heavily over court proceedings. And audio recordings of Jackson’s barely coherent mumblings were replayed on television news outlets, vividly illustrating the severely weakened state Jackson was in during his final hours. At No. 4 was the U.S. coordinated killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical cleric living in Yemen. Some media reports noted that President Obama’s credibility as a leader tough on terror received a boost with Awlaki, and before that, Osama bin Laden. But other reports questioned whether the Obama administration was justified in ordering the attack given Awlaki’s status, such as a Sept. 30 ABC News report on the ACLU’s criticism of the White House’s neglect of due process. Finally, a number of events in the Middle East drove that region into the No. 5 spot last week. Some reports reacted to news that Saudi Arabia had on September 25 decided to honor women’s right to vote and stand for office in local elections. Also in the news were stories about the attack of a U.S. diplomatic envoy’s motorcade in Syria, an attack which caused no injuries but provoked a strong response from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Newsmakers of the Week As the media’s focus on taxes, spending and job creation diminished briefly last week, so did Barack Obama’s prominence as a lead newsmaker. He was the focus of 7% of stories last week, down markedly from 16% the week before. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story. This is a different metric than a significant newsmaker in a campaign story, which has a threshold of 25%.) The next two most prominent newsmakers last week were Conrad Murray and Michael Jackson, who was under Murray’s care when he died. Murray, who was on trial for his alleged role in Jackson’s death, was the No. 2 newsmaker last week, figuring prominently in 5% of stories, and Jackson No. 3 (4%). At No. 4 was New Jersey Governor Christie (4%). The previous week, the only Republican candidate to enter the top five most prominent newsmakers was Texas Governor Rick Perry, but his coverage dropped off substantially as buzz built up around Christie. Finally, the No. 5 newsmaker was Anwar al-Awlaki, at 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 September 19-23, blogs and Twitter were eager for new products and angry about changes to old ones, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. In particular, commentators were excited about the upcoming version of the iPhone and the expansion of the new social networking site Google+. But they were mostly unhappy about changes to sites they had become accustomed to, particularly Netflix and Facebook. The top subject last week, Apple's iPhone, has been of particular interest to bloggers for some time now. Rumors about new versions of the device have been among the most discussed subjects on blogs in seven out of the last eight weeks.
The No. 2 subject on blogs was the entertainment site Netflix. In July, the company announced a price hike for its popu Google+, Google's social media site, was the third-biggest story on both blogs and Twitter. The site announced that it had become an open beta for anyone to use, and the young service received mostly favorable comparisons to the industry giant Facebook. On Twitter, meanwhile, the No. 1 subject involved changes to Facebook itself including the addition of new features and a remodeling of the profile page. In this instance, however, the overriding reaction was negative as tweets roundly complained about the changes to the service so many people had become used to. iPhone Rumors For the past two months, bloggers have anticipated the newest Apple iPhone, though the device has yet to be released or even formally announced. Every online rumor has generated a boomlet of speculation about what form the new device will take. Would Apple issue an updated version of the iPhone 4 or a brand new advanced product and call it iPhone 5? This past week, there more rumors to sort out, each dissected in detail. The New York Times tech blog, Bits, chronicled some of the discussion. "As the excitement for Apple's latest product revs up, chatter about the phone is starting to fly around the Web at warp speeds," wrote Nick Bilton. "On Thursday the technology blog Boy Genius Report posted images of a new iPhone case from the site of a company called Case-Mate. The images were visible on the company's site for a short period of time before they were replaced with a curiously cryptic page." Even small bits of information drew scrutiny. The tech blog Engadget posted a screenshot from AT&Ts internal inventory system which listed "iPhone 4S White" as a product. And an offhand statement by Apple board member Al Gore at a conference in South Africa that "the new iPhones would be out next month" led to further speculation. "Shapshak [the editor who witnessed Gore's quote] says that the statement was definitely plural, although it wasn't clear whether that meant two different models," dissected Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web. "It is certainly possible that this implies that there are two new iPhones in the pipeline. Many rumors recently have been focused on the fact that there are two models being developed-a cheaper, although cosmetically similar, version of the iPhone 4 and a