02/05/10
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Pew Research shows attention on Haiti shifts in cyberspace
They say it is hard to keep today's wired – and, increasingly, wireless – masses attention for very long. A recent New Media Index produced by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, proves that point. After playing a major role in mobilizing community members for activism and fundraising in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, “various members of the social media community moved in different directions just a week after the event,” the report said. For Twitter users, Haiti continued top-of-mind, although even a shift was seen there from activism to news coverage of the events. Meanwhile, the blogosphere continued to notice the events in Haiti, although several other stories received more attention, the report said. The report showed that between January 18-22, 58 percent of the news links on Twitter were about the tragedy in Haiti, according to the report, doubling the mentions of the next four Twitter subjects combined. While warnings of security risks to Microsoft's Internet Explorer garnered the biggest buzz on blogs for the week (23 percent), Haiti tumbled to fourth place the report said. Haiti mentions dropped from 43 percent of links to 8 percent for the week.