Indexes

The riots in the United Kingdom dominated the world of social media last week. On Twitter, there was little empathy for the grievances of those participating as far more people expressed anger and fear at what was occurring. On YouTube, the most watched videos were focused on the mayhem during the looting and chaos.

Economic coverage once again dominated the news last week, and this time the focus was on the volatility of the stock market. And with Iowa in the spotlight, the 2012 presidential election re-emerged in the media narrative after several weeks of being buried by bad economic news.

The deal to raise the debt ceiling in Washington drew harsh criticism from both the left and the right last week as the subject received significant attention on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. The other subject to generate substantial interest on both blogs and Twitter was news about a teen pop star.

The long-awaited debt ceiling deal in Washington triggered a torrent of overwhelmingly negative economic coverage that easily proved to be the dominant story of the week. And two major newsmakers earlier in the year, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifffords, re-emerged in the headlines last week.

A comparison between the Tea Party and characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy generated a lively debate on the blogosphere last week. Twitter users complained about Formula 1auto racing. And the most viewed videos on YouTube depicted the carnage from the July 22 attacks in Norway.

After building for more than a month, the Beltway Battle over the debt ceiling exploded as a story last week, accounting for more than half of the newshole. No other story even generated double digit coverage in a week dominated by a single subject.

The multiple attacks that struck Norway echoed throughout social media last week. This special edition of PEJ’s New Media Index is an in-depth look at the complex conversation on blogs, where the ideological views of the assailant, Anders Behring Breivik, became a significant point of discussion.

The growing News of the World scandal drew increased media attention last week, but not enough to stanch interest in the debt deliberations in Washington, which have fueled the top story for five weeks running. A record-breaking heat wave, the end of an era at NASA and a relatively quiet presidential campaign also ranked among the top stories last week.

Twitter users continued to voice their displeasure at Rupert Murdoch last week, and a discussion of the scandal affecting his company was among the top videos on YouTube. On blogs, the No. 1 story was about the federal government’s ruling that marijuana has no accepted medical use.

Coverage of the economy ballooned last week with the high stakes political skirmishing over the deficit and debt limit, while on the other side of the Atlantic the scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch’s media empire generated a significant increase in media attention in the U.S.