Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Contrary to the mainstream media focus on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings last week, social media reflected a very different news agenda. On blogs, Sarah Palin’s political future and views on energy policy dominated. On Twitter, Iran led the conversation for a fifth week in a row. And on YouTube, a controversy over a photo of President Obama was resolved.
For social media, it was a week of pick your platform. Twitter remained intensely focused on the situation in Iran. YouTube was overwhelmingly devoted to Michael Jackson’s passing. And the blogosphere was more divided overall but led with Sarah Palin’s surprise announcement.
In a week that exposed dramatically different news agendas between social and mainstream media, online commentators shifted away from the King of Pop to focus on a 30-year-old technological breakthrough and the death of an offbeat TV celebrity. The most viewed YouTube video captured an impromptu cell phone snafu.
The protests in Iran consumed blogs and social media last week. Web users disseminated information, organized and demonstrated solidarity with protestors. In addition to tracking the blogosphere, this week’s New Media Index takes a look at Twitter and the explosion of tweets about Iran.
Over the last two months the issue of same-sex marriage has become the hottest topic in the blogosphere, generating far more attention than in the mainstream media.Last week it was the California court ruling upholding the state’s gay marriage ban that dominated the conversation.
In a week in which no single event dominated blogs and social media, the results of a California referendum and the shooting of an up-and-coming rapper led the online conversation.
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.
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.
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.
Bloggers expressed strong opinions on two topics last week—President Obama and Tropicana orange juice. Evaluations of Obama broke down on ideological grounds while the uproar over Tropicana’s change in packaging was about brand loyalty.