Tuesday, 25, May 2010 10:50
A new US report has revealed which news topics are the most popular on social networking sites.
The study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that different social media websites seem to focus on different areas of online news.
For example, while politics and government represents the most discussed topic on blogs and in the traditional press, Twitter users tend to discuss technology-related news articles the most and YouTube members focus on foreign events.
The research also indicates that social media sites appear to focus more on stories that do not make it into mainstream news publications - although there is little evidence to suggest that the traditional press then covers these more niche topics in return.
"Across all three social platforms, though, attention spans are brief. Just as news consumers don't stay long on any website, social media doesn't stay long on any one story," the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism said.
Last week, the organisation's New Media Index revealed that 61 per cent of the news links published on blogs between May 10th and 14th were related to the general election in the UK.
US readers should visit our sister company Brafton - news feeds for the USA.
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