News Index
For the week of August 8-12, the British riots were by far 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 was so dominant that it was among the top five stories each day last week and appeared on the top story lists six times more often than the next largest subject, Twitter itself.
In addition, the five most popular news-related videos on YouTube last week were all related to the riots. This report marks the second week of PEJ's new methodology for determining the most discussed stories in social media. (For a detailed explanation of the process, click here.) In addition, this analysis of Twitter utilizes computer technology from the media monitoring firm Crimson Hexagon that was used to examine the key components of the Twitter conversation during the seven days following the start of the riots. The unrest, which lasted five days, began during an August 6 protest outside a Tottenham police station following the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot and killed two days earlier by police during an investigation into crime in the black community. After several hours of protests, violence and looting broke out. Some present said the impetus for the rioting was an incident involving a 16-year-old woman who confronted police, but was attacked with shields and batons. Others attributed it to a more aggressive crowd that arrived after the initial protest.
The analysis using Crimson Hexagon found there was little concern about the causes of the riots and the possible grievances of those involved. Indeed, that accounted for only 8% of the conversation on Twitter. By contrast, 42% of the conversation on Twitter was critical of what was taking place. Less than a third, 30%, was made up of neutral comments or straight details without injecting opinion. On Twitter, where users are limited to 140 characters, tweets typically involve the passing along of information and news. However, in this instance, there was far more condemnation than the straight conveyance of details. "Low lifes in north london rioting, how stupid are these people, they're causing destruction to other life!" declared Chloe Short.* "Riot implies some sort of cause, whereas this is just hooliganism and looting. Let's not dignify these cretins without a cause," posted @redndead. Riots in the U.K. Several popular links helped spark the Twitter conversation about the rioting last week. One was a pictorial on the Boston Globe web site showing images of the clashes with police and the ongoing destruction. Another was a BBC report that quoted two participants as saying they were involved because they were showing police and "the rich" that "we can do what we want." Also popular was a YouTube video showing looters pretending to help an injured student while also stealing things out of his backpack. Other Twitter users linked to a blog post by journalist Laurie Penny, who wrote about being trapped in her house, and a column by Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator, who stated it was hypocritical for members of the British political class to assert they had nothing to do with the causes of the riots when moral decay at the top of society is quite prevalent. Many of the Twitter comments called for swift action against those involved. "It's beyond a joke," declared Ian Abrahams. "Police & army need to act with a heavy hand - water cannon, bullets whatever will end this lawlessness." "Seriously, declare a curfew time, anybody out after that gets filled in, fair game for the riot squad. This is robbing not protesting!!!!" advised Joseph Barton. Others expressed fear. "I'm really scared and I don't even live in london...god knows how the people of london feel,worried if the riot will start at their road," tweeted Jake Collins. About a third of the negative conversation included direct pleas for the chaos to end. "It's sickening what's happening in London. The riots need to stop," proclaimed Shizzlewizzle. "Everyone in London i hope you're all ok please be careful and stay safe and i hope the riots stop soon♥ You're in our thoughts," shared Rachel Merrygold. While a much smaller presence, there were some who empathized with those taking part in the riots. "What about the 16 year old girl who was attacked by the police shortly before crowds charged the police & started to riot on Saturday," asked Lataya Sinister. "It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation," wrote Vicky Smith with a link to Oborne's piece in the Telegraph. "Well-off communities don't riot," wrote Peter Tatchell. "#Riots occur in deprived areas. Mere coincidence? I don't think so. Injustice > riots." YouTube The U.K. riots also dominated attention on the video sharing site YouTube last week. All five of the most watched videos focused on the chaos. The top video showed a group of men in East London pretending to help a 20-year-old Malaysian student named Ashraf Haziq, who was reeling from an earlier attack, while they simultaneously stole items from his backpack. One man, Reece Donovan, has been charged with robbery in connection with the August 8 incident. The No. 2 video features an August 9 BBC interview with West Indian writer and broadcaster Darcus Howe in which he calls the riots an "insurrection" that was caused by unfair treatment of black teenagers by police. The third, fourth and fifth videos show violent images from the riots including police cars, buildings and a double-decker bus set ablaze, youths smashing windows and looting merchandise, and rioters clashing with riot police.
The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter The fifth-largest subject on Twitter last week was also tied to the unfolding mayhem in the U.K., at least as far as Twitter users were concerned. A list of popular sporting goods on the British version of Amazon.com drew significant attention. On August 10, there was a huge increase in the number of baseball bats sold in the U.K., and Twitterers quickly connected the increase to the current events. "Interesting shift in sales on Amazon.co.uk in response to riots," observed Colby Almond. "Does not bode well for tonight, surely. Shocking and terrifying," added Hadley Freeman. The other top subjects on Twitter were all tech-related, most of which highlighted new functionalities for social networking sites. The No. 2 story was Twitter itself. Much of the attention focused on a web site called Twocation, which allows users to discover where their followers are located geographically. "My followers live in Indonesia (47.1%), the U.S. (26.5%) & South Africa (3.9%)," revealed Lim Beatrice Tasia. The No. 3 topic was Google as many Twitterers highlighted a post on the company's official blog announcing that their social networking site, Google+, is adding games. Another major social networking site, Facebook, was the No. 4 subject as two stories drew attention. One was a Mashable report on a study suggesting that teens who "overdose" on Facebook could wind up with psychological disorders. The other was a new mobile phone application that lets users send messages to others through Facebook. (The same subject was the fourth-biggest story on blogs last week as well.) The Week's News on Blogs
The 2012 presidential election was the most popular subject on blogs last week, and two campaign-related articles drew the most attention. One was a lengthy New Yorker profile of Republican candidate Michele Bachmann chronicling her transformation from a "Tea Party insurgent" to a serious presidential contender. Bloggers differed as to whether the piece was a fair representation of Bachmann. The other was a Politico story that quoted unnamed advisers to President Obama saying that his re-election campaign strategy will be made up of a "ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney's character and business background." Some took this story to mean that the Obama Administration was anticipating a Romney nomination. Stories about the Android mobile phone devices constituted the No. 2 subject as bloggers linked to a blog post on Android Police that included exclusive screen shots of the company's upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich device and an Ubergizmo review of Motorola's Droid X2. The downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's was the third subject with much of the attention going to a blog post by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, in which he criticizes the move and claims the ratings organization is not worthy of passing judgment. The No. 4 story on blogs was the introduction of Facebook's new mobile Messenger app while the fifth-subject was about Nokia phones including a report that the new Nokia N9 phone will not be released in the U.S. About the New Media Index To see the new methodology for how PEJ arrives at the list of most discussed stories in social media, click here. This special edition of PEJ's New Media Index utilizes computer technology from the media monitoring firm Crimson Hexagon. Based on an examination of more than 3.6 million 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 situation in the U.K. 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 time frame for the analysis is August 6-12, 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: London OR UK OR riot OR "police shooting" OR Britain *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from blog postings. By Paul Hitlin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
A frightening
 rollercoaster week for the stock market replaced the debt ceiling deal as the driving force in economic coverage last week. And a Republican debate in Iowa helped propel the 2012 presidential contest to its biggest week of coverage so far.From August 8-14, the economy was the top story at 32% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, marking its eighth week in a row as the No. 1 subject. It was the second consecutive week, however, in which economic coverage had dropped—down from 45% the previous week and 52% the week before that. The week that many in the media called the most dramatic since the economic crash of 2008 had news organizations scrambling to cover and make sense of the gyrations of a stock market that plunged 634 points one day and jumped 430 the next day. But lingering reactions to the federal government’s debt compromise and the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating also made headlines. The August 11 Republican presidential faceoff in Iowa—two days ahead of the GOP straw poll there—helped drive coverage of the 2012 election (the No. 2 story last week) to 15% of the newshole. That marked the biggest week for coverage of the campaign—a subject the media had devoted relatively little attention to in recent weeks. Indeed, in the five weeks between July 4 and August 7, the campaign had accounted for only 3% of the newshole. The No. 5 story was another political saga with potential implications for 2012. Coverage of the Wisconsin State Senate recall elections accounted for 5% of news coverage last week. The mixed results—in which Democrats won two seats from Republicans, but the GOP held on to its Senate majority—were seen by the media as a barometer of the political climate in that crucial state. The No. 3 story last week, the UK riots that were sparked by a police shooting, filled television screens with arresting images of looting and fires in London. The story, at 8% of the newshole, drove home the impact of economic strains and stresses in other parts of the world. Also among the top stories last week (No. 4 at 7%) was the war in Afghanistan. The coverage focused on the shooting down of a military helicopter that killed 30 Americans, most of whom were Navy SEALs. It was the biggest single loss for U.S. forces since that conflict began in 2001.
