5. Search

Back to contents of State of the Net issue 15

Among traditional media, the 2009 news agenda was dominated by the economic meltdown, political mayhem, climate woes and the occasional sporting highlight. But in the online world a different pattern emerged.

Top Google news searches in Ireland show no entries for key economical, business or political terms but a fair smattering of celebrity culture, popular social media sites and health issues.

Excluding generic words, like “Ireland”, “news” and “Dublin”, two deceased celebrities, “Michael Jackson” and “Jade” (as in Goody), appeared in the top 10, as did “youtube” and “Facebook” and the dreaded “swine flu” or even the plain “flu” version.

Source: Google Insights for Search, news searches Ireland, 1 January to 17 November 2009 normalised and presented on a scale of 0 – 100.

Back to contents of State of the Net issue 15