News Index
And the way the story played out last week out helps illustrate the different functions of the three online platforms. The conversation on blogs, often a forum for debate, was passionate and ideological in response to columns criticizing how Americans were treating the anniversary of the attacks. On Twitter, a primary vehicle for passing on information, users mostly shared a dramatic photo of the two streaming spotlights at Ground Zero. On YouTube, an eclectic platform for sharing everything from dramatic images to humorous commentary, two very different videos were prevalent last week. One was straightforward footage of the second plane crashing into the South Tower, while another was a detailed-and somewhat sarcastic-defense of conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks. September 11 Anniversary on Blogs The two most linked-to September 11 pieces in the blogosphere were from men far apart on the political spectrum, but who came to the same broad conclusion-that Americans were not treating the anniversary of the attacks appropriately. One was a post on the New York Times' website from liberal columnist Paul Krugman who argued that the September 11 attacks had been shamefully politicized. Another op-ed piece, from conservative Mark Steyn, posted on the National Review Online, contended that the U.S. had turned the 9/11 anniversary into a misrepresentation of that day's events. Krugman declared that the 9/11 attacks, rather than being a unifying event, were instead used to justify a divisive war in Iraq. "The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned," wrote Krugman, "it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it." That view was widely panned by both conservatives and liberals. "The New York Times fully endorses Paul Krugman's disgusting 9/11 column, since they haven't fired him for writing it," wrote John Hayward on Human Events, a conservative publication. "Yes, that's a nasty partisan attack on a day when most of us try to frame our commemoration of the anniversary in non-partisan terms," wrote Ed Morrissey on Hot Air, a conservative site, "It's so trite, sad, and cliched that it's hardly worth the effort to rebut."* "The moonbat runs deep in this one," wrote conservative blogger Bluegrass Pundit. George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted that he canceled his New York Times subscription because of Krugman's post, and his tweet sparked commentary on the blogosphere as well. "Fox News stunned to learn Rumsfeld had been reading the New York Times," joked Running Chicken. "So...Rumsfeld cancelled his New York Times subscription over something that he could have only read online?!?" tweeted James Skylar Gerrond. Liberal commentators objected to Krugman's piece too, with some of them faulting him for playing into the hands of conservatives. "The conservative blogosphere is going crazy condemning Krugman's article-and I don't blame them one bit," wrote Rick Ungar for Mother Jones, a liberal publication. "Indeed, the only thing I do not understand is why more progressives are not joining in that condemnation, as Krugman's piece only serves to set back the principles and causes of liberals and progressives everywhere." A few bloggers agreed with Krugman. "Paul Krugman's piece was on point," wrote John Amato at Crooks & Liars, "When I saw his piece I knew the hissy fit was coming." "No, there is no obligation to call out Paul Krugman because the right wing blogosphere is acting, as usual, like a bunch of hypocritical phonies and staging a grand hissy fit to destroy one of the only strong national voices for the left over something they don't really give a damn about," wrote Digby. Steyn's piece generated far less commentary-more bloggers passed the column on without comment. Those that did generally concurred with him. Steyn argued that Americans have retreated to "cultural self-loathing, and utterly fraudulent misrepresentation of 9/11," by focusing more on topics such as diversity and healing rather than the dramatic events, heroes, victims and villains of that day. "Amen," wrote Kevin at The Smallest Minority. The No. 5 subject on blogs last week, the ongoing battle against terror, had natural tie-ins with 9/11. One post linked to terror was a first-hand account of being forcibly taken off of an airplane in Detroit and then being detained on September 11 of this year. The post was written by blogger Shoshana Hebshi who describes herself as a "dark-skinned woman of Arab/Jewish heritage." Another article came from Wired about how the FBI was teaching agents that mainstream American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers. September 11 Anniversary on Twitter If 9/11 triggered an ideological debate in the blogosphere, the reaction on Twitter was more unified. On that platform, the remembrance of 9/11 revolved around a much-tweeted and haunting nighttime photograph of the blue-hued spotlights at Ground Zero shining through an opening in the clouds. Many Twitterers who shared the image thought it was beautiful and touching. "No words necessary," tweeted Steve Bullock. "Absolutely amazing!" said @Liz_JordaNKOTB. "Powerful & moving...." wrote Tammy S. Chapman. Guessing About the New iPhone The not-yet-released new version of the iPhone continued to create a buzz on blogs and Twitter last week. Indeed, that topic has been one of the top five blog stories for six out of the last seven weeks. On blogs, several different stories covering rumors about the phone were shared, making it the week's second biggest topic. Almost all of the response was from tech bloggers also speculating about the new iPhone and its design. "The next iteration of the iPhone, once the technological master of the smart phone universe, is likely to be nowhere near the top of the today's most innovative phones," wrote Steward Wolpin at Dvice, "Yet we'll be treated to the usual Apple hoopla and subsequent huge sales, perhaps huger than any iPhone before it." "Another day, another fresh stack of iPhone 5 rumors," wrote Chris Gayomali at Techland. On Twitter, where the iPhone ranked as the No. 3 story, two items from Mashable were often shared: one discussed how the demand for the new phone would be high and the other was about the president of another phone company, HTC America, declaring that his college-aged daughter and her friends thought iPhones were for "old people." Other Top Stories on Blogs
Another tech topic, this one concerning Android devices, was the No. 3 story on blogs last week. The focus was “GameStop offering cloud gaming services on a portable basis with a familiar controller may be quite compelling indeed,” wrote Conrad Zimmerman at Destructoid. In fourth place on blogs was the 2012 presidential election. The storylines involved the Republican Party and its candidates for the presidency and how the Democratic Party recently lost two congressional seats in special elections, a development which many analysts said does not bode well for President Obama. Other Twitter Stories In addition to the September 11 commemorations and the iPhone, the other top stories on Twitter involved new developments in the tech world. The No. 2 story was about Twitter itself and one major component was a new Web Analytics tool that allows Twitter users to understand where their traffic comes from. "Very cool," tweeted Robert Cole.
The other Twitter storyline was that Twitter is now available in five more languages, bringing its total to 17 differen "Twitter is now available in five new languages. Unfortunately for Rick Perry & Michele Bachmann, ‘Insane Rambling' is not one of them," wrote former basketball star Bill Walton. "5 more twitter languages, no Arabic," tweeted Khaled. Tied for third place with stories about the new iPhone was a picture of the singer Chris Brown kissing a Betty Boop statue. Another tech giant, Facebook, was the No. 4 subject. The stories were also about new features coming to the popular social network. One was a new Subscribe button that has implications for "journalists, celebrities and other thought leaders." The button will allow people to follow updates from these famous people. The last tech story for the week, in fifth place, was the Windows 8 operating system, expected to be released in late 2012. Twitter users shared news of Microsoft's plans to battle against the iPad with the new operating system. YouTube The most viewed news-related video on YouTube last week was a 45 second video clip from BuzzFeed of the September 7, 2011 Republican presidential debate, summing up that event by showing the Republican candidates repeating the words "Ronald Reagan" and "tax." And two very different videos about September 11 also made the most-viewed news video list on YouTube last week. The No. 4 video was a sarcastic clip explaining and defending various conspiracy theories that surrounded the attacks. And the No. 5 video, a little over two minutes long, was footage of the second plane hitting the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
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
Overall, the economy accounted for 20% of the newshole during the week of September 12-18, down from 28% the week before, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Despite the unfolding events of the Arab Spring and a busy presidential campaign, the economy has topped the news agenda this year, accounting for nearly one-fifth (18%) of the newshole since January 2011. The No. 2 story has been the widespread unrest in the Middle East, at 15%. The previous two weeks of economic coverage had been focused on the jobs speech itself—including a scheduling conflict that forced it back by one day. But, last week, the media narrative emphasized a new round of partisan battles over spending cuts and tax increases that the speech provoked. As with past battles of this kind, the coverage suggested, no agreement was imminent. Another high-profile candidates’ debate drove campaign coverage last week, making it the No. 2 story at 12% of the newshole—slightly lower than 15% the week before. The September 12 Tea Party debate, which was also sponsored by CNN, fueled campaign coverage, which received the most attention on cable, where it was the No. 1 story last week at 25% of the airtime studied. The debate raised new questions, which the media tracked through the week, about Michele Bachmann’s position on mandatory vaccines, Rick Perry’s position on Social Security, and Ron Paul’s position on health care for the uninsured. Aside from those two dominant stories, the mainstream news agenda was focused on international affairs. At No. 3 (6%) was the war in Afghanistan, where much of the coverage focused on the September 13 Taliban attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. At No. 4 (5%) was unrest in the Middle East, largely taken up with the transition of power in Libya. Debt woes in Europe, driven by Greece’s fiscal crisis, accounted for 4% of the newshole, making that subject the No. 5 story.
The American Jobs Act Hits the Road The economy was the No. 1 story in all sectors of the media last week, except for cable, where the campaign took the top spot. And nearly half of that overall economic coverage focused on jobs.
