Fort Hood Tragedy Tops PEJ Index

Nov. 5 shooting was top news story in blogs and traditional media for week ending Nov. 6

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/12/2009 3:27:27 PM

Top news links in the blogosphere and online ran the gamut last week from Fort Hood to food-related depression, while a forklift mishap drew YouTubers' attention.

According to the Project For Excellence In Journalism's New Media Index for Nov. 2-6, the top news links from the blogs surveyed were to the Fort Hood shootings (20% of links). It was also the top story in the traditional press as well (15% of the news hole last week). The story commanded an even greater percentage of tweets over that same period at 38%.

But after that, the blogs diverged markedly from the traditional media, whose top stories after Fort Hood were, in order, the economy, Afghanistan, healthcare and elections. The second biggest blog story (16% of the links) dealt with a BBC report of a bear in Kashmir who had killed two militants who inadvisably chose its cave to hide in. Number three (13%) was a story about an Australian psychologist, also from the BBC, who says grumpy people think more clearly and carefully than others, making it easier to cope with "more demanding situations" than happy people. Rounding out the blogosphere's top five were an L.A. Times column about taxes and a study suggesting a processed food diet can increase the risk of depression.

On Nov. 6, the Fort Hood story commanded 67% of all blog links that day, and a whopping 88% of all tweets.

YouTube's top video in what the index labeled the news category was of a Russian forklift driver who escaped with only a minor leg injury when his out-of-control vehicle toppled shelves containing boxes of cognac and vodak in a Moscow warehouse.