Pew study sheds light on difference between bloggers, Tweeters and traditional press
”There are, however, also some clear differences. While the biggest topic areas overlap, there was considerable divergence in the specific news events that garnered attention. In less than one third of the weeks did the blogosphere and traditional press share the same top story. Bloggers tend to gravitate toward events that affect personal rights and cultural norms – issues like same-sex marriage, the rationing of health care or privacy settings on Facebook, while traditional media news agendas are more event-driven and institutional…. On five separate occasions (2% of the top stories), bloggers repeatedly voiced strong support for the right to gay marriage. Those conversations were often spurred by state legislation or proposals that received minimum attention in the national press.”
From a report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism which concludes in part that bloggers and social media users rely on original news from traditional media sources for 99% of their references. Yet analysis of the data collected also shows that major topics covered by bloggers usually differ in importance from the press — for example gay issues represented 2% of the overall stories that bloggers discussed, but less than 1% of what the “traditional” press covers. The most dramatic difference appears to be in the interest of science. 10% of the blog posts had to do with science, but only 1% of the traditional press stories covered science. Technology and celebrity news were also covered more heavily by blogs and social media, according to this report. Politics and foreign affairs were the top issues covered by both “new” and “traditional” media generators. (Journalism.org)
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