new, redesigned iPhone 5." "Consider, if you will, this theory," forwarded Mike Perlman at Techno Buffalo. "The smartphone world will not see an iPhone 5 in the year 2011. But we will see an iPhone 4G. Yes, an iPhone 4G-it makes all the sense in the world!" "One thing's for sure: Apple has done a spectacular job of keeping almost everyone in the dark," summarized Buster Heine at Cult of Mac. "Regardless of what they've decided to do with the design, or what they're going to call their next phone, we just hope it gets here quick." Netflix Splits On September 18, Reed Hastings, the Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, posted an apology note to customers over how the company announced its new business model. Netflix split the DVD rental part of their business from its online streaming portion-and raised fees. Many in social media predicted these changes would harm the company. "With this split of services, Netflix just might have placed itself in the perfect position to lose even more customers," forecasted Stephanie Sutton at Interpret LLC Blog. "Whereas with the previous price increases many customers did not alter or delete their subscriptions, this might change now that the services have been split in two with two different bills." "I truly believe this is THE worst thing they could have done," added Chuck Conry at Zombies Don't Run. "People generally hate change (as you've seen by the stink over the recent Facebook changes), but Netflix could have saved a lot of face without going on and making things a whole lot worse for themselves. Now they want you to pay for two separate things." Some bloggers put it in more personal terms about how the changes would impact their membership. "Dear Netflix, It's not me it's you," began Tom Q. at alt-tag.com in a letter announcing his break-up with the company. "I cancelled my account just before the 60% price increase kicked in...I purchase products because they provide value to me. If the value doesn't match the price, I don't buy. I'm not cutting costs, I no longer see the value of your separated services." "The delusion Hastings expresses in his press release is that the mistake was in communication," argued Surely You're Not Serious. "The ‘key thing' is a 60% price increase, plain and simple!! The ‘key thing' is that you are raising prices for nothing! Splitting up services for nothing. Making my membership more complicated for nothing!" Although a distinct minority, some bloggers defended the company. "I still don't quite get the anger people have with the price increases and the company splitting," countered Joe Dull. "Some people who were getting an INCREDIBLE deal, to me, are now just getting a good deal." Facebook Changes As it frequently does, last week Facebook announced changes to its layout and key functions. The site revealed it would be overhauling user profiles, adding new apps for playing music and video, and adding a timeline function that would stream information about the user going back to birth. On Twitter, most focused on the new layout of the profile page, which now categorizes recent posts to emphasize things most interesting to the user and features a live feed of current activity called a "ticker." And once Facebook began rolling out some of the new features, the reaction on Twitter was overwhelmingly negative. "FB knows what's important to me? Obviously not!" tweeted Joyce Barrass. "Gimme back 'most recent' layout, new FB no good!" demanded @karenevans01. "Reckon Google+ are loving this: how many people will drop Facebook over these changes?" asked James Kelly. In a kind of echo chamber of social media to legacy to social, a number of users linked to news articles about the disappointment expressed online. Josh Halliday of the Guardian posted a blog entry tracking some of the expressions. The Associated Press began its reporting on the topic by writing, "Facebook is at it again. The social network is tweaking the home pages of its 750 million users, much to the chagrin of some very vocal folks." "they just need to stop trying so hard to be hip," advised Sean McBride.* "Whaddaya know. FB is making changes, and people don't like them, so far," wrote Tim Bartle. "The net is conservative, but we'll come around." Google+ Becomes an Open Beta If the discussion in social media was upset by changes at Facebook, it was intrigued by the prospect of Google entering the field of social networking. Google announced that its new social media site, Google+, was now open to anyone to join. It also detailed more than 90 improvements made to the site in the 90 days it had been in a field trial phase. Bloggers who tested Google+ had mostly positive reviews. "Google + is a rich and scenic romp through all areas of interest...I am deeply entranced by the many articles and full page posts that these wunderkind contribute day after day," shared Elaine at Trool Social Media. "Google+ has now captured my heart with its ease of access to fabulous articles, incredible people, the simple management of my circles and it has opened a whole new area of learning for me." "So far, the number one positive feedback I'm hearing is that G+ has excellent privacy features," noted Jeniffer Thompson. "My favorite feature is the search functionality. It's kind of like Twitter meets Facebook in the way