A Wild Week on Wall Street
Reporters Turn to Iowa
Newsmakers of the Week About the NCI PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index examines the news agenda of 52 different outlets from five sectors of the media: print, online, network TV, cable and radio. (See List of Outlets.) The weekly study, which includes some 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
Liberal and conservative social media users agreed the deal was a bad one-albeit for different reasons. Indeed, both sides seemed to think they came out on the short end. For the week of August 1-5, the news story most linked to on blogs was the debt ceiling debate, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That topic also among the most discussed subjects on Twitter, finishing at No. 2. This week's New Media Index is the first to use an updated methodology and larger sample to determine the top subjects on social media. The NMI now employs an expanded number of sites to track the top stories and a wider pool of sources and topics within the story lists. The new process, which helps reflect the continued growth in social media and technology, results in a simple list of ranked stories rather than the percentages used in the earlier method. For more details, see the About the New Media Index section below. The drawn-out debt ceiling debate in Washington culminated in a complex bill that just barely averted a debt default. The most vocal users of social media strongly denounced the deal, a sentiment shared by many Americans according to polls that were released in its aftermath. Liberals claimed that President Obama caved in to the demands of the Republicans, and specifically the Tea Party movement, in agreeing to cuts in government spending without increases in revenue. "The reported deal on the debt ceiling is....completely one-sided-brutal domestic cuts with no tax increases on the rich and the likelihood of serious entitlement cuts in six months with a ‘Super Congressional' deficit commission," decried Glenn Greenwald at Common Dreams. Conservatives did not think the cuts went far enough and were concerned that the new committee would not carry through with its mission. They also felt that by increasing the debt ceiling at all, Obama and Democrats would wind up spending more money anyway. "Make the cuts NOW. Don't wait, don't play games," demanded AJ Strata in a post appearing on Right Turn Forever. "This is just another surrender to the far left to give them more time to try and sell their failed policies." Some in social media focused on peripheral issues of the debate that did not get as much attention in the mainstream coverage. A report claiming that Vice President Biden compared Tea Party Republicans to terrorists created a firestorm in the blogosphere and on Twitter. A number of bloggers highlighted a Business Insider report that the computer company Apple has more cash than the U.S. government. And many Twitter users flagged a Mashable report about White House aides who declared that Twitter itself helped influence the debt ceiling deal as it served as a platform for voters to pressure Congress into action. The Debt Ceiling Agreement The Note, a political blog on the ABC News web site, was one of the first outlets to report details of the proposed compromise. Over the next few days, people on both sides of the political spectrum weighed in with their opinions, almost all of which were negative. Liberals saw the deal as a defeat, asserting that Democrats did not fight hard enough. "Democrats are going to lose this one," concluded Ezra Klein of the Washington Post. "The first stage of the emerging deal doesn't include revenue, doesn't include stimulus, and lets Republicans pocket a trillion dollars or more in cuts without offering anything to Democrats in return." "We've always known the Dems to be wet noodles and spineless, but if they remain this way given the piranha-like opposition, there will be nothing left of them but their bones and their dignity," protested Grey Matter at The Angry Liberal. Conservatives thought the agreement was more politics as usual and would ultimately lead to more taxing and spending. "What we know about the pending deal is that the Democrats and Republicans are agreeing to a Deficit Commission. Despite the media spin-and the spin of some Republican sycophants-the deficit commission, which will be a super committee of the Congress, will have the power to come up with new tax revenue," predicted Erick Erickson at Red State. Tea Party conservatives criticized Republicans who helped create the deal, saying they were part of the D.C. establishment and not defending true conservative principles. "It boggles the mind how these Republicans are either so stupid they can't figure out that they just bent over for the Democrats again, or that they genuinely seem to think that the American people are so stupid that we don't know what they've done," posted BJC's Blog. The Tea Party further came into the conversation after Politico published a report that Biden accused its members of acting like terrorists in a closed door Democratic Caucus meeting. The subject touched a nerve and became something of a referendum on the Tea Party itself. "Now, I always thought of terrorists as people who blow up buildings, commit murder and extortion you know, who terrorize! But no apparently your political opponents who disagree with you are also terrorists," responded Shameless Politicians. "The tea party is the only thing keeping this country from ruination," added Rep. Steve Vaillancourt at NH Insider. "Malign the tea party all you want. It's a true sign that the tea party has arrived to stay, and here's a prediction. It's going to continue to get its people elected in greater numbers until they turn this great country around, until they save this country from ruin." "This Government has to get it together fix our credit and Stop the Tea Party from taking us hostage," tweeted Henry Platt. "Mr. Vice President Biden had it rtight."* "Republicans and Tea Baggers won't be happy until they totally wreck the economy, just so they can pin the blame for their actions on Obama," wrote Ron Chusid at Liberal Values four days later. Beyond the political wrangling, social media took note of several connections between the debt ceiling debate and technology companies. Bloggers were interested in a report that Apple, with $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities, had more money than the U.S. government, with its operating cash balance of $73.8 billion. "The phrase ‘richer than a small country' is not uncommonly heard, but this is another thing altogether," noted Joel Falconer at The Next Web. "Congratulations [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs-you're now more powerful than one of the largest nations on Earth. "Should we just elect Steve Jobs as president?" asked Allison Kade at LearnVest. On Twitter, the notion that Twitter played a role in pressuring legislators to act on debt ceiling legislations on was significant. Many Tweets repeated the sentence, "A White House aide said that Twitter influenced the recently announced agreement on the U.S. debt ceiling." "Twitter helped raise the debt ceiling. Social Media prevented a second recession," added Jeremy Burns. The Rest of the Week's News on Blogs Beyond the debt ceiling debate, the most popular subjects on blogs last week focused on technology, the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden and a popular teenage singer. The No. 2 topic involved challenges facing Android mobile software. Two stories drew attention. One was a post on the official Google blog claiming that Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies are waging a campaign against the Android market by filing "bogus" patents in order to make software developments for the Android expensive and difficult. The other was a blog post by CA Technologies warning users about Trojan spyware that could infect an Android device. A lengthy New Yorker story detailing the May 1 raid by Navy SEALS that killed Osama bin Laden was the third most discussed subject. Predictions that the new iPhone 5 will be launched in the coming months were the fourth biggest subject. And in fifth place was pop star Justin Bieber as bloggers linked to a Perez Hilton post showing a video of the singer playing pranks on various fast food drive-thrus and an X17 post showing candid pictures of Bieber shopping. The Rest of the Week's News on Twitter
Justin Bieber also made the list of top Twitter subjects last week, finishing as the No. 3 subject. In this case, however, most of the links were to his web site that included a list of concerts he will perform in Mexico and South America. Twitter, the web site itself, was the top subject last week ahead of the debt ceiling and Bieber. The social networking site was the feature of two popular stories. One was a list of the top Twitter trends for the previous month put together by Mashable. The other was an announcement that the old version of Twitter would be discontinued soon, roughly a year after the new version of Twitter was launched. An article from the satirical web site, The Onion, finished at No. 4. Twitterers linked to a fake report entitled, "Obama Turns 50 Despite Republican Opposition." The story included a made-up quote from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: "With the host of problems this country is currently facing, the fact that our president is devoting time to the human process of aging is an affront to Americans everywhere." A different technology-related topic, Google, was the fifth largest subject. Most of the focus was on a study that showed Google's new social-networking site, Google+, hit 25 million visitors in its first month. That growth was faster than for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace over the same time frame. YouTube Although not the top video, the debt ceiling issue was also prominently featured on YouTube. Two of the top five news videos focused on the issue. The No. 2 video was a July 31 message from President Obama, posted by BarackObama.com, explaining the agreement he reached with congressional leaders. The No. 4 video, posted by Florida Senator Marco Rubio on July 30, showed the senator discussing the debt crisis on the Senate floor and debating the issue with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. The No. 1 video last week was of a very different nature. The July 30 video shows an industrious yet controversial Lithuanian politician, Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas, resorting to extreme measures in his fight against illegally parked luxury cars. At one point, the Mayor is seen driving over an expensive car in a tank.