President Obama’s September 8 speech to Congress kicked off a flurry of activity around his American Jobs Act, as well as an outpouring of media coverage. Reporters spent last week following Obama as he tried to sell the legislation with a campaign style tour, and as a familiar partisan gridlock reemerged in Washington over the core tenets of the bill. There was some suggestion at the beginning of the week that Republican congressional leaders, smarting from their own low approval ratings, might be willing to cooperate with the president. That was the impression of NPR’s Cokie Roberts, who commented after those leaders sent Obama a letter saying his proposal has merit. “It doesn’t mean they’ll agree with him, but at least they want to appear to be ready to work with him,” said Roberts on the September 12 broadcast of Morning Edition. But any optimism about a possible deal quickly vanished. On the same day as Roberts’ commentary, Foxnews.com reported that “Republicans slammed the White House Monday” after the administration floated the idea of partial tax increases to help pay for the bill. Appearing with conservative Fox News talk host Sean Hannity, the American Spectator’s John Fund said: “This is pure politics. Obama is using yet another attempt to try and get the Republicans to raise taxes so that they can break their no new taxes pledge.” By Tuesday, September 13, a CNN daytime report was questioning the ability of Obama’s bill to survive: “Between the tax hikes and the GOP resistance to anything that smacks of stimulus, is the American Jobs Act doomed?” There were few signs of a breakthrough as the week wore on. A September 15 Washington Post article suggested any progress on the legislation, and therefore jobs, would be contingent on another round of partisan battles, calling Boehner’s opposition to tax increases a “swift return to the trench warfare that characterize the debt-and-spending debate of early summer.”
The media also spent part of the week following Obama around as he delivered speeches in Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia, pitching his plan to pay for job creating tax incentives with tax increases on large corporations and the wealthy. A September 14 Associated Press story described the stakes for the president: “With the economic recovery stalled, unemployment holding at 9.1 percent and people losing confidence in his handling of the issue, he needs to show progress on the economy as the GOP presidential campaign against him gains steam.”
The Presidential Campaign The September 12 CNN-sponsored Tea Party debate offered the media a range of opportunities to vet several of the Republican candidates for president, and helped make the campaign overall the No. 2 story last week. When Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry on his state’s mandated human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for girls—charging that it was dangerous—many media reports cast doubt on Bachmann’s charge, citing sources who called it anecdotal and unproven. But as the week went on, the press turned more attention to a possible link between the Texas law and Perry’s ties to Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the vaccine. Perry had received a $5,000 campaign contribution from the company.
The debate also provided fodder for the media to evaluate Perry’s attention-getting critiques of Social Security, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s libertarian stance on health care. Perry doubled down on his past comparison of Social Security to a Ponzi scheme, a claim that Romney and others challenged. That generated some media coverage that examined the challenges facing the Social Security program. Debate moderator Wolf Blitzer posed a hypothetical question to Paul, asking whether a young individual without health insurance should be cared for on the government’s dime in the event of a medical emergency. Paul answered by invoking one’s freedom to take risks. The Rest of the Week’s News The war in Afghanistan was the No. 3 story last week largely due to coverage of a Taliban attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, killing more than two dozen, though none of them American. The last time Afghanistan ranked among the top five stories was the week of August 8-14 when a military helicopter was shot down, killing 30 Americans. Also last week, media coverage of Afghanistan included the Medal of Honor ceremony for Dakota Meyer, who became only the third living recipient of the award for his acts of bravery on the battlefield. At No. 4 was continuing unrest in the Middle East. Coverage turned toward Libya, following the transition of power, as Islamists and moderate rebels vied to lead the country. Some stories highlighted the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron to the country. A gathering storm over Europe’s debt problems drew the media’s attention last week, making it the No. 5 story. Much of the coverage followed growing concern that Greece will not be able to meet its debt obligations by the upcoming deadline. Some reports followed the news that Moody’s had downgraded the debt ratings of two major French banks.
Newsmakers of the Week During the week of September 12-18, Barack Obama remained the central figure in the news, featuring prominently in 12% of stories studied. Though that was down from 16% the week before, it still represents a very substantial level of coverage. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) Three Republican candidates were among the top newsmakers last week. Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, two GOP candidates who sparred over the vaccine issue, registered in 5% and 2% of the week’s stories respectively. Romney was a dominant figure in 1% of the stories. The two American hikers detained in Iran also were featured in the news with Josh Fattal a prominent newsmaker in 1% of the stories studied and Shane Bauer appearing as a key figure in 1%. (Last week, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad announced that Fattal and Bauer, held for two years, would be released after a bail agreement had been reached, though no agreement had occurred as of this writing.) The other top newsmaker was Dakota Meyer, (1%) the U.S. Medal of Honor recipient. 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. Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
For the week of September 5-9, the news of Bartz's dismissal was the No. 2 story on Twitter and the No. 4 story on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Most in the tech world either liked or loathed Bartz, who became known for her crass language and her blunt leadership style. Yahoo, which has seen its standing amid web companies plummet the past few years, hired Bartz in 2009 to help turn the company around. So far though, not much headway has been made and Bartz seemed to rub many at Yahoo the wrong way. An email Bartz sent to all Yahoo employees announcing her firing instantly became big news. Bloggers all over copied and pasted the text of the email sent from her iPad: "To all, I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward. Carol." Many bloggers added admiring comments, particularly for the way she exited. "[Her email] was a move so boldly 21st century that it made many (including us) like her a little bit more," wrote Chris Gayomali at Techland. "I read the email and thought that it was a classy way to go," wrote Henry Blodget at Business Insider. "Carol's note captured the emotion of the moment and conveyed it directly, in a language everyone could understand. She didn't shrink from the truth, or sugar-coat it in ridiculous corporate-euphemism-speak. (e.g., ‘I have resigned to pursue other interests.')." On Twitter, the response was similar: "Man, this makes me love Carol Bartz a little (or a lot)," wrote Alexis Madrigal. Some commented on what her firing meant for women in business. "Wow. Bad day for women in Corporate America. Carol Bartz out at Yahoo. Sallie Krawcheck out at Bank of America," wrote Julia Angwin. "Jill Abramson becomes NYT executive editor; Carol Bartz gets fired. Female execs end the day flat," tweeted Amanda Hesser. Others made jokes about her personality and tendency to curse. "Carol Bartz weighing in on YHOO - AOL: ‘%$%#^(&^%^&* (**( ^%^synergies^^% &^*(* ())&^# $@@@$%^*'" tweeted ReformedBroker. But still, there were some who applauded the company's decision to let her go. "Carol Bartz fired from Yahoo, leaving-IMHO-a more efficient company with less core infrastructure and product vision than ever before," said Tom Coates. "Carol Bartz was a disaster for Yahoo. There's not much time to save a once-great company, but it still has incredible assets..." wrote Dan Gillmor, the director for the Center for Citizen Media. A few blogs considered the future of the once powerful Yahoo, and noted that the firing of its CEO did not necessarily bode well for the company. "The firing of Carol Bartz by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board has opened a new chapter in this once might tech giant's demise," wrote Kevin Minott at Komverse.* While Yahoo employees were largely silent on the issue, at least publically, several blogs wrote about how some Yahoo employees were not big fans of Bartz. Google Grabs Zagat News about another tech giant also registered among the leading topics on blogs (No. 3) and Twitter (tied for No. 3) last week. The main focus was Google's acquisition of Zagat, a company known primarily for its restaurant ratings. Zagat, a 32-year-old ratings company that started in print, is quite different than the digital startups that Google tends to purchase. But in recent years, Zagat has moved to the web and mobile apps, making it a competitor to Yelp and Foursquare by providing online reviews and local searches. Bloggers largely felt that the purchase was a good move for Google. "Today, Google announced that it had acquired Zagat, the popular restaurant ratings provider. It's an important move, more for what it tells us about Google and the evolution of its strategy than it does about the restaurant rating game," wrote Joshua Gans at Harvard Business Review's blog. "This is huge news for Google (capital "H") and for local. Google is a content publisher now and the content that Zagat brings arguably closes the gap between Google Places and Yelp. We'll have to see the implementation," wrote Greg Sterling at search engine land. "Sounds great, guys, as long as your new found friendship helps us find the best bacon-flavored ice cream cone, we're all for it," wrote Lydia Leavitt at Engadget. On Twitter, the response was similar, with many tweeters comparing Zagat to Yelp. "Wow, Google just bought Zagat," wrote Robert Scoble, "This is HUGE for Google reviews." "Wow, not Yelp, but it did get next best: Google buys Zagat," tweeted Rafat Ali. "Why is Google+Zagat a big deal for restaurants? Now Zagat's brand name will be atop search engine results, heretofore monopolized by Yelp," said Kevin Pang. "Google acquires Zagat. I still don't know where to eat. >:P" joked Chris Pirillo. Some of the other blog attention to Google last week focused on products the company has decided to shut down or merge into other products, as well as a possible bid to acquire the online video service Hulu.
