Once Again, Interrogation and Torture Drive the Online Debate
As was the case with the mainstream media, interrogation techniques and the President’s reversal on the release of prisoner photos led the blogosphere conversation last week.
As was the case with the mainstream media, interrogation techniques and the President’s reversal on the release of prisoner photos led the blogosphere conversation last week.
As attention to the economy dropped, the nation’s anti-terrorism policies dominated the news agenda for the second time in the past month. Since the release of the interrogation memos, coverage of this topic has jumped dramatically.
Bloggers and social media balanced their attention last week among a wide array of subjects that differed dramatically from top stories in the mainstream media.
A financial report card for U.S. banks returned the economic crisis to the top of the news agenda last week while the fighting in Pakistan and Afghanistan also became a major story.
Bloggers last week debated whether the worldwide swine flu outbreak was a serious public health menace or a case of excessive media hype. And Arlen Specter’s change of parties stirred a partisan debate over the state of the GOP.
A story that suddenly emerged from nowhere, the threat of a global influenza pandemic, sent the media into overdrive last week. The flu scare knocked a number of significant events out of the headlines and by week’s end, began to spawn a backlash.
Two hot button issues, torture and same-sex marriage, were the leading subjects sparking conversation online last week.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not issue a News Index report this week, but the data is available.