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 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. Through this New Media Index 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. Social media and the technologies available to help track it are also continuously changing and evolving. To stay current and reflect the social media conversation as it relates to news, PEJ must constantly re-evaluate its methods of tracking and analyses. After studying new tracking options, as well has noting adjustments made by some of the web tracking sites PEJ has used to gather posts and tweets, the Project determined that it is a good time to both update and diversify the organizations it uses to gather and sort the top news stories each day. These adjustments went into effect August 1, 2011. Since PEJ began monitoring social media in January 2009, it relied on the tracking site Icerocket to determine the most linked-to stories on blogs and Tweetmeme for the most linked to stories on Twitter. For a time, PEJ also relied on compilation for blog material with a news web tracking list from Technorati, but that tracking was suspended. The new method will continue to use the links as a proxy for measuring what social media are discussing, but it allows for a wider range of sources and expands the possible types of subjects that appear among the most-discussed. While the old method relied on one source for each type of social media, the new will rely on four, making the selection criteria more robust and the list more diverse. For blogs, both Technorati and Icerocket provide lists of the most-discussed stories at any given moment. Those will be monitored daily and a list for the week compiled. For the discussion on Twitter, two tracking sites will be used that list the top news subject each day, Tweetmeme and Twitturly. The new method differs from the previous method in two primary ways. In the previous method, the top stories were reported in terms of the percent of links. Now, since the new tracking lists do not offer the precise number of links going to each URL, the ranking will be determined by the number of times each subject appears in the daily list each week. (See below for a specific description of how the current list is calculated.) As a result of these changes, statistical comparisons between reports issued before August 2011 and those after are difficult to make. The earlier method included a percentage of links for each top story, but the new method will instead offer a simple ranking of stories in order. This new system of ranking is stronger and more intuitive because offering percentages for online content is problematic. The internet is ever-changing and growing, and there is no constant baseline or denominator to calculate percentages from. Every weekday at 9 a.m. EST, a PEJ researcher captures the lists from each of the four tracking web sites and records the five top stories on each. Each site uses a different method for the creation of their particular lists. For the top stories on blogs:
Each of the top stories (10 combined from the two sites each weekday) is coded by PEJ staff for its primary storyline or focus. At the end of the week, researchers count the number of times each storyline appeared out of the 50 stories and determine the ranking of subjects based on those frequencies. If two or more stories appeared the same number of times, the final ranking is determined by factoring in how highly the tied stories appeared throughout the week. For the top stories on Twitter:
The method for determining the top subjects on Twitter is the same as is used for blogs. For all the sites captured, only stories written in English are included in the sample. Links to pictures on yfrog and videos on Twitcasting will also be excluded. 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 Paul Hitlin and Sovini Tan, PEJ
From August 1-7, the economy accounted for 45% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism—down modestly from 52% the previous week, when the debt debate drama was peaking. One thing that distinguished last week’s economic coverage was the overwhelmingly negative tone to the news that followed the August 2 debt agreement. That included reports of widespread public dissatisfaction with the deal—and the process that produced it—as well as a 513 point plunge in stock prices on August 4. That was followed by the August 5 bombshell that Standard & Poor’s was downgrading the U.S. credit rating for the first time ever. Another story that reinforced the sense of gridlock in Washington, the battle over funding the Federal Aviation Administration, was the No. 3 subject last week, at 6%. The economy was the No. 1 story last week in all five media sectors studied by PEJ, receiving the most attention on cable news (63% of the airtime), which is fueled by the ideological prime-time cable shows. And attention to the deficit and debt ceiling storyline was still high, accounting for almost 60% of all the economic coverage. But the stock market travails and more news on the employment picture combined to account for about another quarter of the economic newshole. The week’s No. 2 story (7%) was the continuing unrest in the Middle East. The key newsmakers included the Syrian government’s assault on the city of Hama and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s appearance—infirm and caged—in an Egyptian courtroom, an event that seemed to symbolize the sweeping change underway in that region. The week’s fourth and fifth stories revisited two of the biggest newsmaking events in 2011. The No. 4 story (3%) focused on Osama bin Laden after a New Yorker magazine piece provided a minute-by-minute account of the May 1 raid on his Pakistan compound that killed the al Qaeda leader. The aftermath of bin Laden’s death had accounted for 69% of the newshole from May 2-8, 2011—making it the single biggest story since PEJ began tracking the news in January 2007. The No. 5 subject (2%) was Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ dramatic return to Congress—eight months after she was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt—to vote on the debt ceiling agreement. That shooting rampage had accounted for 57% of the newshole from January 10-16, 2011. The Debt Deal and Economy: A Grim Media Narrative In the weeks leading up the eleventh-hour agreement on raising the debt ceiling, the press was consumed with the ups and downs of the negotiating process, often alternating between hopeful and pessimistic coverage as the chances for a significant deal waxed and waned. But almost as soon as the ink dried on President Obama’s signature, the storyline turned relentlessly negative as various parties—from the man in the street to the Wall Street investor—weighed in on the deal.
One That same day, the Atlantic Journal Constitution sampled public opinion in that region. And the verdict was thumbs down. “Washington may expect people to cheer the debt ceiling deal negotiated over the weekend, but Georgians such as Beth Gray are still disgusted that partisan rancor brought the country to the brink of crisis," the story stated. “Our government should be fired. Every single one of them," said Gray, 23, a technical writer from Alpharetta. "The Democrats say they won. The Republicans say they won. They're all idiots." The August 3 Washington Post made it clear that investors weren’t pleased with the agreement either: “The package did not cheer the stock market, where the major indexes tumbled more than 2 percent on worries that the U.S. economic recovery is stalling and that the debt plan might even undermine it by weakening demand in the next year or two. These fears…have discouraged some investors, especially after political leaders in Washington raised expectations in recent weeks that they would reach consensus on putting the nation's financial house in order.” One day later, a USA Today poll put some numbers behind the sour public sentiment. “The hard-won, last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit gets low ratings from Americans, who by more than 2-to-1 predict it will make the nation's fragile economy worse rather than better,” the paper reported. Of the key players in the process, none of them fared well with the public, with President Obama doing the best by getting a 41% approval rating for his role in the negotiations. That topped the ratings for House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and congressional Tea Party members. Amid all this naysaying came another major event: on Thursday August 4, the stock market plunged perilously, falling 513 points.
“What began as a weak day in the stock markets
ended in the worst rout in more than two years, as investors dumped stocks amid
anxiety that both Europe and the United States were failing to fix deepening
economic problems,” declared the New York Times. “With a steep decline of
around 5 percent in the United States on Thursday, stocks have now fallen nearly
11 percent in two weeks.”
The next shoe dropped on August 5 when Standard & Poor’s registered its dismay with the debt deal by downgrading U.S. credit. “The credit rating agency on Friday lowered the nation's AAA rating for the first time since granting it in 1917,” the Associated Press reported. “The move came less than a week after a gridlocked Congress finally agreed to spending cuts that would reduce the debt by more than $2 trillion—a tumultuous process that contributed to convulsions in financial markets….The promised cuts were not enough to satisfy S&P.” In a week that started with a sense of some relief that a debt agreement had avoided default, the story quickly went downhill from there. The Rest of the Week’s News While unrest in the Middle East was the dominant story in the first quarter of 2011—accounting for one-quarter of the newshole—media attention has dropped so significantly since the beginning of the “Arab spring” protests that last week’s coverage (7%) represented the highest level in two months. It was driven by the increasingly bloody conflict in Syria and Mubarak’s courtroom appearance. At the same time, the continuing fighting in Libya has virtually dropped off the media radar screen. The third-biggest story, (6%) was about the political battle that resulted in a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration until a compromise was reached late in the week. Much of the media coverage suggested the dispute was another example of a dysfunctional Washington. On the August 4 edition of ABC’s evening newscast David Muir noted that the FAA showdown resulted from an effort by “some lawmakers…to stop subsidies to small airports [in order] to save some sixteen million dollars a year in taxpayer money…The problem is, while trying to save that $16 million, they were actually costing taxpayers $30 million every day” in lost airport tax revenues and fees on tickets. The detailed New Yorker piece on the bin Laden raid triggered media reaction to the story and accounted for 3% of the newshole. Perhaps the biggest revelation in the piece was the assertion that the elite team of Navy Seals was clearly on a mission to kill the al Qaeda chief, with capturing him not deemed a viable option. Finally, the return of Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to Congress (2%) prompted an outpouring of emotion. “U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords received a standing ovation as she entered the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today to vote in favor of legislation to avoid a default by the U.S. government,” reported the Arizona Daily Star. “Wearing a blue jacket and smiling, Giffords hugged colleagues as she prepared to cast her first vote since January.” Last week, Giffords’ return provided a very rare piece of good news from Washington.