that you can do a search for a specific keyword and you'll get results for anyone who has posted publicly on that topic." Many compared Google+ favorably to Facebook. "In my opinion...Google+ is far superior to facebook," determined The Practical Geek at Your World of Tek. "Google+ Has got it right from the off, with friend circles and such other things. Facebook is getting updated so many times a month now, that its hard to follow where it's going and is chaging too often. There is also way too much on the website too. Google + is far superior." "If anything, Google+ fills a niche that wasn't filled before by providing a service where people can interact with others on a deep level (past 140 characters) and even ‘meet' them via Hangouts," suggested Carter Gibson at Plus Headlines. "Just look at all the functionality of Google+ and how connected it is (and will be) to the rest of our online use. If Google+ flops, Google flops, and Google isn't going to flop." Not everyone bought into Google+, however, as some saw the developing site a result of hype. "Everyone is going to have their own opinion about the relevancy of Google+, but the bottom line is this: Google+ isn't sticky," concluded Andrew Dumont. "They've had every possible thing in their favor...Yet, interaction steadily declines...Google+ doesn't get much of my time. Why would it? Twitter and Facebook are serving me just fine, and Google+ doesn't offer me anything innovative." The Rest of the Week's News Elsewhere on blogs, the economy and the presidential campaign drew attention. Various columns relating to the economy made up the fourth-largest subject last week. They included a post by Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business, who asked if capitalism is doomed and suggested that "advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy." Two other blog posts also resonated including one on the Los Angeles Times website by Andrew Malcolm criticizing President Obama's handling of the jobs crisis and another by entrepreneur Mark Cuban saying that the most patriotic thing a person can do is to become wealthy and pay taxes to help others. The presidential campaign was the No. 5 subject. Bloggers linked to several reports including one on the left-leaning site Mother Jones which accused Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania of changing rules related to the Electoral College. Others highlighted a TMZ report that Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is offering up to $1 million for anyone who can prove that Republican candidate Rick Perry has had an illicit sexual liaison. On Twitter, the controversial execution of Troy Davis for a 1989 murder of a police officer in Georgia was the second-biggest topic. Many people protested the execution, claiming that Davis was innocent and that the evidence against him was inconclusive and falsified. The fourth and fifth-biggest subjects were both focused on the music industry. Pop singer Justin Bieber was No. 4 as Tweets highlighted several pages including a YouTube video of the star performing at the Georgia Hall of Fame Awards. And word that the new album by singer Demi Lovato had reached the top spot on iTunes in its first week was the No. 5 subject. YouTube On YouTube, a deadly plane crash at an air show in Reno, Nevada, dominated the most-viewed news clips. The top three videos featured amateur footage of the September 16 air show tragedy that killed nine people and injured dozens of others. The top two videos, uploaded by different sources, included the same 40 seconds of dramatic footage. From a distance, they showed 74-year-old pilot Jimmy Leeward slamming his vintage World War II fighter plane into a box seat area in front of the grandstand leaving a trail of debris and stunning spectators. The No. 3 video was different video footage, uploaded by the Associated Press, showing the Reno air show crash from another angle and the aftermath as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene.
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 Paul Hitlin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
This From September 19-25, the economy accounted for 23% of the newshole, up modestly from 20% the previous week, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. And half of that economic coverage focused on the jobs and taxes debate set in motion by Obama’s September 8 speech introducing a $447 billion dollar job-creation package.
Last week, the major newsmaking event was the president’s September 19 speech on deficit reduction in which he called for some tax increases targeted at the wealthy. That triggered a fierce ideological battle in which Obama talked about the rich paying their “fair share” while opponents branded the proposal “class warfare.”
A related budget story, and one characterized in the press as another example of Washington’s political dysfunction, was the No. 5 subject, at 4% of the newshole. That is the threat of a looming government shutdown, largely because of a dispute over how to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). What followed for most of the week in the media narrative was partisan wrangling, perhaps foreshadowing a debate about taxing the wealthy that will become a defining issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.
