Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The oil spill that won’t stop gushing became the story that won’t stop growing as the Gulf disaster coverage, fueled by a Presidential admission and a failed effort to cap the leak, reached new heights last week. No other subject—including a political controversy, a skittish stock market, the immigration issue or tensions in the Korean peninsula—came close to matching the spill’s coverage.
Passions ran high as the blogosphere was consumed with the deadly confrontation between Israeli forces and a supply ship headed for Gaza last week. On Twitter, stories about European soccer led the week. And on YouTube, videos of the Mavi Marmara incident drew significant interest along with a toddler with an unhealthy addiction.
Health care reform received its highest level of media coverage last week than at any time since the legislative battle began. That made it the 18th biggest story in any week since PEJ began its real time monitoring of the national media. And most of that coverage focused on the political impact of the law.
George Mason University Professor Peter Mandaville, Dilwar Hussain of the Islamic Foundation, and Maha Azzam of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House discussed key findings of a Pew Forum study containing profiles of some of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups – from the Muslim Brotherhood to mystical Sufi orders and networks of religious scholars.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not issue a News Index report this week, but the data is available.
Summary of Findings The long-running debate over health care reform continued to dominate public attention and media coverage last week as the final skirmishes played out on Capitol Hill and President Obama set out to promote the newly-enacted law. Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they followed the health care debate more closely than any other […]
Last week the dominant subject among bloggers was a global poll that illustrated strong sentiment for treating cyberspace as a kind of universal public utility. On Twitter, technology was once again the focus. And a senior citizen disc jockey was the week’s YouTube favorite.