Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The new media world divided its attention between two stories last week: the progress of health care reform in Congress and the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings. On Twitter, technology-related issues topped the agenda. And on YouTube, that soccer player just won’t go away.
The President’s long-awaited decision on how to wage war in Afghanistan was the No. 1 story last week, surpassing coverage of the two big domestic issues—the economy and health care. But a scandal-scorched athlete and some White House party crashers found their way into the top stories as well.
More than half a century ago, the United Nations affirmed the principle of religious freedom in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, defining it as “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” For just as long, journalists and human rights groups have reported on persecution of minority faiths, outbreaks of sectarian violence […]
The online media joined the mainstream press last week in focusing most of their attention on the killing spree at the Fort Hood Army post. Some of that conversation focused on the background and motivation of the suspect, but much also evaluated the pros and cons of real-time newsgathering.
1. Oldenburg, R., The Great Good Place. 1989, New York: Paragon House. 2. Wellman, B. and S. Wortley, Different Strokes From Different Folks. American Journal of Sociology, 1990. 96(3): p. 558-88. 3. Erickson, B., The Relational Basis of Attitudes, in Social Structures: A Network Approach, B. Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz, Editors. 1997, JAI press: Greenwich, […]
What is associated with the size of discussion networks? There is a great concern that over the last twenty years the size and diversity of Americans’ core networks have declined; that core networks are increasingly centered on a small set of relatively similar social ties at the expense of larger more diverse networks. Is there […]
Two different topics grabbed the attention of social media last week to an extent rarely seen in the New Media Index. On blogs, a BBC report questioning global warming triggered a mostly enthusiastic response while the strange saga of “balloon boy” led on Twitter. On YouTube, a speech by a pop singer at a political rally was the most viewed video.
Hispanics in the United States have several options when it comes to describing their identity. They can use an ethnic label such as “Hispanic” or “Latino”; they can use their family’s country of origin; or they can call themselves “American.” The National Survey of Latinos finds that most have used all of these descriptors at […]
We are grateful to John Horrigan (Pew), Barry Wellman (University of Toronto), and Evans Witt (Princeton Survey Research Associates International), who assisted in the design and administration of the project survey. We would also like to acknowledge the technical assistance of Chul-Joo Lee (The Ohio State University) and the support of the Annenberg School for […]
Two subjects that didn’t generate much attention in the mainstream press last week remained hot topics in social media. The saga of six-year-old Falcon Heene and the phony balloon flight continued to provoke outrage in the blogosphere while a warning from the British Prime Minister triggered another debate over global warming.