The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Some other top stories on blogs last week were also tech-related, including several about business deals in the tech world. The top story was about the new iPhone, mainly focused on rumors about the new model-would it be smaller? Thinner? More tapered? Could it be on the Sprint network? Others discussed the fact that the game reselling store, GameStop would begin to trade-in used iPhones, iPads and iPods for in-store credits (and begin selling those products as well). The iPhone has been a top story on blogs for the past three weeks. In second place was another glimpse at a new tech product, the Amazon Kindle tablet, which is a full color, seven-inch touch screen that runs Android. The tablet will cost $250 when it comes out. Wrapping up the top five blog topics was a story about a man who died from an infected tooth because he did not have health care insurance and could not afford to either extract the tooth or to treat it with antibiotics. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter The remaining top subjects on Twitter varied in subject matter.
In first place, were tweeted photos of Justin Bieber, that showed the pop idol playing basketball, frolicking with a beluga whale and hanging out with a friend. Tied at No. 2, with the Bartz firing, were several stories about the 2012 elections. One featured live Huffington Post updates of the September 7 GOP debate and the other two were about statements that Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. made at an Obama Labor Day event, one from Real Clear Politics and the other from liberal group Media Matters. In Hoffa's Labor Day speech, he referred to the Tea Party in crude terms. Also, Barack Obama's 2012 campaign website was frequently linked to. Tied at third, with the story about Google acquiring Zagat, was news of Facebook beginning to test friend filters in its news feed. The filters will allow people to automatically categorize friends, much like Google+'s Circles. In fourth place was a story about Nike releasing Air Mag sneakers, based off the shoes that Michael J. Fox's character Marty McFly wore in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II. A video advertisement for the shoe, with Christopher Lloyd from the original movie, was also frequently tweeted. The sale of the shoes will raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. YouTube On YouTube, animal oddities drew the most attention last week. The No.1 video was a report on the discovery of a piglet born with what looked like a human-shaped head in a remote Guatemalan village, Santa Cruz El Chol. Local residents blamed aliens from outer space for the piglet's bizarre face, since it was born on the same night locals spotted strange bright lights hovering in the sky. But health officials said the mutation was caused by a genetic problem or by environmental pollution. The No. 2 video was an AP clip showing the capture of a one-ton, 21-foot saltwater crocodile by a group of villagers and veteran hunters in a remote southern Philippine village. The giant crocodile, possible one of the largest to be ever caught, is suspected of having killed humans and livestock.
About the New Media Index The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the leading commentary of blogs and social media sites focused on news and compares those subjects to that of the mainstream press. PEJ's New Media Index is a companion to its weekly News Coverage Index. Blogs and other new media are an important part of creating today's news information narrative and in shaping the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of online 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. PEJ aims to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compared with the narrative in the traditional press. A prominent Web tracking site Icerocket, which monitors millions of blogs, uses the links to articles embedded on these sites as a proxy for determining what these subjects are. Using this tracking process as a base, PEJ staff compiles the lists of links weekday each day. They capture the top five linked-to stories on each list (25 stories each week), and reads, watches or listens to these posts and conducts a content analysis of their subject matter, just as it does for the mainstream press in its weekly News Coverage Index. It follows the same coding methodology as that of the NCI. Note: When the NMI was launched in January 2009, another web-tracking site Technorati was similarly monitoring blogs and social media. PEJ originally captured both Technorati's and Icerocket's daily aggregation. In recent months, though, this component of Technorati's site has been down with no indication of when it might resume. The priorities of the bloggers are measured in terms of percentage of links. Each time a news blog or social media Web page adds a link to its site directing its readers to a news story, it suggests that the author of the blog places at least some importance on the content of that article. The user may or may not agree with the contents of the article, but they feel it is important enough to draw the reader's attention to it. PEJ measures the topics that are of most interest to bloggers by compiling the quantitative information on links and analyzing the results. For the examination of the links from Twitter, PEJ staff monitors the tracking site Tweetmeme. Similar to Icerocket, Tweetmeme measures the number of times a link to a particular story or blog post is tweeted and retweeted. Then, as we do with Icerocket, PEJ captures the five most popular linked-to pages each weekday under the heading of "news" as determined by Tweetmeme's method of categorization. And as with the other data provided in the NMI, the top stories are determined in terms of percentage of links. (One minor difference is that Tweetmeme offers the top links over the prior 24 hours while the list used on Icerocket offers the top links over the previous 48 hours.) The Project also tracks the most popular news videos on YouTube each week. *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from blog postings. Note: PEJ's weekly News Coverage Index includes Sunday newspapers while the New Media Index is Monday through Friday.
By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
Deepening concerns over a double-dip recession, and coverage of Barack Obama’s answer to them, helped the economy fill 28% of the newshole during the week of September 5-11, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was significantly more coverage than the economy generated the week before, when it was the No. 2 story, at 16% of the newshole. Obama’s September 8 speech, which introduced a $447 billion package aimed at creating new jobs, was treated by the media as a high-stakes event with implications not only for averting another recession, but also for his presidency. And the pundit reaction to it seemed to break down primarily along partisan lines. The speech accounted for almost two-thirds of all economic coverage last week. Obama himself was the lead newsmaker in over 50% of all economy stories last week. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story). Last week’s Republican presidential debate made the 2012 election the No. 2 subject last week, at 15% of the newshole, roughly doubling coverage from the week before. The media narrative about the September 7 event held at the Reagan Library in California focused largely on the battle between two front-runners, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. Some accounts noted the conspicuously small role Michele Bachmann played in the debate. Two related stories connected to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the continuing war on terror combined to account for 18% of the newshole. The No. 3 story (at 13%) focused on U.S. efforts to combat terror, including a warning last week about a possible attack in either Washington, D.C., or New York to mark the 9/11 anniversary. Commemorations and memorials devoted to that anniversary registered as the No. 4 story, at 5%. The fifth-biggest story, at 5% of the newshole, was coverage of unrest in the Middle East, as Libyan rebels continued their hunt of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, who remained at large, though some members of his family were reported to have fled to neighboring countries. That marked the fourth week in a row that the turmoil in that region ranked among the top five stories, although coverage has dropped for two weeks in a row. Pass This Bill It was clear from the coverage leading up to Barack Obama’s speech on jobs that much was at stake for the president. Gone was much of the previous week’s attention to the mini-controversy that caused Obama to reschedule the speech at House Speaker Republican John Boehner’s request. That narrative was replaced by the setting of great expectations “There are huge expectations for this speech,” declared Fox News’ Brett Baier on September 6. Some in the media closely linked Obama’s hopes for re-election to the speech, including ABC News’ Jake Tapper on World News Tonight on September 8: “Down in the polls, haunted by skyrocketing unemployment, President Obama will give a speech this evening that many Democrats believe could be one of the most important of his career.” Following a September 2 report that employers added no jobs in August, the Associated Press reported on Sept 5 that, “The disappointing report sparked new fears of a second recession and injected fresh urgency into efforts by Obama to help get millions of unemployed people back into the labor market—and help improve his chances of getting re-elected.” The substance of Obama’s speech, in which he implored Congress to pass the American Jobs Act, a job creation bill with a $447 billion price tag, was met with predictably mixed reactions, largely along partisan lines. Conservative talk host Sean Hannity, in an interview with Eric Cantor on September 8, said “I don’t know what to say except ‘yawn,’ ‘repetitive,’ ‘doubling down on stupid.’ I’ll let you use your own terms here, but it sounded a lot like the stimulus proposal that he had that created no jobs.” The speech was met more favorably by some on the left, including MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow who, in her September 8 program, called the jobs bill “Republican-friendly but still rather bold.” Other accountes reactions characterized Obama’s delivery as spirited and galvanizing for his political base. “The president spoke with a renewed sense of urgency,” reported the Washington Post on Sept. 9, and noted his “strong rhetoric and explicit challenge to Republicans.” Many news reports, however, suggested that American voters are still skeptical that Washington will be able to do anything to truly jumpstart the economy any time soon.
GOP Candidates on Stage Much of the 15% devoted to the campaign last week revolved around the September 7 Republican debate held in Florida. The media made note of the liveliness of the debate, including the New York Times on Sept. 8: “The fight for the Republican presidential nomination began narrowing into an intense and ideological battle at a debate here Wednesday night.” But of chief interest to journalists and pundits was the jostling for position among the top candidates that night. The spotlight seemed to fall on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a lead newsmaker in nearly 40% of the week’s campaign stories, and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, a lead newsmaker in nearly 30%. In a September 8 Washington Post story—whose headline was revealing in its selectivity (“Rick Perry, Mitt Romney square off in Republican presidential debate”) —Minnesota. Rep. Michele Bachmann was cast as the loser of the encounter. “Any momentum that Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), who won the Iowa straw poll in August, may have had from that victory has been extinguished by Perry.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews articulated the same sentiment in a post-debate analysis on September 7: “Bachmann is fading, if not falling.” The Rest of the Week’s News The No. 3 story last week was a collection of news items broadly related to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and terrorism. Much of the coverage featured the September 8 report that U.S. officials were tracking what was characterized as a credible threat of a possible al Qaeda car bomb attack in Washington, DC, or New York. Other stories highlighted newly uncovered video footage of Flight 93 after it crashed in a Shanksville, Pennsylvania field.