Newsmakers
of the Week
The man at the center of last week’s economic news, President Obama, was a dominant newsmaker in 8% of all the stories from August 1-7—up slightly from 7% the week before. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) The second leading newsmaker, at 2%, was Gabrielle Giffords as she re-emerged in the public spotlight following her arduous recovery from the shooting attack. Next, at 1% came two people who were in trouble with the law for very different reasons. One was polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls. The other was former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose trial on murder and corruption charges began last week. The fifth leading newsmaker, also at 1%, was Casey Anthony who had been acquitted in early July after a high profile trial. Much of the public was outraged that Anthony was not convicted for the murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee and last week, there was some legal skirmishing over her probation status. 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 July 25-29, almost one quarter (23%) of news links on blogs were about the debt ceiling, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. And while several stories were linked to, the one that triggered a heated debate involved Republican Senator John McCain's unflattering reference to the Tea Party as hobbits- characters in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bloggers seized on McCain's remarks to express their opinions on the Tea Party, and the response was largely mixed. Some rebuked the Tea Party while others praised it. "If the Tea Party were behaving more like hobbits, I might not actually be developing an ulcer as the clock ticks toward Debt Doomsday," wrote Alexandra Petri, a blogger for the Washington Post. "Individual hobbits may well come swooping in on the backs of eagles in dramatic fashion after saving the day. But hobbits, as a species, are somewhat set in their ways and generally not prone to elaborate, ill-conceived heroics in times of crisis." "Well, Mr. McCain ... Let me remind you of something. The Hobbits were the good guys. Well, that's not quite correct. They weren't the good guys. The Hobbits were some of the good guys ..." wrote philmon. "So go ahead and belittle, or patronize, or whatever the hell it is you thought you were doing." The Tea Party, and particularly its leading figures, have been familiar topics for bloggers in recent months. From May 30-June 3, Sarah Palin was the No. 1 story on blogs for her appearance at a motorcycle rally in Washington, D.C. and her visit to New Hampshire. Palin was the No. 3 story on blogs from June 13-17 with the release of emails from her time as governor of Alaska. And from June 27-July 1, the No. 1 story on blogs was about another Tea Party favorite, Michele Bachmann, receiving government aid and confusing John Wayne, the actor, with John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer. The mainstream press last week also gave a good deal of attention to the Tea Party, but primarily to its role in shifting the debt-ceiling debate to the right. The No. 2 story last week, with 22% of links, was the passage into California law of the Dream Act, which gives undocumented college students state financial aid for their educations. Almost all of the blog responses came from bloggers who found it outrageous that the state government would be willing to fund educations for illegal immigrants in light of current economic woes. "So now someone who has entered our nation illegally can get lower out of state tuitions than legal law-abiding citizens. The irrational liberal progressive policies never ceases to amaze me. Illegal immigrants are now encouraged and rewarded to break our laws," wrote Cryptcl Idiot Savants.* Next came three stories tied at 9%. One was about red-light cameras in Los Angeles and the news that authorities cannot force violators to pay the fines. Bloggers overwhelmingly thought this was terribly unfair to law-abiding citizens who have already paid fines. Also at 9% was a BBC Radio discussion about building a Pompeii theme park. In the debate, archaeologist-turned-children's author Caroline Lawrence defended the idea of building an historical theme park near the site where the Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed and buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted. On the opposing side was the director of the Herculaneum Conservation project, Professor Andrew Wallance-Hadrill, who wanted no such park. Most bloggers sided with Lawrence. The other top story was an opinion piece by Lawrence M. Krauss, the director of the Origins Project, a science program at Arizona State University. Krauss decried Texas Governor Rick Perry's day of prayer and fasting, which according to the Governor, was designed to "seek God's guidance and wisdom in addressing the challenges that face our communities, states and nation." Krauss called the day of prayer "misguided" and warned readers to "beware those who seek political power with the claim that God is on their side." Responses were mixed between those who were supportive of the Perry event and those who agreed with Krauss. John McCain and the Tea Party During a July 27 speech on the Senate floor, Arizona Republican John McCain read from a Wall Street Journal editorial warning that if the GOP-controlled House fails to raise the debt ceiling, the political momentum would shift to the Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who would craft a measure far less satisfactory to conservatives. In one memorable turn of phrase, the editorial referred to "tea-party Hobbits." McCain explained that by rejecting the House Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling, conservatives would unwittingly be helping to reelect President Obama. Several bloggers used McCain's words to make comparisons to other characters from Tolkien's books, but most took the opportunity to explain how they felt about the Tea Party. Some were highly critical. "How's the tea party morons down in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate doing? According to Johnny McCrazy who at one time embraced the tea party like a lover....they're nothing but a bunch of HOBBITS! Ouchie," wrote KayInMaine at White Noise Insanity.* At least one blogger blamed McCain for the Tea Party movement. "And it's appropriate that the words are coming from John McCain, who did so much to create this idiotic movement by nominating Sarah Palin for VP-the last in a long line of Republicans who thought they could run the old bait-and-switch with their resentful and brutally misinformed ‘base' forever," wrote Adam Kotsko at An und für sich. Others came to the defense of the Tea Party. "John McCain has little respect for you tea party type. John, the feeling is mutual..." wrote The Cedar Rapids Tea Party. And a number of bloggers simply used the occasion to attack McCain. "McCain has continually confused political friends and political enemies throughout his career in Washington. His statements today belittling the Tea Party prove that he is still the same old John McCain. Sad," wrote J. James Estrada on American Thinker. "This is John McLame at his very lamest," wrote Dan Cleary at The Right Scoop. "Somebody should have warned him that one does not simply walk into metaphor," wrote The Daily What. Twitterers last week focused on Britain. The top story for the week, with 25% of links, was about the BBC and Sky Sports striking a deal to air Formula 1 races. The deal means that from 2012 to 2018, only half of the races will be able to be watched for free on BBC. The pay-to-view Sky channel will be airing the other half. British Tweeters were not happy about the news. "The new formula 1 BBC/sky deal is possibly the worst broadcasting idea ever," said James Cruden. And some took it as an opportunity to make fun of Formula 1 itself.
"Disappointed about BBC/Sky Formula 1 deal? Paint a wall every time a race is on Sky and watch it dry for free," tweeted Matt Leys. Next, at 7% of the links, was a BBC article explaining that government departments had been ripped off by a "cartel" of big IT firms who overcharged for their services. Twitter users made light of the government being taken advantage of. "Whitehall boss accused of being ripped off by big IT firms fires off an angry email on the cardboard box labelled 'KOMPUTER' on his desk," wrote Tom Jamieson. "IT firms ripping off Whitehall. Hardly a bloody surprise," wrote Luke Bozier. One more UK-based story made the top five story list. After two weeks as the No. 1 subject on Twitter (July 4-8 and July 11-15), the News of the World hacking scandal fell to fourth place, with 6% of links. A July 27 Independent article about how the Murdoch family was given secret defense briefings from British Defence Secretary Liam Fox resulted in more disbelief and outrage directed toward Rupert Murdoch's media empire. "Fox gave Murdochs secret defence briefings? Surely he has to resign for this?!" wrote Kevin Peel. "Fox gave Murdoch's confidential defence briefing on Afghanistan. Surely that could involve classified information. #hackgate #wherewillitend" wrote Tweet4Labour. The story at No. 3, with 7% of links, was an MSNBC article about a 9-year-old girl with a wish to raise money to bring clean water to people in poor countries. After the girl, Rachel Beckwith, died July 23 in a car accident, thousands of people donated through the web page she had set up to raise money for her ninth birthday, raising over $790,000 for the charity she supported. Twitter users retweeted the story, urging their followers to donate to Rachel's cause. And the fifth story, with 5% of links, was a traditional tech story-a July 27 Wired article about the future of computing. Twitter users were excited at the prospect of thinner and disk-drive-free laptops. YouTube Two of the most viewed news videos on YouTube focused on the deadly July 22 attacks in Norway that resulted in the deaths of 77 people. (Last week's New Media Index examined how the blogosphere reacted to those tragic events.) The top video was a short clip showing the extent of the damage following the massive bombing of a government building in downtown Oslo. The No. 3 video, posted by Russia Today, focused on the victims of the shooting rampage at a Labour Party summer youth camp on the island of Utoya, near Oslo, and the rescue effort to locate survivors and recover bodies from the water.
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
For the week of July 25-31, the economy accounted for 52% of the newshole, almost all of it driven by the debt debate, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. This was the second-highest level of economic news recorded since PEJ began regularly monitoring the media with its News Coverage Index in January 2007. The only week with more economic coverage (and narrowly so, at 53%) was March 16-22, 2009, when the public was outraged to learn that bailed-out insurance giant AIG had paid millions in company bonuses.
The burst of media attention punctuated
a six-week period during which the economy has utterly dominated the news
agenda, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all the coverage studied by
PEJ through the period. The No. 2 story in during that span, at 6%, was the
tabloid hacking scandal that enveloped Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The largest week of economic coverage in 2010 (40%) was December 6-12, when Obama and the Republicans finally agreed to a deal on the expiring tax cuts engineered by former President George W. Bush. Another big week (47%) occurred from February 9-15, 2009, when Congress passed President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package after a bitter fight. Given the dominance of the economic story, the week’s No. 2 subject did not even make double digits. The fallout from the July 22 attacks in Norway that left scores dead filled 8% of the newshole. From there, it was another drop to a series of stories that each accounted for around 2% of the newshole. The No. 3 subject was the Mexican drug war. Some of that coverage was fueled by the news about a failed ATF program that ended up putting guns in the hands of drug traffickers. The fourth-biggest story (also 2%) was the war in Afghanistan. One of the top storylines, once again highlighting the continued instability on the ground, was the assassination of the mayor of Kandahar, the nation’s second-largest city. The No. 5 story (2%) involved a protracted negotiation that was resolved with far less acrimony than the debt ceiling. After a four-month lockout, players and owners in the National Football League agreed on a new 10-year collective bargaining pact. After three weeks of registering among the top five stories, the Murdoch media scandal accounted for only 1% of the newshole from July 25-31. That was about the same amount of press attention devoted to the presidential race last week, a subject that has been eclipsed by the debt saga in recent weeks. The Debt Showdown The economy was pervasive in every media sector last week, ranging from filling 39% of the newshole in online news to 75% in cable news. On the cable and radio talk shows, where ideology and debate take center stage, the economy accounted for 90% of the airtime studied by PEJ.
That coverage was overwhelmingly fueled
by the debt debate, accounting for almost 90% of the economic storylines last
week.
