Thanks to DemFromCT for this Diary posted on the front page. While on the Pew Site I stumbled across another study I found interesting.
A publication by the Pew Research Center published a study today comparing MSM coverage of gay marriage to the coverage given by Social Media.
The result? The Study
More than a quarter of the links (26%) by blogs and social media sites from April 6-10 focused on the gay-marriage issue, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That differed dramatically from the traditional press, which devoted only 1% of last week's newshole to gay marriage, making it the No. 15 story in the mainstream media agenda.
Now these results don't surprise me. What concerns me more is the fact that we have such few chooses from where we get our sources and stories from. We had to rely on 1% of newshole for 26% of the media we used for source. Furthermore, the fact that the MSM spends 1% of their space to talk about an issue (and the that has major social implications worries me.
The top 5 issues the MSM covered were 1) 15% Economic Crisis; 2) 14% Somalia pirates; 3) 8% G20/Europe Trip; 4) 6% Italy Earthquake; 5) 4% North Korea. You can see a graph here comparing MSM coverage versus blogs and the social media.
The article really gets at how out of touch the MSM really is. While the economy is a pretty big deal, the fact that spend so much time rehashing what we already know is the biggest shame. I don't need to hear and read the a plurality of the time about this crisis.
Now, stating all of that, gay marriage had a huge last week. Vermont legalized gay marriage by a legislative vote, Wash DC council voted to recognize gay nuptials performed out of the district, and following the Iowa supreme court decision allowing gay-marriage. This was not something that should deserve a blip of news.
When the MSM is unable to properly report on the issues that really affect the lives of real everyday people, they will continue to diminish in importance. The North Korean failed rocket tests were stupid and way too played out. Our media has stopped being news, and reports on "politics and geopolitical" ramifications of the news. Which means, most of our MSM just may as well be an op-ed as its mostly opinion.
I just want my news to report, I've had enough of shitty commentators.