Just an observation, but Gannongate seems to have built-in subliminal meme qualities about it. I'd like to hear what others think as I continue to research it.
As of about 10 this morning there are about 4400 results for Gannongate at Google. Results 1-10 are in the blogosphere, not MSM. There are about 4 Daily Kos entries on page one.
So Google definitely ranks blog pages higher than Yahoo.
Yahoo returns 292 results for Gannongate one word and 28,000 results for Gannon gate two words. The larger result for the two-word concept just means there are more probability that the words Gate and Gannon occur on the same web page.
Which begs the following questions when writing about it.
- Which terms are searched by non-Kos researchers, i.e. the "real" audience?
- What's the most effective name for this scandal?
- How do people use "brands" and how are they created? The word Watergate automatically tells a story, and Contragate definitely reinforced the association between "gate" and administration hijinks.
I' will continue my efforts to reverse engineer how fast the various meme factors work their way through the web.
In the meantime, think about it and give me your input.
Update 1: MSN Search produced 1,910 results for the search term Gannongate. Only two entries for Media Matters before we see results from "The National Review" on page 3.
Conclusion: The MSM robot is obviously horribly incompetitent and/or a week behind the times. I went to page 5 before I gave up looking for results belonging to Daily Kos.
Update 2. Googling Propagannon nets "2,500" results, with all of the top results being from Daily Kos.
Which sort of gives a little credence to my theory. Of course WE LIKE THE TERM. We created it.
But the question remains what term is going to stick in people's mind's in the "real" media and beyond?
It's obvious that Propagannon is clever but it isn't catching on anywhere else besides Daily Kos. Maybe its a little TOO clever?
Update 3. Google News returns 4 results for Gannongate3 of them are MSM, 1 is the bloggish OpedNews.com.
No results are returned from Google News for Propagannon.
My hypothesis is holding up. Propagannon popularity is limited to Daily Kos. The MSM will prefer Gannongate.
Update 4
the Google Results at 6 EST are:
Gannongate: 8,050
Propagannon: 3,230 (most from Daily Kos BTW)
Update [2005-2-14 14:36:40 by servantsavant]:
Aggregate Count for Gannongate one word up to 9,320
Adjusted to exclude "Daily Kos" from the results is 1,240
So Google see approximately 8000 pages at Daily Kos using the term Gannongate.
Drum Roll Please
Raw Google Count for Propagannon: 14,300
Excluding results for "Daily Kos": 365
Analysis. Looking at the previous raw count for the term PropaGannon, we can see Daily Kos citizens who want to use Propagannon as the brand are increasing their useage of the term in their comments and diaries.
However the term PropaGannon isn't getting as much traction outside of Daily Kos as the term Gannongate.