Several different but related subplots emerged. At the outset, the media narrative focused on the hardening battle lines between Democrats and Republicans. “President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner escalated their battle over the national debt on Monday pressing their arguments in a pair of prime-time television addresses…” stated a July 26 Washington Post story. “Obama used his 15-minute address from the White House to urge ‘shared sacrifice’ in tackling the debt, calling for deep cuts in federal spending to be coupled with higher taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations,” the story said. “Boehner countered with a shorter speech from the Capitol, in which he blamed the fiscal crisis on Washington's spending and urged deep cuts to cure it.” As deadlock appeared to deepen, some coverage began homing in on public anger. Introducing the lead story on ABC’s July 26 evening newscast, anchor Diane Sawyer talked of “Americans up in arms” with “frustration boiling over, fed up messages pouring into Congress…flooding the phone lines, crushing the websites.” Added correspondent Jim Avila” “The masses [are] telling Washington deadlock on the nation’s debt is not acceptable.” A second significant storyline involved turmoil in the Republican ranks as Speaker Boehner scrambled to convince his conservative colleagues of the virtues of a debt ceiling deal. An editorial from the conservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal noted that “the Speaker has made mistakes in his debt negotiations.” But it added, “If conservatives defeat the Boehner plan, they'll not only undermine their House majority. They'll go far to re-electing Mr. Obama and making the entitlement state that much harder to reform.” “The same message came from more moderate quarters. Speaking on CNN on July 27, commentator and former presidential aide David Gergen warned that Boehner’s speakership was at risk if he could not convince his caucus to sign on to his measure. He described Boehner “as a leader who knows his job is on the line and that if he doesn't get this, he's got a runaway caucus and the Republicans lose stature.”
As On the morning of July 31, just hours before the agreement, the New York Times reported that “however the debt limit showdown ends…President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election… Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans' language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.” In the aftermath of the deal between Obama and the GOP, that narrative is likely to continue for a while. The Rest of the Week’s News The week’s second-largest story, the deadly attacks in Norway, generated the most attention in the internationally oriented online news sector, where it accounted for 13% of the newshole. As the country came to grips with the carnage caused by anti-Islamic extremist Anders Behring Breivik, a Wall Street Journal story suggested his views were gaining some traction in Europe. The story reported that Breivik’s “manifesto against the ‘Islamization of Western Europe’ echoed sentiment that has found a renewed voice on the fringes of mainstream politics from Sweden to Italy. Populist politicians have won votes and influence by arguing that Europe is letting in too many people, especially Muslims…” The next three stories all accounted for only about 2% of the newshole—news about the raging drug wars in Mexico, violence related to the Afghanistan conflict and the resolution of the NFL lockout. Coverage of all three subjects was modest, but in a week thoroughly dominated by one story, it was enough to propel them into the ranks of the top five.
Newsmakers of the Week The two central figures in last week’s debt debate were also the top two newsmakers overall from July 25-31. Speaker Boehner was a prominent newsmaker in 7% of the week’s stories (up from 2% the previous week), followed very closely by President Obama, also at 7% (down slightly from 8%). To register as a prominent newsmaker a figure must be featured in at least 50% of a story. The No. 3 newsmaker, at 4%, was the man who confessed to the July 22 Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik. He was followed (at 3%) by Naser Abdo, the AWOL solider accused of plotting an attack on Fort Hood Texas. That facility was the site of a November 2009 massacre, allegedly by a Muslim U.S. Army officer, Nidal Hasan, that took 13 lives. The next two newsmakers were tied at 1%. One was Nafissatou Diallo, the New York hotel worker who accused former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her. She recently granted interviews on the subject to Newsweek and ABC News. The other was David Wu, the Democratic Congressman from Oregon who announced his resignation last week after allegations he had a sexual encounter with an 18-year-old girl. 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
In the six days following the attacks (July 22-27), the largest component of the conversation on blogs (38%) involved passing along breaking news and facts. Bloggers passed along tidbits of information in the hours that followed the two attacks and then continued to share information about the death toll, Breivik's history and the developments in his prosecution. But fully 20% of the conversation focused on the motives and ideology of Breivik himself, a 32-year-old Norwegian who admitted he committed the murders in an attempt to "save" Norway and Western Europe from a Muslim takeover. The most common view about him at 15% of the total conversation was that he was a right-wing extremist. As more details about the shooter emerged, including the text of his 1,500 page manifesto, bloggers attached right-wing extremism to his motivations. A number of bloggers also tied his views to those of conservative political parties in Europe and the United States. A less common assessment of Breivik's motives, at 5%, fought back against that classification. These bloggers argued he was not a true Christian or conservative and instead was a follower of another ideology such as socialism. Sympathy for the victims accounted for 16% of the conversation, as bloggers commiserated with those harmed in the attacks and for the country as a whole. As is often the case with social media, a significant amount of discussion, 9%, consisted of criticisms of members of the mainstream press. In this instance, bloggers denounced those who jumped to the conclusion that the attacks were part of an Islamic terrorist plot, possibly connected to al Qaeda, before anything certain was known about the suspect. Many condemned journalists such as the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin who declared the events should be "a sobering reminder for those who think it's too expensive to wage a war against jihadists." Slightly less conversation, 7%, connected the attacks and Islamic terrorism, in some cases defending the early assumption in the media that Islamic terrorists were behind it. These are the results of a special edition of the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, utilizing computer technology from Crimson Hexagon. Based on almost 52,000 blog posts, this report goes beyond the normal methodology of PEJ's index of new media to look at the specific themes and tone of conversation on blogs related to the Norway attacks. (The regular weekly list of most linked-to news stories on blogs and Twitter, and a write-up of the top news videos on YouTube, is available here. The Norway attacks did not appear in the lists of top subjects because it occurred late in the week.) Breaking News Minutes after the bomb went off in Oslo, bloggers began sharing what little facts where available. "News I didn't expect to read this morning: A huge explosion damaged government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's," wrote a blogger at epicmind. As reports soon began surfacing about the subsequent shootings, it became clear the two events were linked. And many blogs, especially those connected with news-gathering organizations, became a source for information even as the details were coming in slowly. "A Norwegian dressed as a police officer gunned down at least 84 people at an island retreat, police have said," detailed Crewe Chronicle later. "Investigators are still searching the surrounding waters, where people fled the attack, which followed an explosion in nearby Oslo that killed seven." (The death toll was revised downward several days later, although the precise number is still uncertain.) In the following days, a number of blogs reprinted stories from wire services about the suspect, and how he was going to be dealt with in court. A number of sites, for example, posted the text from a July 25 Reuters story about Breivik telling a Norwegian judge that two more cells existed in his organization. While there was little new reporting having to do with the attacks themselves on blogs, social media was still a place where users went to convey or receive current information. Debate over Ideology Almost immediately after the initial news spread, discussion online turned to motives and speculation about who was responsible. Many bloggers, along with some members of the traditional press, proposed it was an international plot by Muslim extremists. "We don't know if al Qaeda was directly responsible for today's events, but in all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the jihadist hydra," wrote Thomas Joscelyn at the blog for the Weekly Standard. "Prominent jihadists have already claimed online that the attack is payback for Norway's involvement in the war in Afghanistan." "Naturally, this bombing will no more lead the Norwegian people to reconsider the wisdom of permitting Muslim immigration than the vast increase in the number of rapes committed by Muslim men. But it should," insisted Vox Popoli. "...it is also a fact that if a nation does not permit Muslims to enter its borders, it is far less likely to ever suffer any such incidents." (The site updated this post when more details about the assailant became known.) "Is there any chance this is an incident of internal domestic terror, somewhat like the Oklahoma City bombing?" asked Tom Maguire at Just One Minute. "I suppose there is always a chance, but this 2010 study based on Tweed data of 11,245 European terror incidents covering 1950 to 2004 tells me that Norway has had three such incidents in that time frame." However, after Breivik was identified and captured, details about his history-including the text of a 1,500 page manifesto he emailed to about 1,000 people-turned the conversation to his connection to conservative politics. Many bloggers connected Breivik with right-wing political groups throughout Europe. "He was a prolific contributor to extremist blogs and had ties to right-wing populists: The murderer from Norway did not, it would seem, come out of nowhere," summarized Frank Patalong at Spiegel Online. "Rather, he had found an ideological home among those seeking to cleanse Europe of Islam and multi-culturalism." "In fact, ironically, it is parties and rhetoric that Breivik would have approved of that are making the most rapid strides in Europe," added Juan Cole at Common Dreams. "Right wing parties that would once have been pariahs have been power brokers in Sweden and Finland, and Nicolas Sarkozy has borrowed so much rhetoric from the LePens that some accuse him of legitimizing them." Some bloggers drew parallels between Breivik's views and those of American conservatives. "The only difference between Anders Behring Breivik and the Wingnut Revolution in America is that Breivik acted," charged Bryan Lambert at You Are Dumb. "Breivik thought Obama was a Marxist. Breivik thought radical Islam was taking over Europe...He hated multiculturalism...He hated communism. He called himself a ‘Christian crusader'. He hated feminism, and even took a shot at the ‘War On Christmas'." "There's no doubt whatsoever that Anders Behring Breivik was seriously influenced by these people [conservative bloggers], and they know it. Their guilty consciences are showing," concluded Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. While not as prevalent, there were some who claimed that Breivik was not actually a conservative or a true Christian. Instead, they insisted, he followed some other ideology. "Mr. Breivik...is being called everything from a Christian to a war gamer to a neo-nazi to a right wing fanatic. No one is calling him a socialist, but that's the society in which he grew up. Why deny the biggest influence in his life?" asked Norma at Collecting My Thoughts. "It turns out, however, that Breivik-far from being a Christian-is a self-confessed apostate," wrote John Tertullian at Contra Celsum before quoting from Breivik's manifesto. "Rejecting the Christian faith he is--wait for it--an amoral fundamental Darwinist...Survival is where its at--and Breivik wanted to ensure that cultural secular Christendom (as he defined it) survived in Europe."