Project for Excellence in Journalism

Continued Debate Over Bin Laden's Death and a Marriage in Tatters

May 19, 2011

The two subjects that dominated the blogosphere last week illustrate the wide range of debate and discussion that fills that online platform. One focused on a celebrity spouse split and the other on one of the most dramatic and perhaps significant news events in recent years.

For the week of May 9-13, over three-quarters, 81%, of the news links on blogs were about either the breakup of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger (41%) or the death of Osama bin Laden (40%), according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The conversation about bin Laden's death largely focused on the political fallout from the May 1 raid in Pakistan, with bloggers arguing over which president -- George W. Bush or Barack Obama -- deserved credit for killing the terrorist. This has been an ongoing debate among bloggers and while in earlier weeks voices were pretty evenly divided, this past week it was those crediting Bush for the bin Laden killing who seemed to lead the conversation.

Two the top five YouTube videos last week also related to the death of bin Laden.

Gaining just as much of the spotlight, though, was the Shriver-Schwarzenegger split. Celebrity bloggers shared their level of surprise over the breakup while political blogs looked at the decision in the light of their careers.

The bloggers who opined on the dissolving of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger's marriage were mostly celebrity blogs that used the word "shocked" -- even when they weren't. But political blogs dove in as well.

Continue reading the full report at journalism.org.