A September 20 Fox News Democratic Senator Charles Schumer responded by stating that the Republicans “refusal to address the proposal on the merits is revealing. They know they will lose any argument about the policy itself.” And on the airways, the pundits picked sides. On his September 21 MSNBC show, liberal commentator Ed Schultz said Obama has the country on his side on the tax issue: “According to a new Gallup poll, 66 percent of Americans are in favor of increasing income taxes on people earning over $200,000 a year and families earning at least $250,000. Only 32 percent are opposed. The president has Republicans, I think, right where he wants them, if you want to talk about the campaign trail.” That same night on the Fox News Channel, conservative host Bill O’Reilly countered that, “I'm not going to endorse a huge tax increase on anybody until the spending madness stops. Until the feds and the states demand efficiency and cut the crap, I will oppose targeted tax increases." Whether his tax proposal was being applauded or panned, President Obama was the major headline maker on the subject last week, showing up as a prominent figure in nearly 40% of all the stories about the U.S. economy studied by PEJ. (To register as a prominent figure, one must be featured in at least 50% of that story.) Rick Perry’s Bad Week
Co As he has in every week since his mid-August entry into the race, Texas Governor Rick Perry registered as the top newsmaker among the Republican hopefuls last week. But this time his debate performance, which included a few notable stumbles, triggered a burst of negative commentary. On the September 23 edition of PBS NewsHour, senior correspondent Judy Woodruff summed it up this way. “Whether it's folks who like the other candidates and were inclined not to like Rick Perry's performance anyway, or people who were supporting Rick Perry, they acknowledge it wasn't a good night for him.” The same night on CNN, conservative analyst Dana Loesch echoed the view that Perry had delivered “a pretty bad performance last night…So I don't know if it's just the pressure of the debate format or the intense weight of the national scrutiny that's getting to him. But I mean it's not just his speech skills. It was his physical body language as well. He looked very uncomfortable.” By week’s end some pundits were questioning whether Perry, who had quickly zoomed to the top of the GOP presidential polls, would lose his frontrunner status. The Rest of the Week’s News The drama at the United Nations, with the Palestinians seeking membership status, drove coverage of their dispute with Israeli to 10% of the newshole last week. For much of the week, the U.S. tried to convince the Palestinians to drop their bid, but when that failed, some of the coverage focused on the prospect for reduced U.S. influence in the region. The situation “at the United Nations underscored a stark new reality: the United States is facing the prospect of having to share, or even cede, its decades-long role as the architect of Middle East peacemaking,” stated a September 22 New York Times story. The controversy over the Troy Davis execution was the fourth biggest story in the news last week (4%), with Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — who has been a media witness at 13 executions — setting the scene. “There was worldwide interest, unlike any other I've witnessed,” she wrote. “The number of media outlets and protesters at the prison for Wednesday’s lethal injection was astounding. Chants came from death penalty opponents cordoned off in the staging area. And there were many more state troopers, Butts County deputies and prison guards armed and in riot gear.” The threat of a government shutdown over funding issues (No. 5, at 4%) offered another partisan narrative pitting the Republican controlled House and against a Senate run by Democrats. An Associated Press story captured some of the weary sense of déjà vu that was present in the media coverage by reporting that “the parties' latest showdown over spending” helps highlight “the raw partisan rift that has festered all year.” Newsmakers of the Week
A Troy Davis, the convict put to death in Georgia last week, was close behind at No. 3, also at 4%. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who took his case to the UN last week, was the fourth leading newsmaker, at 3%. And the two Americans freed from an Iranian prison—Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal—were next, tied as lead newsmakers in 2% of the week’s stories. 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 900 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. Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ |
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to the movement declined in the mainstream press 
ng stats from Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo that the social networking site has more than 100 million active users and that more than 50% of them log in every day.
The capture and killing of former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi dominated the news late last week.
e would be the focus, the October 5 news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer changed the narrative dramatically.
Depending on how you count, anywhere from seven to more than a dozen Republican candidates are running for president. But it was a non-candidate who fueled one of the biggest weeks of campaign coverage to date.
lar service. Last week, the company declared it was going to split into two parts-one for the DVD rental service and another for online streaming to be called Qwikster. Bloggers railed at the price increases and last week the company's CEO, Reed Hastings, tried to 
bitter Beltway divide over tax policy driving the coverage—which intensified with President Obama’s latest proposals for reducing the deficit—made the U.S. economy the top story on last week’s news agenda.
