News Media Trends

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.

Ending a lull in coverage, the battle over health care reform returned as the No. 1 story last week as 23 senators cast votes on the issue. But the nation—and the media—were also captivated by a strange story about a six-year-old boy that began as breathless breaking cable news.

Summary of Findings As the first vials of swine flu vaccine make their way into American communities, public interest in news about the disease is increasing. Nearly as many people now cite swine flu as their top news story of the week as mention the health care debate – the first time in several months […]

For much of the week, news of an email scam that compromised thousands of passwords animated the blogosphere. Late in the week, however, the focus shifted abruptly to Barack Obama’s surprising Nobel Peace Prize. On YouTube, meanwhile, a Letterman mea culpa drew the most hits.

It was a war that often had trouble breaking into the headlines. But in recent months, with President Obama facing a crucial decision over whether to escalate U.S. involvement, coverage of Afghanistan increased noticeably. And last week, as the policy debate intensified, the story dominated finally the news.

Summary of Findings The public continued to closely track news about health care reform last week, while the media divided its attention across a range of foreign and domestic stories. A third (33%) of the public says they followed the debate over health care reform more closely than other top stories last week, while 22% […]

The arrest of Roman Polanski dominated the blogosphere last week, with online commentators overwhelmingly condemning the filmmaker for the crime he committed three decades ago. And a CNN sparring match between anchor Wolf Blitzer and filmmaker Michael Moore was among the week’s most viewed YouTube news videos.

Senior Research Specialist Amanda Lenhart's presentation, "Twitter and Status Updating: Demographics, Mobile Access and News Consumption," given at AoIR 10.0 in Milwaukee, WI on October 8, 2009.

The economic downturn has made headlines for months. How has the press covered the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression? What elements of the economic story make the most news? Who is driving the coverage? PEJ addresses these questions and more in a new report on press coverage of the economy.

Health care and the economy generated coverage last week, but the news agenda highlighted three geopolitical problems facing President Obama—negotiating with Iran, fighting in Afghanistan and trying to convince the IOC to bring the Olympics to the U.S.