What stories and which people generated the most news coverage in 2011? PEJ’s annual Year in the News report offers answers. The Year in News 2011 Interactive allows users to explore the data for themselves.
The publication of information gleaned from Facebook profiles of millions of users was the top subject on Twitter last week. And a ruling that it’s okay to hack into the iPhone for new applications gained attention on both blogs and Twitter. On YouTube, slang-speaking teens have provoked millions of clicks for two weeks running.
The debate over the popular social networking site Facebook and the issue of privacy rights led a technology-focused week on social media. On Twitter, more than half of the news links were about Apple, a favorite Twitter topic. On YouTube, an ad about immigration featuring a frog puppet received the most views.
Bloggers and social media were consumed with two events in the last week that triggered an online debate about political extremism—one in Europe and one in Washington D.C. And the most-viewed news video on YouTube was the start of a feud between David Letterman and Sarah Palin.