As a September 9 Los Angeles Times story put it: “Tiffany Ramsaroop has spent the last decade growing from a third-grader to a college freshman. Yet at every milestone there has been a hole where her dad should have been.” Much of last week’s coverage of the No. 5 story—unrest in the Middle East—revolved around the continued hunt for Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and his sons. The week began with reports of rebel groups surrounding the city of Bani Walid, a Gaddafi stronghold, but later reports traced his family members to Algeria and Niger. Newsmakers of the Week
From September 5-11, President Barack Obama was the top newsmaker, featured prominently in 16% of the stories studied by PEJ—up from 10% the week before. Obama’s prominence in the news drew from the heavy focus he received for his major speech before Congress on the state of the economy and his new jobs plan. Not since the week of May 2-8 2011, when he announced that Osama bin Laden was dead, has Obama generated that much attention. (That week he was the lead newsmaker in 17% of stories studied). The next leading newsmakers, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, were singled out by the media as the stars of Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate. Perry was the No. 2 newsmaker at 5% of the stories, and Romney was No. 3 at 3%. For Perry, it was the fifth straight week of being counted among the top five newsmakers, and the single biggest week for attention so far. At No. 4 was the Muammar Gaddafi, at 1%, the subject of numerous stories trying to follow his whereabouts. Finally, at No. 5 (1%) was Eduardo Sencion, the gunman who killed four in a Carson City, Nevada, IHOP before turning the gun on himself. 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. Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
For the week of August 29-September 2, discussion about Hurricane Irene was the No. 1 subject on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The majority of bloggers took issue with critics who asserted that the press had overhyped a storm that left more than 40 people dead and caused billions in damage. Two different pieces criticizing the press for overplaying Irene sparked much of the debate: one came from Howard Kurtz of The Daily Beast and another from Toby Harnden of the Daily Telegraph. The majority of bloggers strongly disagreed with Kurtz and Harnden's assessments, citing as evidence the amount of damage done to states such as Vermont and Rhode Island. "People have homes destroyed," responded a commenter bethkeith, responding to Harndon's piece. "People are dead. Gone. Deceased...In my area, Irene was a pretty damn big event and the hype saved lives." A solid minority, however, agreed with Kurtz and Harnden, with some suggesting the press and politicians have ulterior motives for adding to the hype. "The media coverage of Hurricane Irene was about the worst I've seen for any weather event thus far," decided Jamie Todd Rubin. "Every major weather event needs some kind of name (‘snowmageddon') and the continuous coverage of sensationalized information verges on parody." Another story last week that was popular on several social media platforms was the August 28 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The subject was the leading topic on Twitter, the No. 1 video on YouTube and the fourth-largest subject on blogs. While the online community shared many aspects of the awards show, pop singer Beyonce's revelation that she was pregnant was the biggest component-so much so that it led to a record usage of Twitter. Hurricane Hype? On August 28, before the full extent of the damage left by Hurricane Irene was known, media writer Howard Kurtz wrote: "the tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings." The same day, the U.S. Editor for the Daily Telegraph, Toby Harnden, argued, "Just as with the minor earthquake that shook the east coast last week causing no loss of life and virtually no damage, Irene became a huge story because it was where the media lived." While both men acknowledged there is value in having the media warn the public about impending disasters, their assessment of the press performance drew sharp rebukes from most bloggers. Many argued that the storm deserved the attention it got. "To the critics who are deriding extensive coverage and thoughtful preparation because the storm wasn't as bad as it might have been: Shut the hell up," derided Bill Herman at Shouting Loudly. "Irene was a major storm that came through the heart of the country's most-populated area...But it actually was a big deal and was covered accordingly." "It was, in some respects, every bit as bad as the predictions-just different." summarized Dan Kennedy at Media Nation. Charles Apple, on the American Copy Editors Society blog, criticized a Philadelphia Daily News headline asking if the hurricane had been "over-blown" by posting more than 25 pictures of the damage sustained from the hurricane and people trying to escape flooding. Others decided that even if the press had gone overboard in its coverage, it was better to be safe than sorry. "There was plenty of stupid about the way the media covered Irene," admitted Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway. "However, as far as warning people of the danger of what was still one of the strongest tropical storms to hit the northeast in generations, it strikes me that Katrina has taught us to err on the side of too much information rather than too little." And in a somewhat unusual occurrence in social media, some bloggers defended the actions of the mainstream press. "If ever there was a time for the media to go overboard, this was it," explained Jeff Fecke at the Blog of the Moderate Left. "The media and politicians were concerned about a storm that killed dozens and did billions of dollars in damage. That's precisely what they should be concerned about." "I'm not sure why the media is now expected in hindsight to have turned on a dime on Friday night and declared that the danger of a truly devastating storm had passed and everything was now suddenly cool, more or less," added AllahPundit at Hot Air. "We knew in advance that [New York] city wouldn't be destroyed, but beyond that no one really knew what was going to happen. How is it ‘hype' to say under those circumstances, ‘This could still be really bad'?" But there were some bloggers who agreed with Kurtz's and Harnden's critique. "The ultimate severity of any storm is inversely proportional to the amount of media hype that precedes it," affirmed Musings from the Den Mother. "Hurricane Irene, which had been downgraded to a category 2 even before it hit North Carolina's Outer Banks, was but a tropical storm by the time it got to New England...But what we on the upper right of the map actually got wasn't close to what the talking heads warned is about ad nauseum last week."* "Journalists don't add value by repeating themselves endlessly, but standing in front of random but ultimately uninformative sites where their cameras and trucks happen to be set up (or worse, in the water), by alarming more than informing people," advised Jeff Jarvis at the Buzz Machine. And some saw suspicious motives behind the extensive media attention. "Media and politicians need big catastrophes and emergencies to burnish their images and make them seem important," explained Wayne Allyn Root at Big Government. "The media loves these bigger-than-life headlines because they are highly profitable. The bigger, the better-It's all good for business. The more hysterical they can make the public, the higher the ratings. Catastrophes SELL!" The MTV Video Music Awards The VMAs were immensely popular on Twitter, registering as the No. 1 subject last week. And the news that Beyonce, the wife of hip hop mogul Jay-Z, was pregnant helped Twitter set a new record. According to the site, at 10:35 p.m. ET, the singer rubbed her stomach on stage following her performance and Twitter responded with a record 8,868 Tweets per second. "Beyonce' is finally pregnant :) #congrats to her," tweeted Jamaisha Jenkins. The excitement over the show continued the morning after as Twitterers linked to various pictures from the show, including one of Beyonce and another of actress Selena Gomez. They also shared links to a list of award winners. In the blogosphere the awards were also very popular, finishing as the fourth biggest topic. There, Beyonce's pregnancy also drew significant interest, as did a report prior to the show that rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West would be surprise performers. A number of bloggers linked to the live video stream of the ceremony. According to TechCrunch, MTV saw record online viewership of the event, with 2.3 million video streams. They also shared their thoughts about the actions of the stars. "Lady GaGa seems to be out of girl outfits...so she put on her best drag to open the MTV Video Music Awards," reviewed Martin Haro at Movie Martin. "Love the song, hate the shtick." "New-daddy-to-be Jay-Z and his ‘Watch the Throne' collab partner Kanye West were surprise performers at the 2011 MTV VMAs," described The Boom Box. "Jay and Kanye set the stage on fire...we're sure everyone will be talking about this momentous and unexpected addition to the VMA line-up for days to come." YouTube On the video sharing site YouTube, the VMAs were also the top draw. The No. 1 video last week was a report produced by Artisan News that showed highlights of the ceremony. The report focused on the dominance of female artists-including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears-in the winner's circle. And it featured clips of Beyonce rubbing her stomach and Lady Gaga appearing on stage as her male alter ego, Joe Calderone.
