Blogs are usually about 2.5 hours behind traditional news outlets in reporting on news, according to a Cornell University computer analysis of news articles and commentary on the Web during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Internet experts say the study is the first to track and attempt to measure the news cycle using the Web. The researchers studied the news cycle by looking for repeated phrases and tracking their appearance on mainstream media sites and blogs. About 90 million articles and blog posts, appearing between August and October 2008, were examined using the phrase-finding software. The researchers say that frequently repeated short phrases are essentially “genetic signatures” for ideas and news stories. The largest news surge in the study was generated by “lipstick on a pig,” which originated in Barack Obama’s dismissal of a claim by John McCain and Sarah Palin that they were the genuine voices for change in the United States. While most news originated in traditional news outlets, the study found that 3.5 percent of story lines originated in blogs and were later picked up by the traditional media. For example, when Obama said the question of when life begins was above his pay grade, the remark was first reported on in blogs. Cornell professor Jon Kleinberg says the quotes were not the primary focus of the research, but rather the capabilities of algorithms to capture quotes. He says the research will serve as a step toward understanding why certain points of view and story lines are more successful than others.
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Tags: News
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