* Sympathy for the Victims Thoughts and prayers for those harmed by the attacks were widely articulated, especially as bloggers first learned about the tragedy. "Our thoughts go out to the people of Norway and to the families of those killed. There are no words that can take away the hurt but just know that others in other countries are with you," wrote Don at Canon Fire. "Today it is a very terribly sad and incomprehensible day in our beautiful and beloved country, Norway ♥," shared Norwegian blogger Ellen at ScrappEllen. "Life has, once again, proved to be very unpredictable and unfair! My thoughts go to all those people who are touched by this great tragedy, and I encourage you all to light a candle together with the whole world, and remind all the victims." "Today was the first day ever I felt an urge not to be here in California, so far away from the terrible things that struck my brother country Norway earlier today," shared Perry at Games and the City. "We read 87 dead a few minutes ago. We pray that horrible number will stay like that. Take care everyone and love one another." Criticism of the Press Condemnation of assumptions in the mainstream press and social media that the attack was the work of Muslim terrorists was another key part of the conversation. On blogs, the criticism of the premature speculation was slightly more present than the actual Islam-connection. About 9% of the blogosphere conversation consisted of this charge against the media compared to 7% that made the connection. James Fallows at the Atlantic received a lot of attention for his critique of Jennifer Rubin's initial response. "This is a sobering reminder for those who think it's too tedious to reserve judgment about horrifying events rather than instantly turning them into talking points for pre-conceived views," Fallows wrote. Others thought that members of the conservative press had ulterior motives. "As early as a few minutes after the Oslo attacker was arrested by authorities, reports crawled across my twitter timeline claiming that the shooter was a tall blonde man," recalled Bob Cesca. "We now know that was indeed the case, but that did not prevent virtually the entire Reich-Wing media-sphere from spending the next several hours speculating that it must be the work of Muslim extremists." "It's interesting that almost everybody has stopped calling this a terror attack all of a sudden and media coverage has dropped off considerably. If Anders had turned out to be Muslim, wouldn't we still be calling it terrorism?" asked Taylor Marsh. A few bloggers who made an early connection with Islamic terrorism subsequently defended their posts. "I did not assume this was an act of islamo-terrorism," wrote Reliapundit at Astute Bloggers. "I accepted the first reports that islamists had taken credit for it at face value. This blog's first post on it posed it as a question, and only after an islamist group took credit did we jump on the bandwagon. We regret it." "Early suspicion that the attacks might have been linked to a jihadist bombing plot in Oslo last year or the recent Norwegian prosecution of an Iraqi terrorist did not bear up," responded Jennifer Rubin on her Washington Post blog Right Turn. "...at the time I believed the best working theory, given Norway's recent experiences, was that it was jihadist-related. It nevertheless is a good reminder to all of us including myself that early reports are often wrong." About This Report This special edition of the NMI adds software technology from Crimson Hexagon to PEJ's ongoing tracking of most linked-to news stories in social media. Using this software, the Project can examine a much larger mix of social media conversation. To see the results of PEJ's normal NMI methodology for the week of July 18-22, click here. According to Crimson Hexagon: "Our technology analyzes the entire social internet (blog posts, forum messages, Tweets, etc.) by identifying statistical patterns in the words used to express opinions on different topics." Information on the tool itself can be found at http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/ and the in depth methodologies can be found here http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/products/whitepapers/. The time frame for the analysis is July 22-27, 2011, which is different than the normal NMI week, Monday through Friday. For the analysis of blogs, PEJ used the following list of keywords in a Boolean search to narrow the universe to relevant posts: Norway OR Norwegian OR Breivik OR Oslo OR Utoya *For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from blog postings. By Paul Hitlin, PEJ
During the week of July 18-24, the U.S. economy was the No. 1 story at 35% of the newshole, almost tied with the previous week’s level of interest (37%), according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That marked the fifth week in a row that the economy topped the mainstream news agenda, the coverage almost entirely driven by bipartisan disagreement over raising the debt limit and how to trim the budget deficit. That storyline accounted for more than three-quarters of the economic coverage last week. Overall last week, economic coverage was biggest in cable and radio news—the two sectors that include the ideological talk shows—where it accounted for nearly half of all coverage on both platforms. Meanwhile, coverage of the hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s media empire—which last week included his testimony before the British Parliament—rose to 17% of the newshole, up from 12% and 6% the two previous weeks. That high level of media interest in its own industry is somewhat unusual. Last week’s coverage made the scandal the second-biggest media story since PEJ began tracking coverage in January 2007. The No. 1 media-focused story (26%) occurred the week of April 8-13, 2007, when radio talk host Don Imus lost his job for making racist and sexist remarks on the air. The sustained and expanding nature of the story was unusual, too—last week was the third consecutive week that the News of the World scandal ranked among the top five stories. Only one other media-focused story—the release of troves of secret government information through open-source whistleblower Wikileaks—lasted as long in the spotlight (it was a top-five story for three straight weeks in December, 2010). That story, however, decreased in media attention each week over that period, while the News of the World scandal has thus far increased each week. The No. 3 story last week was a major heat wave that made its way from the Midwest to the East Coast, accounting for 5% of the newshole. By the end of the week, news outlets were reporting that as many as 34 people had died due to the extreme heat. The U.S. presidential campaign came in at No. 4, at 4%. In recent weeks, the public and media attention to the deficit debates in Washington have easily overshadowed the campaign as a major story. Indeed, since July 4, the campaign has only accounted for 4% of the newshole. The No. 5 story, at 3% of the newshole, was the end of the final mission of the NASA shuttle Atlantis. That marked the end of an era, and news organizations took the opportunity to reflect on the decades of space exploration by the U.S. program. The week’s No. 6 story (at 2%) was the worst attack in Norway’s postwar history when one man allegedly orchestrated a bombing and a shooting that left nearly 100 people dead. The July 22 attack occurred late in the week, which may explain the relatively low level of coverage in the Index. Debt Showdown Escalates, Crisis Deepens With the debt default deadline looming ever closer, the mood in Washington has grown tenser, something that the news media have started to reflect. After about a month of covering the roller coaster negotiations, there were hints of weariness and resignation last week among the nation’s news outlets. On NPR’s Morning Edition on July 18, analyst Cokie Roberts remarked that “This week, though, really is a kabuki dance. Everybody’s going through motions that they know are going to lead nowhere.” After President Obama’s separate July 20 meetings with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, reporters feared that the two sides were moving further apart. Only July 21, NBC Today Show’s Matt Lauer asked NBC News chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd if there was any progress being made. “Well, it depends on how you define progress, because in many ways we are in the same place that, actually, we were two months ago, three months ago, four months ago. Nobody has a plan that can get through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.” Still, through the middle of the week, the coverage reflected some hope that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner might be able to work together to achieve a significant compromise through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, even though that deal might be unpopular with members of their own party. There were even reports that a major deal was imminent, though this was quickly quashed on July 21 by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
That The speaker and the president were “on the verge of an historic deal,” said ABC’s John Karl, adding that after the two were unable to agree on concessions, the prospect of any significant solution to the budget and debt crisis was unlikely. “I can guarantee you this,” said Karl. “It will not be the kind of grand bargain that would also deal with the coming fiscal crisis the country faces.” That evening, excerpts from dueling press conferences by Obama and Boehner, in which each criticized the other for inflexibility, appeared on all major cable and broadcast networks. CNN’s Jessica Yellin summarized the end result of yet another series of negotiations: “And now, with less than 10 days to go until potential default, no deal, and each side blaming the other again with this clock ticking and each side not sure how the deal will get done.” News of the World Scandal Last week’s coverage of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid scandal began with another significant resignation. The head of Scotland Yard, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned on July 17, becoming what the New York Times on July 18 called “the latest casualty of the phone-hacking scandal engulfing British public life.” It happened only hours after embattled News of the World former editor Rebekah Brooks was arrested.