The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Trailing the discussion of Irene, the top subjects on blogs last week were a mix of technology news and politics. The second-biggest topic was the 2012 presidential campaign with a focus on GOP candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Some bloggers linked to a CNN poll showing Perry leading the Republican field, while others highlighted a Politico story that asked, "Is Rick Perry dumb?" The story quotes people assessing Perry's intellect and claiming that while the Governor is not an "ideas man" and does not show an interest in policy details, he can be an effective politician. Conservative bloggers complained the piece was a "hit job" on Perry and evidence of a liberal media bias. Perry also was the dominant Republican newsmaker in mainstream media coverage of the campaign last week. Rumors about Apple's newest version of the iPhone were the third-biggest subject. In particular, bloggers linked to an Engadget report which closely examined leaked photographs of the new product and speculated on what the gadget will look like once it's released in a few months. Following attention to the VMAs, the fifth subject on blogs was a different device-the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE phone which is to be unveiled next week. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
Pop culture and technology were the major subjects on Twitter last week. After the enormous attention given to the VMAs, the second-largest topic was a popular Korean boy band named Super Junior. Heechul, one of the group's singers, has enlisted in the South Korean army. However, the group announced it will continue to perform and promote their music with the remaining eight members. Suggestions for how to utilize Facebook were the No. 3 topic. Among the recommendations was advice for how restaurants should use the social networking site ("Be transparent" and "Educate your fans") and tips for businesses on how to handle upset fans ("Be patient and understanding" and "Consider asking the fan to remove the post"). As was the case on blogs, the iPhone was a major topic on Twitter (No. 4). Twitterers were interested in leaks related to the upcoming iPhone as they linked to reports about a prototype of the phone which was lost in San Francisco. This is the second time that a similar incident has occurred, as an unreleased iPhone 4 was lost last year in a Redwood City bar and eventually sold to the gadget blog Gizmodo, which published details prior to the product's release. The fifth biggest topic on Twitter last week was an interactive timeline of the evolution of the web. Created by members of the Google Chrome team, the timeline shows the interplay between web technologies and browsers since 1990. 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
From August 29-September 4, coverage of Irene filled 20% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was down slightly from the previous week when it was the No. 2 story, filling 21% in PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index, which by itself was the most attention to any hurricane since PEJ began tracking news in January 2007. The storm—which claimed more than 40 lives and did billions of dollars worth of damage in the U.S.—struck the most populous areas of the East Coast the weekend of August 28. For most of last week, Irene was no longer a hurricane, but the full extent of that damage was just becoming clear. On Monday August 29, nearly half of the overall newshole studied by PEJ was devoted to Irene and coverage stayed high for the first half of the week. It then diminished dramatically in the latter part of the week. The week’s No. 2 story was the economy at 16%—doubling coverage from the previous week. One of the key storylines was President Obama’s much-anticipated jobs speech, now slated for September 8. The scheduling itself became part of the story as the White House’s initial date of September 7 conflicted with a GOP presidential debate and was rejected by House Speaker John Boehner. Those two top stories were enough to push down the third-biggest story of the week, Mideast unrest. The topic dropped to 10% from 26% the week before, when the fall of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was the No. 1 story in the news. This past week, much of the reporting focused on the continuing search for the former dictator as pockets of fighting continued. The presidential campaign was fourth-biggest story of the week, at 7%, a minor increase over the previous week (5%). Once again the newest Republican entrant, Texas Governor Rick Perry, dominated coverage. As is traditionally the case with a fast-rising political figure, the media took a harder look at Perry’s resume and record last week. And the week’s fifth-biggest story (4%), coming just before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, was the U.S. fight against terrorism. Some of last week’s coverage involved news of a study showing that New York City firefighters who were the first responders at the World Trade Center have a higher risk of getting cancer. Another 1% of the newshole was devoted to stories about activities surrounding the 9/11 commemorations. Irene’s Damage Report Unlike some weather events, Hurricane Irene was the top story last week across the media generally. It was the No. 1 story in four of the five media sectors studied by PEJ, generating the most coverage on network news (26%), which traditionally devotes significant airtime to major weather disasters. The only sector in which the storm was not the top story was radio, where it still accounted for 23% of the airtime. One key question as the Irene moved up the East Coast was whether the storm would land a direct blow on the nation’s biggest city, New York, which had evacuated some residents and shut down public transit. On August 29, a New York Times story reported that while the city was spared the worst, other Northeast areas were not so fortunate. “Outside New York City, the storm's wrath was stark. In New Jersey, more than 800,000 customers were without power on Sunday…In Connecticut, 670,000 customers had lost power –roughly half the state… Flooding in Philadelphia reached levels that had not been seen in that city in more than 140 years. Vermont was also struck particularly hard.”
In the days that followed, local outlets detailed the secondary impacts of the storm. “Students will not be starting school on Wednesday as originally planned as the city continues to reel from the impact of Tropical Storm Irene,” reported the Hour newspaper in Norwalk Connecticut on August 30. “The aftereffects of the storm—including massive power outages throughout the area –prompted Superintendent Susan Marks to close the district.”That evening, NBC anchor Brian Williams painted the big picture. “Devastated communities in shock after Hurricane Irene,” he declared before rattling off a damage report. “Forty three people are now dead, three million Americans still without power going into tonight, thirteen separate communities in the state of Vermont alone that are still cut off, there were seven hundred boat rescues today in just the state of New Jersey.” Some media analysts had argued that the press overplayed the storm in the days leading up to its arrival, but the grim statistics and major disruptions caused by Irene seemed to quiet the criticism. On August 30 the New York Times reported that Irene “will likely prove to be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history.” Irene also triggered a political debate that became part of the media narrative. On August 29, substitute MSNBC host Michael Smerconish took aim at critics of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), most notably Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul. “If you`re Ron Paul, FEMA is a drain on taxpayers who shouldn’t ‘go crawling to the federal government if you mess up,” asserted Smerconish. “But we…have been calling Republican governors and members of Congress whose districts were in Irene`s path, and none have said that they plan to reject government help. It seems they understand the idea that people hate the government until they need the government.” At the same time, Democrats and Republicans sparred over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s call for spending cuts to offset the costs of federal disaster relief. That triggered an August 31 Fox News Channel story asserting that this is likely to become another contentious partisan issue by “setting the stage for a showdown in a budget-stingy House when it returns from its August recess.” The Rest of the Week’s News
Jobs were the biggest aspect of economic coverage last week, with particular focus on President Obama’s planned nationally televised speech September 8. That speech touched off some political drama last week when the White House acceded to Speaker Boehner’s request to push the address back one night—a decision that triggered more commentary about a subject that is increasingly become part of the president’s media narrative. Is Obama too willing to compromise and too easily pushed around? As for the speech itself, with a lot of grim news on the jobs front, analysts have already raised expectations, calling it a pivotal moment for the president. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer blogged last week: “I've been calling it a ‘make or break’ speech because jobs remains issue No. 1 in his bid for re-election and there are still so many millions of Americans out of a job… Unless the president can turn things around between now and November 2012, his re-election will be in very deep trouble irrespective of his Republican challenger.” The focus on another political skirmish in Washington seemed to come in part at the expense of attention to the Middle East. Libya and the search for Muammar Gaddafi continued to dominate coverage of the region last week, but with the battle for Tripoli won by the rebels, press interest diminished substantially. Some news came out of Syria, where the government is still engaged in a violent crackdown on protestors. One story that made headlines was the defection of the attorney general from the city of Hama to the side of the anti-government protestors. For the fourth week in a row, Rick Perry continued to be the featured Republican player in coverage of the 2012 campaign last week, registering as a dominant newsmaker in about one-third of the campaign stories studied by PEJ. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be included in at least 50% of a story.) The Texas governor has generated attention for his quick rise to the top of the GOP presidential polls, but last week, the media also began subjecting him to a harsher glare. That included a story on the Politico site questioning Perry’s intellect. Finally, a series of stories—many pertaining to 9/11, including the study about increased health risks to firefighters—contributed to the coverage of the U.S. fight against terrorism last week.
Newsmakers of the Week From August 29-September 4, in the run-up to his big speech on jobs and the economy, Barack Obama showed up as a dominant newsmaker in 10% of all the stories studied by PEJ. (That was up substantially from 4% the previous week.). Even in hiding, Muammar Gaddafi continues to make news, last week releasing a tape exhorting his followers to continue the battle against the rebels. He was the second-leading newsmaker, at 3%—although that was down from 7% one week earlier. Rick Perry was No. 3 (2%), marking the fourth consecutive week in which the newly minted candidate has showed up among the top five overall newsmakers. And former vice-president Dick Cheney, whose new memoir provoked controversy and included criticism of other members of George Bush’s Administration, was the fourth leading newsmaker at 1%. Three figures tied for the No. 5 spot (also 1%)—House Speaker John Boehner; Obama’s selection to chair his Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger; and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the convicted Libyan Lockerbie bomber whose fate became an issue last week with the fall of Gaddafi’s regime. 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
For the week of August 22-26, Steve Jobs' resignation was the most-discussed subject on Twitter according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The subject so dominated Twitter, that on August 25, the day after he announced his departure, all but one of the links appearing on the top story lists was about the CEO. Two other stories that did make it on the list of the most linked-to news Twitter for the week were natural disasters that struck the East Coast. In addition to PEJ's ongoing (and recently updated) weekly analysis of the most-discussed stories in social media, the examination of Twitter this week utilizes computer technology from the media monitoring firm Crimson Hexagon to examine the key components of the conversation following Jobs' resignation. Health problems seem to be at the heart of the CEO's decision to leave his post. After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jobs underwent a liver transplant and has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January. In his letter of resignation, widely posted on blogs, Jobs wrote, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." He goes on to explain that he would like to serve as Chairman of the Board and recommends COO Tim Cook as his replacement-recommendations quickly carried out. The response on Twitter was huge. Across the millions of twitter feeds followed with the Crimson Hexagon tool, there were more than 50,000 posts in the three days following the announcement. First and foremost, Twitter users passed the news along. Fully 29% of the conversation about Jobs was sharing the news with others, often as retweets of articles from blogs and news sites like Gizmodo, MacRumors, CNN Money, Los Angeles Times, as well as other sources. The second most common theme among Twitter posts added a light-hearted tone to the news. Jokes, often using puns of Apple products or Jobs' name, accounted for 17% of the conversation.
