Beyond Stimulus, Bloggers Focus on Pupils, Penance and Puppets

For the second straight week, the ongoing economic crisis dominated the social media, just as it did the more traditional press. The stimulus package that made it through Congress on Feb. 13 was the subject of half of all the links (50%) last week found in the New Media Index of Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, which analyzes millions of blogs and other social media sites each week. Many of posts either evaluated specifics in the bill or debated the Republicans' strategy in opposing President Obama-discussions that mirrored some traditional media commentary, but spent less time anointing political winners and losers.