“Many
are questioning whether the media mogul can slow what many are calling the
meltdown of his media empire,” reported MSNBC that afternoon. On Tuesday July 19, cameras were trained on Murdoch and his son, James, who answered questions before a British legislative panel on their knowledge—or lack thereof—about phone hacking. The testimony was interrupted when a British comedian threw a shaving cream pie in the elder Murdoch’s face, a moment that was replayed over and over again on television and on the web. Indeed, nearly half of last week’s News of the World coverage studied by PEJ occurred on Tuesday. Some media reactions offered a less than favorable view of Rupert Murdoch’s performance, despite whatever sympathy a pie in the face might have earned him. A Washington Post piece featured this observation: “Murdoch repeatedly pounded his hand on a table as he gave testimony, but nevertheless appeared removed from day-to-day details of the scandal and unprepared for detailed questioning.” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, later on Tuesday, described the hearing as “A remarkable new chapter in the scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, along with British police and government. Murdoch himself was grilled by members of Parliament today along with his son and a former top deputy in a tense spectacle.” Some chose to turn their ire to the rest of the mainstream media, however, for its fascination with the story in general. Fox News analyst Brit Hume made that point on the cable channel that evening. “You’d expect there to be a lot of coverage in Great Britain, where Rupert Murdoch is a very large figure and has a very large role in the nation’s media,” he said. “What’s a little bit surprising is the extent of the coverage in the United States. And there’s been something a touch gleeful about it from some of our and our boss Mr. Murdoch’s competitors. Unmistakable.” (PEJ’s research shows that in the period from July 6-15, Fox paid significantly less attention to the News of the World scandal than its cable news counterparts. It did provide live coverage of last week’s testimony before Parliament.) Though the bulk of coverage occurred in the first half of the week, by July 21 the media had some new developments to report on. The U.S. Department of Justice issued subpoenas in its inquiry into whether September 11 victims had their phones hacked by News Corp., and James Murdoch’s testimony before Parliament was challenged by two former News of the World Employees who claimed he knew the hacking was more widespread than he indicated. The Rest of the Week’s News Extreme heat in the Midwest that then moved to the Eastern Seaboard broke records and contributed to a number of deaths, all of which accounted for significant news coverage. The No. 3 story of the week, the heat wave (5%) also drew somewhat more attention as it moved East and toward the bigger media markets: The amount of media attention on Thursday and Friday was double that of Monday and Tuesday. At No. 4 was the 2012 presidential campaign which, for yet another week, achieved relatively little media attention. Coverage last week was driven by a mix of news items about Republican candidates, including Mitt Romney’s poll numbers and questions about the severity of Michele Bachmann’s migraine headaches. Finally, at No. 5, was the return of the space shuttle Atlantis, marking the end of the NASA shuttle program, and “ending the three-decade lifetime of a technologically remarkable and versatile spacecraft, the likes of which the world is unlikely to see for a very long time,” according to the Washington Post on July 21.
Newsmakers of
the Week From July 18-24, Barack Obama was once again the top newsmaker of the week, as he sought to reach a compromise with the Republican leadership on how to address the federal budget and the national debt. Obama was a prominent newsmaker in 8% of stories studied, down from 11% the week before. The other key figure in last week’s negotiations, House Speaker John Boehner, was the No. 3 newsmaker at 2% of stories. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) There was also a high level of media interest on three key players in the News of the World hacking scandal, including News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch (No. 2 at 5% of stories), British Prime Minister David Cameron (No. 4 at 2%), and former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks (No. 5 at 1%). Last week marked the second one in a row in which Murdoch was the No. 2 newsmaker. Tied with Brooks (1% of stories) was Casey Anthony, now acquitted on the major charges related to the death of her young daughter, and left to ward off the attention of news organizations eager to catch a glimpse of her in public. 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 July 11-15, 19% of the news links on Twitter were about the scandal, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. While still the top story, that is down considerably from the previous week when the subject accounted for 53% of news links-more attention than any topic has generated in the NMI in the past 10 months. Twitter users commenting on the scandal showed little sympathy for Murdoch or his employees. "My condolences to the #NOTW workers who've lost their jobs. I'm off to hack their relatives' phones to see how they're coping," wrote Fort Knox. The phone hacking furor generated significant headlines in the mainstream news as the No. 2 story from July 11-17, filling up 12% of the newshole. And a discussion of the scandal on a BBC talk show proved to be the second most popular news video last week. As is often the case, news about Google also figured prominently in the Twitter news agenda. The No. 2 subject, at 16% of the links featured stories about the demographics of Google+ users, a new social networking site that is expected to compete with Facebook. One story found that early users were overwhelmingly male. Another story about Google, specifically how search engines may be changing the way our memories work-by altering the way our brains organize and store information-came in fourth with 9% of links. The findings suggested that people have less short-term recall of information that can be accessed online. The No. 3 story, at 9%, was about a man who hacked into his neighbor's wi-fi and tried to frame the family for various offenses. And wrapping up the top five, at 7%, was a story about an exotic animal owner who choked to death on a sex toy. News of the World Hacking Tweeters focused on several story lines related to the rapidly evolving hacking scandal that led to the closing of the News of the World tabloid, Murdoch's dropping his bid to buy the BSkyB television operation and the resignation of several of his key employees. One such storyline was former News of the World reporter Robert Fisk's essay in The Independent on why he felt he had to leave the Times. Fisk wrote that editors rewrote his stories, and while Murdoch did not personally interfere, his regime changed the paper's ideology and curtailed its independence. "Must read," tweeted FAIRmediawatch, a liberal organization that monitors the media. One of the other stories that gained attention was about how News International initially tried to thwart the original inquiry into phone hacking. Again, responses were not supportive of Murdoch and News International. "Things not to be shocked by: a) News International acting as if there are no laws b) Tory MPs acting as if they're spoilt five year olds," tweeted Boris Watch. "Lots of talk about how bad it is for MPs and police cosy up to Press. But it's also bad for Press to cosy up to ANYONE," wrote fleetstreetfox, speaking of the scandal in general.* "So #NOTW journalists can't get into my bank account i now have a security question they won't be able to answer...how do you sleep at night?" tweeted comedian Jack Whitehall. Twitter users also linked to stories about the subpoena powers granted to the judge leading the phone hacking inquiry. And the full text from News International CEO Rebekah Brooks' resignation statement was often retweeted. A Marijuana Debate Leads on Blogs The top story on blogs for the week, with 22% of links, was about a federal government ruling that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug, despite some states' approval of marijuana as a treatment for illnesses. Much of the response to the story was in support of legalizing marijuana and belief that the ruling was misguided.
"It's such an open-and-shut case, even Jeff Spicoli could
comprehend it," wrote Andrew Belonsky at death
+ taxes, referring to the stoner character from the 1982 teen movie,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In second place (11%) was a story about a politician in California proposing that 13, mostly conservative counties, break away to form a separate state of "South California." Bloggers were generally conservatives who supported the idea, although a few liberal bloggers found it comical. In third place (11%) was a story about a California state prison surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Rohlfing, who has an annual salary of $777,423, despite not being allowed to treat inmates because medical supervisors do not trust him. Instead he has been relegated to reviewing paper medical histories. Most of the responses were from bloggers who focused on government waste and were angry about Rohlfing's compensation. The No. 4 story was about the debt ceiling debate in Washington D.C., a subject that has been a major one in the mainstream news for the past month, but has not garnered much attention on blogs or on Twitter. It generated 10% of blog news links for the week, the first time the debt ceiling debate has made the NMI since May 30-June 3, when it accounted for 8% of the links. Bloggers were not very vocal about the issue. Many of them posted, without comment, an article about President Obama saying that he won't sign a bill that will only raise the debt ceiling for a short time-frame. The most notable response came from PunditKitchen, which was excited that the Debt Ceiling Cat meme could once again return. "In other news, this meme is totally relevant again! Yay!" Debt Ceiling Cat is a derivative of Ceiling Cat, a lolcat who is seen as a benevolent being, as opposed to the evil Basement Cat. A lolcat is an image of a cat with text indicating what the cat is thinking. It is a prevalent internet meme. Wrapping up the top five subjects, at 8% of links, was a story explaining the results of a special election in California's 36th Congressional District where Democrat Janice Hahn defeated Republican Craig Huey. Much of the response was from liberal bloggers who drew attention to an ad run against Hahn that featured a pole-dancing stripper. Despite topping the Twitter agenda for the past two weeks and registering prominently in the mainstream media, the Murdoch media scandal has not been among the top stories on blogs in that period, according to the NMI. An additional PEJ check of several other blog tracking sites also revealed minimal to modest interest. The Marijuana Ruling The federal government's decision to keep marijuana classified as a highly dangerous drug provoked an angry reaction among bloggers. "Talk about being a buzzkill. The federal government really knows how to ruin a good time," wrote HAHA, JK. "Whoaaah dude, like seriously?" joked Seth Rotherham at 2 oceans vibe. Others took a more serious look at the issue, including the economic implications. "It could bring in so much revenue, it's being smoked anyways by a huge section of the population, and it's MUCH less worse than smoking cigarettes or pounding beers... Plus, the Fed would then be able to move law enforcement money in the War on Drugs to fighting the drugs that are actually super harmful, like all your snorting powders and injectable fun times. Yeah?" wrote Byron Kho at Chatting Uncontrollably. "The government claims that marijuana lacks safety under medical supervision but that's because it's been ruled an illegal substance. You can't put it under medical supervision if mere possession will land your ass in prison for many years. The thing I never understood was the simple fact that most research indicates that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. To me it would only be logical if a substance less dangerous than another currently legal substance were also legal," wrote Christopher Burg at A Geek With Guns. "Still, if an appeals judgment were based on scientific evidence, rather than political considerations this time around, it's easy to imagine a very different outcome," wrote Maia Szalavitz at Fraternal Order of The Dragon. YouTube On YouTube, a tragic accident during a game at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, drew the most attention last week. Fan Shannon Stone fell out of the stands head-first while trying to catch a foul ball tossed by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton and later died. The No. 2 video featured a discussion from the BBC program Newsnight focusing on the British phone hacking scandal, which was the top story on Twitter last week. During the heated debate, comedian Steve Coogan accused former News of the World deputy features editor Paul McMullen of being "morally bankrupt" and "a walking PR disaster." McMullen was trying to defend the tabloid newspaper.