The third most common subject about Jobs, at 11%, focused on the company's finances, specifically how Apple's stock price responded to Jobs' announcement. The remaining three areas of conversation were full of admiration for the CEO, from sharing remembered quotes (8%) to concerns for his health (7%), and general tributes, Twitter users expressed their high regard for the Apple co-founder. Jobs Jokes The most popular jokes on Twitter were plays on words comparing Jobs' resignation to Apple products. "Steve Jobs texted his employees that he would be quitting his job but bc of auto-correct they thought he was just he was quilting with rob,"* tweeted Blake Griffin, a basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers. "Steve Jobs quits unexpectedly. Just like Safari," tweeted the writer Rob Sheridan. He later apologized for seeming insensitive. "Steve Jobs resigned as CEO as Apple. I really hope he gave his notice with a note that just said ‘iquit,'" wrote the popular Twitter user @Lord_Voldemort7, who writes as the Lord Voldemort character from the Harry Potter series. Other posts, like those from Junkboy, Chris D'Elia and Karl Chandler, made jokes based on his name. Admiring a Leader Much of the Twitter discussion of Jobs was laudatory, with 8% sharing quotations from him, 7% writing tributes and another 7% sympathizing with his illness. Many of the quotes shared referenced life, hard work and leadership. "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven, don't want to die to get there. - Steve Jobs," wrote Lifesfaircom. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. -Steve Jobs," quoted Vikash Pipara. "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people arent used to an environment where #excellence is expected.~Steve Jobs," wrote Deb Spiecer. "'Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.' -- Steve Jobs," wrote the talk show host Ricki Lake. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal put together a list of Jobs' quotes, which was often retweeted. In discussing his health, those on Twitter were generally concerned for Jobs' welfare and wished him well. "Steve Jobs resigning as CEO of Apple and I just hope that he stays healthy. We need to keep as many innovators like him on this earth," tweeted the actor Harry Shum, Jr. "It's so sad about Steve Jobs and I bet he would trade his billions for good health! Be THANKFUL for what you got!" wrote bevysmith. "If Steve Jobs beats this cancer thing again this man needs to run for president of the US. I'd vote for him," said Jessica Stone. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter Among the other top stories on Twitter were two natural disasters on the East Coast. The 5.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Mineral, Virginia was the No. 2 story for the week. People on Twitter were excited by the rare geological event, sharing news articles about the quake and pictures of the effects-mostly photos of small objects that fell down during the quake. The other natural disaster, Hurricane Irene, which had the potential to cause extensive damage all along the East Coast, was the fourth most popular story on Twitter for the week. In third place was a story about astronomers discovering a planet made of diamond. The planet is far denser than any other known planet and since it is mostly made of carbon, a large part of it is effectively diamond. Wrapping up the top stories was a letter written by a Member of Canadian Parliament, Jack Layton, shortly before his death on August 22. Layton suffered from an undisclosed type of cancer and wrote the letter to address a number of topics and to say goodbye to Canadians. YouTube The most-viewed news video on YouTube last week was an exhibition basketball game that ended in a melee. The August 18 incident occurred on the second day of Vice President Biden's trip to Beijing during what was billed as the "China-U.S. Basketball Friendship Match" between the Georgetown University Hoyas and the Chinese professional team, the Bayi Rockets. The amateur footage showed players from both teams exchanging blows, tackling one another, and chairs being thrown, but it was unclear who started the brawl. At one point, a Chinese player could be seen repeatedly punching one of the Georgetown players. As Hoyas coach John Thompson III and the players headed to the locker room, the team had to dodge plastic water bottles hurled at them by the crowd.
The Week's News on Blogs The national debt was the most popular subject on blogs last week. Technology stories also drew a lot of attention.
Articles about the national debt increasing $4 trillion during Obama's presidency had bloggers abuzz. One piece noted "In half the time Obama will have overwhelmingly outspent Bush's entire eight years and he is on a straight, narrow path to earn new lows of disapproval in less than half the time it took his well-known scapegoat to achieve such levels of detest," wrote Running Against Obama.* "Even Paris Hilton can't spend money that fast!" wrote The Good Fight, "All joking aside, the rate of spending under this administration is mind boggling and certainly cannot be sustained." "Obama is saying yes, we can get control of the national debt," wrote Now the End Begins, "But ominously every time he says that he adds that trillions of dollars in infrastructure repairs are badly needed across the country." Competing smart phone technology ranked second and third. Blackberry took second place, with bloggers linking to a review of the new Blackberry Bold 9900 and a Blackberry blog post about a new music app for the device. Upcoming iPhone 5 features followed close behind at No. 3. One article discussed a new option for Japanese iPhone users, an early earthquake warning notification system, available with the iOS 5 operating system. Another piece examined new parts for the iPhone 5, comparing them with iPhone 4 parts. New features on Facebook were the fourth most popular story for the week. The updates included tools that allow users to share content with only a select group of individuals. The fifth topic was the 2012 presidential elections. Bloggers shared news about two GOP candidates: A story about Mitt Romney nearly quadrupling the size of his beach home and a collection of quotes from Jon Huntsman's appearance on an ABC political talk show, where the presidential aspirant reacts to other GOP candidates.
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 almost 30,000 Tweets, this report goes beyond the normal methodology of PEJ's index to look at the specific themes and tone of conversation related to the Steve Jobs' resignation. 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 hundreds of millions of publicly available Twitter posts. 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 timeframe for the analysis is August 24-26, 2011, which is different than the normal NMI week, Monday through Friday. PEJ used the following list of keywords in a Boolean search to narrow the universe to relevant posts: ("tim cook" OR "timothy cook" OR jobs OR apple) - "#jobs" *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from blog and Twitter postings. By Emily Guskin and Sovini Tan, PEJ Note: PEJ's weekly News Coverage Index includes Sunday newspapers while the New Media Index is Monday through Friday.
The end of Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year grip on the North African country was the No. 1 story for the week of August 22-28, accounting for 25% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Unrest elsewhere in the Mideast, particularly Syria, filled another 2% of the newshole. The extensive coverage of the takeover of Green Square in Tripoli by NATO-backed rebels came after a dramatic decrease in recent media attention to the conflict and the region. The week the U.S. and NATO forces entered the Libyan fighting (March 21-27), coverage of Mideast turmoil spiked to 47% and remained very high (38%) the following week. But it fell to just 5% in the month leading up to the deposing of Gaddafi. As the week went on, however, coverage of that international story diminished as the media turned to two potent acts of nature—Hurricane Irene and a 5.8 magnitude earthquake—both of which occurred in the greater Eastern seaboard region. Combined, those stories amounted to 30% of the newshole, more than Libya-related coverage. Hurricane Irene, the No. 2 story last week at 21%, resulted in at least 35 deaths, flooding across the Northeast and power outages in millions of homes. Though it struck at the end of the week, Irene generated the most weekly coverage of any hurricane since PEJ began tracking news in January 2007—the closest competitor being Hurricane Gustav (17%) from September 1-7, 2008. The hurricane also registered as the top story on TV news, at 33% of the airtime studied on the broadcast networks and 30% on cable. (Major weather events often attract more attention from television, which is drawn to stories with a strong visual element.) The hurricane, unusual in its Northeastern trajectory, followed an even more unusual event—an August 23 earthquake whose tremors were felt in major cities from Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA. Coverage of the quake amounted to another 9% of the newshole. The No. 4 story last week was the U.S. economy at 8%, the lowest it has been since the week of May 2-8 (5%), when the death of Osama bin Laden completely dominated that week’s coverage. Much of the coverage was driven by anticipation of and reaction to Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s speech on the government’s response to new economic worries. Bernanke acknowledged the current problems, but said “with respect to longer-run prospects, however, my own view is more optimistic.” Finally, at No. 5, was the presidential race, driven by a number of stories about the leading GOP candidates as they continued to jockey for position in the long lead-up to the primaries. The campaign was the subject of 5% of stories last week, a significant drop from 13% the previous week. A Turning Point in Libya Most of the intense fighting in Libya occurred early in the week, and about one-third of the week’s coverage occurred on Monday, August 22, as pro-democracy rebel forces, aided by NATO support, occupied Tripoli. U.S. news organizations had reporters in place to describe what appeared to be regime change unfolding. Cable and broadcast TV outlets provided live coverage, with correspondents often reporting amidst chaotic scenes, punctuated with gunfire. In the scramble to understand the fog of war, news reports seemed to raise more questions than answers.
Early in the week, rumors emerged that Col. Gaddafi’s two sons had been captured by the rebels, only to be debunked by the surprise sighting of one son, Seif al-Islam. “al-Islam’s sudden—even surreal—arrival at a Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists are staying threw the situation in the capital into confusion,” reported usatoday.com on August 23. TV reporters found it difficult at times to know what was happening right around them. Over sounds of gunfire on August 22, CNN’s Sara Sidner confessed, “It’s hard sometimes to tell whether or not there’s an actual major battle going on or whether or not you have a small fight with small arms fire and then celebrations going on in another part of the city.” One question that has been repeatedly raised by the media as the so-called Arab Spring has swept through the Mideast was who and what would follow a deposed leader. Conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity broached the subject on his August 23 program. “As a rebel victory in Libya looms, so does the prospect of a post-Gaddafi Libya, and concerns are arising tonight about what the country might look like after his fall.” Hannity chose to focus on the draft constitution of the new regime, and his concerns that the power vacuum might be filled by advocates of Sharia law. Indeed, by the end of the week, even the whereabouts of the embattled leader was unknown. But by Tuesday evening, one thing at least seemed clear, that the rebels had emerged from the months-long conflict victorious. Brian Williams declared on the August 23 broadcast of NBC Nightly News, “It is all over for Muammar Gaddafi.” “I am standing in the heart of the Gaddafi compound, a place that was off-limits to all but the elite of this country” reported NBC News’ Richard Engel in a radio broadcast the same day. “It was overrun by rebels today; any question of who the victors are in the Libyan revolution has now been put to rest. They control the very heart of this country.” Disaster Strikes by Land and by Sea Almost one-third last week’s coverage was devoted to tracking the unusual confluence of both and earthquake and a hurricane in the Northeast. The 5.8 magnitude earthquake, which occurred near Richmond, VA, was felt hundreds of miles away in major cities along the East coast, and beyond—some 22 states altogether. The morning after the earthquake, August 24, the media tried to capture the sense of shock felt by East coast residents. The Washington Post’s headline read “Earthquake Jolts D.C. Area.” The CBS Early Show put it this way: “Here’s the good news—no deaths, no major damage, but there were plenty of rattled nerves.”
