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Project for Excellence in Journalism
Blogs Stray from Big Media Stories
Bloggers conversed about an eclectic mix of topics last week that were far from headline news on front pages or cable talk shows.
The top stories on blogs from March 28-April 1 ran the gamut from the Supreme Court to ancient texts, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The No. 1 story, with 13% of links, was a Supreme Court decision overturning a verdict awarding $14 million to a man formerly on death row. A close second, with 12% of links, was a BBC radio piece by author Zadie Smith arguing against closing public libraries. Tied for third (9%) was a story about the creation of artificial clouds to provide shade for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and an op-ed column about the collapse of Detroit. The final story (5%) involved photographs that may shed light on the early years of Christianity.
This assorted mix demonstrates social media's ability to galvanize different communities of interest around topics that may be a bit off the beaten path. It's also worth noting that last week there was considerably less of the ideological tinge to the conversation that often marks the hottest debates of the day.
On Twitter, the week was more typical. All the top stories were technology related. Even one that focused on April Fools' Day pranks was actually about online mischief.
And for the third week in a row, the No. 1 YouTube news video was of the Japanese earthquake and its aftermath.