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
The continuing drama over From July 11-17, the U.S. economy—driven by the stalemated talks over the budget deficit and debt ceiling—accounted for more than a third (37%) of the newshole, according to the News Coverage Index from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That marks the fourth consecutive week that the subject has been the No. 1 story. In that span, coverage has more than doubled—jumping from 16% to 37%.
In the past two weeks, the skirmishing between the White House and Republicans over the debt ceiling has eclipsed the 2012 presidential race as the nation’s top political story, with campaign coverage slumping to low single digits. The war in Afghanistan was the No. 3 story (at 5%), with coverage focusing on the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s half brother and the awarding of the Medal of Honor to Leroy Petry for his valor during combat in Afghanistan. Next, at 4%, was the 2012 presidential race, which only two weeks earlier had registered at 13% of the newshole. The major newsmakers were reports that Obama had raised a whopping $86 million in the second quarter and controversy over whether Michelle Bachmann’s husband Marcus runs a counseling service that tries to change homosexuals into heterosexuals. The fifth-biggest story, 3%, was the continuing unrest in the Middle East. Last week, the U.S. waded further into the violence and instability plaguing Syria by declaring that President Bashar Assad had lost the legitimacy as a result of his crackdown on protestors. The Debt Drama
Not only has the economy become a much bigger story, it is a bigger story no matter where one looks. The topic was the No. 1 subject in all five media sectors studied by PEJ. And while not all of that coverage was related to the debt/deficit battle, a huge majority The week started with news reports of the demise of the so-called big deal—an ambitious effort to save as much $4 trillion by tackling such sensitive political hot buttons as taxes and Medicare. “In a rare Sunday meeting in the White House Cabinet Room, Obama continued to push for a ‘grand bargain’ in the range of $4 trillion worth of deficit cuts over the coming decade, but momentum is clearly on the side of a smaller measure of perhaps half that size,” noted a July 11 AP story. The next turn in the narrative was a complex proposal introduced by GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that would essentially allow the president to raise the debt limit even as Congress voted its disapproval of such a move. The initial reaction in the media was tinged with some skepticism. On July 12, NBC correspondent Chuck Todd characterized it as a “bizarre proposal…that could actually be a backdoor way to resolve this crisis…It’s the new backup plan.” When a number of Republicans objected to McConnell’s plan—a Washington Post headline declared that “Debt plan splits Hill GOP leaders”—he took to the airwaves to warn his party of the political costs of not raising the debt limit. A July 13 New York Times story quoted McConnell saying in a radio interview that if the government defaults, Obama “will say Republicans are making the economy worse…It is an argument that he could have a good chance of winning and all of the sudden we have co-ownership of the economy. That is a very bad position going into the election.” Meanwhile speaking on CNN on July 13, Robert Reich, the Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, warned that a failure to resolve the issue would damage the White House too. “I don't think anybody comes out a winner,” he said. “I think the American public is disgusted, frankly, with all this political maneuvering, they want the debt ceiling raised to the extent that most people are looking at the debt ceiling at all. They want the budget deficit dealt with.” While some players in the drama were issuing warnings to their side of the political spectrum last week, the ideological talk shows were busy hammering the enemy with overheated rhetoric. On his July 11 radio show, conservative host Rush Limbaugh was conjuring up comparisons between Obama and a dictator. Complaining about the president’s press conferences on the debt issue, Limbaugh declared that he should “go the full dictator route, just show up as Castro. Do one eight-hour speech once a month and be done with it.” On the same day on the opposite side of the spectrum, a caller to liberal Ed Schultz’s show evoked comparisons with enemies abroad. “These are extremists that we are dealing with,” he said of the Capitol Hill Republicans. “They want to do what the USSR and al-Qaeda have been unable to do…destroy the U.S. economy.” The Murdoch Scandal For the second week in a row, the more internationally oriented online sector devoted more attention than any other media to the events surrounding the UK hacking scandal. Online the subject filled 21% of the newshole studied (PEJ studies the top stories on any webpage). The broadcast network morning and evening newscasts devoted the next highest level of attention to the story (13%). It was a particularly hot topic on the network morning shows (17%).
There was one major subtext to th In an interview on the July 12 PBS NewsHour broadcast, NPR reporter David Folkenflik described it as “the grand unification theory of scandals here in England. You have got the political establishment back on its heels. You have got the media empire of the most important media player in the country by far, Rupert Murdoch, enmeshed in controversy. And now you have got the question of the police.” Then came news of the move to cancel the BSkyB bid. “The decision was a humiliating turnaround for Murdoch and for News Corp., which has been seeking government approval for months to take control of BSkyB. Owning the broadcast company would have represented a major expansion of Murdoch’s already-large media empire in Britain,” stated a July 13 Los Angeles Times story. One day later, the CBS evening newscast reported on another shoe that had dropped, this one on the other side of the Atlantic. “The FBI has opened an investigation of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp,” said anchor Scott Pelley. “The bureau is looking into allegations that reporters from the News of the World tabloid were looking for ways to hack into the phones of victims of 9/11.” Late in the week, there was another bombshell. “Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, resigned Friday as head of the British newspaper division of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire…” stated a Washington Post story. “Brooks has long been one of Murdoch’s favorites, a woman with trademark flaming red hair whom he once described as being like a ‘daughter’ to him.” Two days later, Brooks was arrested, although coverage of that event occurred too late to be captured in this week’s News Coverage Index. The Rest of the Week’s News There was moderate coverage of the war in Afghanistan last week (5%) and much of that focused on a killing with potentially significant implications. “Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's younger half-brother and southern Afghanistan's most influential power broker, was assassinated Tuesday by a trusted security aide, dealing a major blow to the region's stability,” reported a July 13 Wall Street Journal story. “The killing eliminated a man who had earned U.S. praise and condemnation alike, as he helped to combat the Taliban while also allegedly fostering graft and benefiting from the opium trade.” The summer doldrums may have set in for the 2012 presidential campaign, which finished as the fourth-biggest story last week at only 4%, a minor uptick from the previous week (3%). Michelle Bachmann—who has emerged as a surprisingly potent force in the GOP field in the early media narrative—was the leading campaign newsmaker last week. But the scrutiny of her husband’s counseling practice was unlikely to be welcome. And events in the Middle East that had riveted the U.S. media earlier in the year have now fallen largely off the news radar screen (3% last week)—despite the ongoing civil war in Libya and the bloody conflict between the Syrian regime and anti-government protestors.
Newsmakers of the Week From July 11-17, the leading figure in the news was the man at the center of the deficit faceoff. Barack Obama was a prominent newsmaker in 11% of the week’s stories, up from 8% the previous week. One other key figure in the debt drama, Republican Mitch McConnell, was the No. 3 newsmaker, prominent in 2% of the stories. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) The No. 2 newsmaker was beleaguered media mogul Rupert Murdoch (4%), quadrupling the 1% from the previous week. The fourth leading newsmaker was Leiby Kletzky (2%), the eight-year-old Brooklyn boy who disappeared on his way home from day camp and was tragically found murdered. Three other figures tied for No. 5, also at 2%. Former First Lady Betty Ford, who died on July 8, was buried last week. President Karzai’s half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated last week and Leroy Petry was awarded the Medal of Honor. 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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Twitter users overwhelmingly focused on the U.K. riots last week, and many of them were highly angered by and critical of the chaos. While much of the 
n the lead-up to the debate, an August 11 Associated Press story asserted that seven of the eight contenders who would take the stage would try to “cast themselves as the strongest alternative to one rival: front-runner Mitt Romney.” 
bama was the top newsmaker from August 8-14, a prominent figure in 8% of stories—the same as the week before. (To register as a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.)
The much disdained debt ceiling deal,
followed by a barrage of ominous news from Wall Street and a top credit rating
agency, drove coverage of the economy to its second highest level in 2011.
of the first tidings of bad news was
a 
The top story on blogs last week was the debt ceiling drama unfolding in Washington. Bloggers aimed their commentary on one of the key players in that drama-the Tea Party.
As the debt default clock ticked down to
midnight, the state of U.S. economy received even more coverage last week than
the near collapse of Wall Street in September 2008.
the week wore on, the
media also began reporting on the problems Obama was having with unhappy
liberals in his party.
The dramatic July 22 attacks in Norway that resulted in the deaths of at least 68 people inspired a vibrant conversation in the blogosphere last week. While sympathy for the victims was significant, more time was devoted to conversations about the killer, Anders Behring Breivik, according to an analysis of social media conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Two
stories that have become fixtures in the headlines—the deadlocked debt debate
and the intensifying News of the World phone hacking scandal—accounted for more
than half of last week’s newshole, relegating other significant events to
secondary status in the media.
hope seemed to evaporate on July 22, when Boehner fired off a letter
essentially ending those talks, right before the evening network newscasts went
on the air.
The intensifying phone hacking scandal enveloping Rupert
Murdoch's media empire was the top story on Twitter for the second week in a
row, with Twitter users once again aiming sharp criticism at the media mogul's
company.
—about 85%—was focused on that issue.
e Murdoch coverage last week—that the scandal was widening and broadening and creating ever more peril for Murdoch’s media holdings.