At least one media commentator, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, took the opportunity to draw attention to the risks nuclear energy (a nuclear power plant was located near the epicenter of the quake). “We keep getting surprised by disasters, by the markets going nuts, by a ratings agency downgrading the United States on the basis of our dumb politics and brinksmanship about our debt. Is one of these shocks, or are all of these shocks, enough to change what is possible for our country?” Unlike the earthquake which took everyone—including the media—by surprise, the arrival of Hurricane Irene was anticipated and feverishly monitored all week. Storm-tracking visualizations occupied prime real estate on newspaper home pages, radar images appeared on television screens, and reporters stood in the wind and rain for days. Each hour seemed to bring updated predictions about where the storm might hit and how much damage it could conceivably do. An August 23 Fox News web story warned that “the rapidly intensifying Irene…is the first hurricane to seriously threaten the U.S. in almost three years.” “It’s a big one,” warned George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s World News Tonight on August 24. “Hurricane Irene is streaming toward New England’s shores,” reported the Boston Globe that same day. As news organizations spent much of the week anticipating the hurricane’s trajectory, some reporters descended on the locations in the storm’s path. The Los Angeles Times depicted the calm before the storm in Roanoke Island, N.C on August 26: “The shutters were up, pounded into place with a croquet mallet. The lawn furniture was dragged inside. The generator was full of gasoline, and the refrigerator and freezer were stuffed with steaks, ham and shrimp. John F. Wilson IV was ready for Hurricane Irene.” Even with the extent of damage it caused, the hurricane—a Category 1 by landfall—was less fierce than many models and many in the media had predicted. And the press post-mortems quickly began. In a story headlined “A Hurricane of Hype,” the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz wrote that “the tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings.” The Rest of the Week’s News Much of last week’s economy coverage—the No. 4 story—was related to Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s speech from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 26. News reports tracked the ups and downs of the stock market on hopes of a possible stimulus—a measure that Bernanke chose not to implement in the short term. After several weeks of substantial coverage, attention to the No. 5 story, the presidential campaign, plunged last week as no single candidate or theme dominated. Some outlets highlighted Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s decision not to enter the fray. Others tracked the rise of Texas Governor Rick Perry in the polls as he took a commanding lead in a Gallup survey, placing him more than 10 points over the previous frontrunner, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Newsmakers of the Week From August 22-28, for the first time in three months, the ousted Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi registered as the No. 1 newsmaker, appearing prominently in 7% of stories, many of them questioning his whereabouts. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) At No. 2 was President Barack Obama (4%). The president spent much of the week vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, but the barrage of big breaking news events compelled him to stay in the spotlight, issuing statements on Libya and advising U.S. citizens to heed evacuation orders in preparation of Hurricane Irene. In the previous week, Obama was the dominant newsmaker in 15% of stories—almost four times as much as last week. The famously private CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, became the subject of numerous stories when he announced on August 24 he could no longer perform his duties at the helm of one of the most powerful technology companies in the world, and would step down. Though no direct reason was given, much of the coverage discussed the announcement in light of Jobs’ health problems in recent years. He was the No. 3 newsmaker last week, appearing prominently in 2% of stories. Former leader of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn made headlines early in the week when, in a 12-minute hearing on August 23, the rape charges against him were dismissed. Strauss-Kahn was the lead newsmaker in 2% of stories. Finally, at No. 5, was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who pulled ahead of all other Republican rivals for the GOP presidential nomination last week in a Gallup poll. Perry was featured prominently in 2% of all the stories studied by PEJ. 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.
Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
For the week of August 15-19, the sale was the most discussed subject on Twitter and the No. 3 story on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Many Twitter users offered some humor as the passed along news of the deal. "Google buys Motorola for $12.5 billion. In related news, Apple buys United States in all-cash bid," tweeted the actor George Takei. "For those asking, I imagine Steve Jobs rubbing his hands together & thinking "excellent" as he watches the Google-Motorola & HP news," wrote Danny Sullivan. On blogs, many sensed a windfall for Google because the company would obtain all of Motorola's patents for the Android phone devices. "The Google/Motorola deal, summarized," tweeted Justin Kozuch. "‘These are the droids we're looking for.'" The No. 2 story on Twitter turned back to the News of the World hacking scandal-specifically royal correspondent Clive Goodman's letter stating phone hacking was "widely discussed" at News of the World meetings. Many Twitter users retweeted articles about Goodman's letter. "The plot thickens in ‘News of the World' phone-hacking scandal," tweeted Nathan Bense. And Warren Buffet's financial philosophy came in at number three. In a New York Times op-ed, Buffett made the case that the super rich should pay higher taxes. Twitter users were generally enthusiastic about the proposal and full of admiration for the magnate. "I love the moral philosophy of Warren Buffett," wrote Sam Morgan. "You really can't RT Warren Buffett's splendid Tax The Super-Rich rant too often. Do it now," said William Gibson.* "Warren Buffett is like the kid in school who asks the teacher to assign the class more homework," wrote CBS News' Mark Knoller. In fourth place was a story about the Arsenal soccer team, which reached an agreement with Barcelona for its captain Cesc Fabregas, and subsequently appointed best VMA Hip-Hop performance and news that Lady Gaga will be opening the 2011 VMAs. Tech News on Blogs
From rumors about the iPhone 5 to new gizmos on the social media tool Foursquare, four of the top five most popular stories on blogs for the week related in some way to technology. The top story for the week was on the new iPhone, or at least rumors about it. Bloggers were abuzz-albeit cautious of reporting anything as fact-over gossip that Apple would be not holding an iPhone 5 event in early September, despite earlier rumors, and that an iPhone 4G with advanced capabilities was being tested. "As always, this is all still in the rumor stage, as Apple has not confirmed a single bit of this (or any other iPhone 5 speculation)," wrote Andrew Couts at Digital Trends, "But the rumor mill is quickly ramping into overdrive, and that usually means we'll have something real to chew on within the next couple of weeks." The fourth most linked-to story on blogs was about Best Buy holding onto its delivery of HP TouchPad tablets, selling them for a heavily discounted $99, instead of returning them to the manufacturer. It was revealed earlier in the week that Best Buy had sold less than 10% of its inventory of 270,000 TouchPads before lowering the price. Most of the online response was from tech blogs discussing the discounted price of the TouchPad and what this would mean for Best Buy and HP. And at No. 5, was the announcement from Foursquare, the social networking tool, of two new gadgets for its app. One allows users to tell the program what events they are attending, as opposed to just locations, and the other allows users to make lists of places and attractions. Tech bloggers mostly restated the facts Foursquare reported, but some voiced reservations about sharing more information with the company. 2012 GOP Candidates Only one of the top five stories on blogs for the week was not tech-focused. The second most-linked-to topic for the week was about the 2012 presidential election, and the articles touched on several candidates for the Republican nomination: Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty and Herman Cain. One of the most-blogged-about stories was Texas Governor Rick Perry's suggestion that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was "almost treasonous" when he adopted quantitative easing. The response on blogs was mixed, but both liberals and conservatives showed concern over Perry's statement. "So now "treason" has been refined to include doing something in politics someone doesn't like - not just betraying the country, wrote Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice, "And it's on its way to it being acceptable to use the term that way." "Oh, yeah, and Rick Perry is the guy who suggested Texas secede from the union. Nothing treasonous about that," said Belly Dennis, sarcastically at Tell Peoria. Another frequently-blogged story was about an op-ed by Michelle Goldberg in The Daily Beast in which she claims that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry have a Christian plot for domination. Liberal bloggers agreed with the piece and often reposted it, but many conservative bloggers felt that Goldberg's fears were unfounded. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with discussing this movement and educating Americans about its existence. But, tying candidates to its fray without conclusive data, while urging Islamist comparisons seems a bit dangerous and journalistically irresponsible," wrote Billy Hallowell at Glenn Beck's The Blaze, "This attempt at tying these candidates to such extremism is premature and the answers to these questions could easily be satisfied by asking the candidates themselves rather than issuing wild postulations." Former Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty dropping out of the race also made blogs last week. While the response was mixed, most defended him as an under-appreciated candidate. Another story was about Godfather's Pizza owner, Herman Cain quoting Donna Summer lyrics from a 2000 Pokémon movie in campaign speeches and on his official website. Most bloggers made fun of him for repeatedly quoting the lyrics. YouTube Dramatic footage of a stage collapse during a powerful storm at the Indiana State Fair on July 13th dominated YouTube last week. All five of the most-watched videos focused on the accident, which occurred just before a concert from the band Sugarland was set to begin. The No. 1 and No. 4 videos, uploaded by two different sources, showed the steel scaffolding tumbling forward onto the crowd. One woman could be heard screaming, "Oh my God, oh my God!" The No. 2 video captured the aftermath of the stage collapse, hundreds of concertgoers at the scene trying to help the injured amid the chaos. The No. 3 video is a news broadcast from Russia Today with a world update on the stage collapse.
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
From August 15-21, the economy was the top story, accounting for 25% of the newshole according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That marked the ninth straight week the subject has topped the news even as the level of economic coverage dropped for the third consecutive week. Continued volatility in the stock market accounted for some of the economic stories last week. But the leading storylines involved Obama’s Midwest bus tour focusing on the jobs and the economy as well as news that the president will deliver a major economic address next month. Obama largely had the economic stage to himself, where he registered as a dominant newsmaker in 37% of all the economic stories from August 15-21. No other figure accounted for more than 1%. (To be a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) The 2012 presidential campaign was the No. 2 story at 13%, down slightly from 15% the previous week when the Iowa GOP debate and subsequent straw poll — won by Congresswoman Michele Bachman — dominated coverage. Last week, campaign coverage focused on the buzz around newly minted candidate Rick Perry, who made news with some tough and controversial remarks about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. For the week, Perry was a dominant newsmaker in 55% of all the election stories studied by PEJ. The next closest Republican candidate, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, was way back at 6%. The Obama Administration’s call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down as well as the continued advance of Libyan rebels toward the capital of Tripoli drove coverage of the Mideast to 10% — the highest level since early June. (The reported fall of Tripoli, which could mark the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, occurred too late to be included in this report.) The fourth-biggest story was the European economy (3%). Coverage was fueled by a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy that produced calls for closer European cooperation, but seemed to do little to calm jittery world markets. The No. 5 story (also at 3%) was immigration policy with attention focused on a White House decision to suspend deportation of illegal immigrants who do not have a criminal record. Given the backdrop of a looming presidential election, some critics characterized the move as a political play for Hispanic votes. Obama Dominates Economic Coverage Coverage of the economy last week led every media sector studied by PEJ except for cable news, where the presidential campaign generated the most attention. The economy received the most attention in radio news, where it accounted for 42% of the airtime studied. One focus of that coverage was the president’s tour of Midwest states where he talked about the economy and trained some fire on Republicans in Congress. An August 16 report by Fox News correspondent Ed Henry focused on the tougher rhetoric coming from the White House occupant. “The president continues to focus his punches on Republicans in Congress…demanding they pass trade agreements plus an extension of the payroll tax cut,” Henry reported, adding that on the stump, Obama had “channeled give ‘em hell Harry Truman.” Another aspect of the coverage of Obama’s bus tour was whether it was about economics or presidential politics. “When you’re in Iowa, it always feels like you’re on a political trip,” declared NBC’s Chuck Todd in an August 15 report. That story went on to quote some disillusioned Obama supporters, including one woman who said she wanted the president to “show a little more leadership and less compromising.” As some people were wondering about presidential leadership, word emerged last week of Obama’s plan to deliver a major presidential address on economic policy, perhaps hoping to seize the initiative on that issue. On August 17, the AP reported that, “Seeking a jolt for a wilting economy, President Barack Obama will give a major speech in early September to unveil new ideas for speeding up job growth and helping the struggling poor and middle class…The president's plan is likely to contain tax cuts, jobs-boosting infrastructure ideas and steps that would specifically help the long-term unemployed.” And as was the case the week before, the unsettling roller coaster ride on Wall Street found its way into the economic headlines last week. On Friday August 19, a CNN report noted a continuing drop in stock prices amid “more fears of a recession. Friday's trading came after the Dow plunged more than 400 points on Thursday, adding to what had already been steep declines for U.S. markets…World markets dropped for a second straight session, as global economic fears continued to build.” Perry Dominates Election Coverage For the second straight week, the 2012 campaign was the No. 2 story in the mainstream media. That seems to be a clear sign that after weeks of being shoved out of the headlines by the dramatic negotiations over the debt ceiling, the election is once again generating substantial media attention on a regular basis.
And last week, that attention was trained largely on Perry, the tough-talking Texan who only announced his candidacy, after weeks of speculation, on August 13. Indeed, Perry’s ability to attract press interest was part of last week’s coverage. Michele Bachmann's Iowa straw poll “victory lap was almost immediately upstaged by the arrival in the state and in the race of Texas Governor Rick Perry,” noted correspondent Gwen Ifill on the August 15 edition of the PBS Newshour. “At a Republican Party dinner in Waterloo last night, Perry worked the crowd as if he had been in the race for far more than just 24 hours. Perry, who didn't compete in Saturday's straw poll, explained his late entrance into the race by comparing it to the 16 years it took to marry his wife.” But with the media spotlight came some very quick vetting of the new candidate. A U.S. News & World Report story, for example, took aim at some of Perry’s claims of economic success in Texas. “Perry's mission is to convince voters that if elected, he can replicate the ‘Texas Miracle’ on a national scale,” the story stated. “But like most things in politics, the details of Perry's record during more than a decade as governor of Texas aren't as convincing as the sound bites. In fact, as voters, campaign contributors and key interest groups scour his record, they may notice that he's not the small-government conservative they want him to be, and that his economic policies are somewhat airy.” One of Perry’s attention-grabbing moments last week was his statement that if Fed Chairman Bernanke “prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.” Those remarks connecting Bernanke to treason brought some quick criticism from a number of quarters, including former George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove. In a segment on the August 17 broadcast of MSNBC’s Hardball, Politico’s Julie Mason suggested the controversy around that statement was part of Perry’s introduction to a bigger political stage. “It’s going to be a fascinating process because he hasn’t been through the ringer of the national vetting,” she added. But that seemed to begin in earnest last week. The Rest of the Week’s News Coverage of the continued violence and upheaval in the Middle East hit 10% last week with major developments regarding Syria and Libya. In the former case, it was the tougher line coming out of the U.S. and in the latter, the continued battlefield successes of the rebel forces fighting Gaddafi. The subject generated the most coverage last week, 13%, on the broadcast networks’ news shows. In addition, a flare-up of violence between Israelis and Palestinians following a deadly August 18 attack near the Israel-Egypt border filled another 1% of the newshole. The troubles besetting the European economy, highlighted by the Merkel-Sarkozy summit, were the fourth largest story, at 3%. That was followed by attention to the administration’s decision to ease off on deportations of illegal immigrants not deemed to pose a public safety threat, also at 3%.
Newsmakers of the Week For the week of August 15-21, no one came close to generating as much attention as Barack Obama and Rick Perry. The president was easily the top overall newsmaker, appearing as a dominant figure in 15% of all the stories studied by PEJ last week. That represents his highest level of coverage since the week of May 2-8, when the killing of Osama bin Laden dominated media attention. The Texas Governor was next, appearing as a dominant figure in 6% of the week’s stories. Two beleaguered Mideast leaders followed at 1%. One was Bashar al-Assad, whose military crackdown has thus far been unsuccessful in quelling protests in Syria. The other is Muammar Gaddafi, whose days in power now seem numbered. The next two newsmakers, both at 1%, both arrested for allegedly perpetrating bizarre and potentially dangerous bomb plots. One was Jared Cano, the 17-year-old Florida youth accused of planning to launch an attack on a Tampa High School. The other was Paul Peters, an Australian man accused of planting a fake collar bomb around the neck of a teenage girl as part of an extortion plot. 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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The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks dominated social media from September 12-16, registering as the No. 1 subject on blogs and Twitter and among the top YouTube videos, according to the 
on 
t languages. Users made jokes about this, while a few complained that their language of choice was not yet included.
The troubled U.S. economy was the No. 1 story last week, and for the third week in a row, President Obama’s September 8 job creation speech and plan were the central themes in that economic coverage.
The president’s speech on job creation drove the news agenda last week, making the economy the No. 1 story despite sharing the week with a lively GOP presidential debate, a special 9/11 anniversary and a new terror threat.
At No. 4, a closely related story was the coverage of the actual commemoration of the 9/11 anniversary itself. That included the permanent memorials and museums that have been built or were still being constructed at the various sites of the tragedy. But other reports chose to focus on individuals who were personally affected by what happened, including Tiffany Ramsaroop whose father died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Characterized by some as an overhyped event, Hurricane Irene was the No. 1 story in the American news media last week as the press turned from tracking its path to assessing the damage wrought by the storm.
that the national debt was 
In a week in which two powerful natural disasters rocked the East coast media capitals, the rebel victory in war-torn Libya led the news.
The economy and presidential election led the news agenda last week as two men vying for the same job played a dominant role in those narratives — President Barack Obama and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
