We’re starting a new feature today on MuckRack – recapping some of the news stories of the past month and asking you what was yours.
On the last day of each month, we’ll run our Top Ten and invite you to tell us which story grabbed your attention the most this month and why. It might even be one that doesn’t make our list, in which case, all the more reason to let us know.
So here, in no particular order, were some of the most tweeted, linked and commented stories on MuckRack for September:
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1. Baseball – Epic September meltdowns by the Red Sox and Braves played out in what seemed like slow motion until a dramatic final day of the regular season. Also this month, the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera wrote his name in the record books.
2. Troy Davis – The execution of a convicted murderer in Georgia in spite of questions over the trustworthiness of his guilt dominated headlines – and Twitter – for days.
3. Occupy Wall Street – the ongoing protests in New York’s financial district were often newsworthy for their lack of coverage until controversial footage emerged of police using pepper spray on protesters. There were also rumors that Radiohead were going to play at the gathering.
4. Tech Shifts – Amazon’s Kindle Fire launched and Facebook unveiled some changes that weren’t to everyone’s liking, but the big tech story this month was apparently Netflix and a possible impending payday for someone on Twitter called Qwikster.
5. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – The repeal of what the White House had called the “discriminatory law” took effect, with President Obama later saying that Adm Mike Mullen’s urging Congress to take the step was a “tipping point.” A video of a gay serviceman coming out to his father went viral, while another was booed at a GOP debate. Which brings us to…
6. The GOP – from Chris Christie’s “will he/won’t he” and even “how much should he weigh,” through previous darling Rick Perry’s debate performances, to the fallout from the Sarah Palin book, there were plenty of stories to give some people who previously said they wouldn’t run a chance to reconsider. But there was also a real electoral boost for the GOP this month in capturing the NY 9th district seat previously held by Anthony Weiner.
7. Rogue Trader – Kweku Adoboli was charged with fraud after a $2bn loss at UBS in London. Hugo Lindgren at the NYT Magazine, tweeted: “If Kweku Adoboli had made $2 bil, rather than lost it, could you still call him a rogue trader?”
8. Russian Hockey Crash – The tragic loss of the entire Lokomotiv team, including former NHL players, in a plane crash stunned the hockey world.
9. Al-Awlaki – The US confirmed the killing of the US-born radical cleric in an unmanned drone attack in Yemen prompting debate on executive power in terrorist situations and whether the White House was now in “uncharted territory.”
10. The Sky Is Falling – Not a reference to the ongoing EuroZone debt crisis, but an actual thing that might have fallen out of the actual sky. The media was pretty excited about the re-entry of Nasa’s UARS satellite until it became clear it wasn’t going to fall to Earth in the middle of Central Park. But don’t worry - apparently there’s already a copycat.
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This is most likely the Picture of the Month. Unless you think this one’s better?
Weird story of the month? This one? Or this one? You be the judge.
Headline of the Month: This one?
Song of the month? Bruce Springsteen turned 62. And still rocks harder than most of us could ever hope. Just sayin’…
Meme of the Month? #peoplelikelytobebooedatnextGOPdebate
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MEDIA UPDATE
Some of the specifically media-related stories that you might have missed this month:
The Online News Association Conference was held in Boston.
The Newseum in Washington DC hosted the Knight Batten symposium and awards for Journalism Innovation.
The Onion had a spoof hostage story with – presumably – unintended consequences.
After British columnist Johann Hari recently returned his Orwell Prize following a plagiarism controversy, the Prize organizers put events into some context with a statement of their own.
Hari’s paper The Independent had exclusive extracts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s “unauthorized autobiography.” The paper’s Andy McSmith provided an entertaining rolling commentary with some choice quotes.
Claire Cain Miller wrote at the NYT’s Bits blog on “Should Google Tweak The News We Consume?”. Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa commented: “Regarding Google, the way an algorithm is created is an editorial decision. They’re already in the business of curation. A human wrote it.”
John Paczkowski at All Things Digital reported that Apple will hold its next showcase event on October 4. It will be the first big event with new CEO Tim Cook and John writes that sources say “the tech giant will unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone.”
Mashable had an infographic here documenting a “visual history of Twitter.” Meanwhile, eMarketer estimates that Twitter’s “ad dollars are expected to triple this year.”
StanYee at Bloomberg linked to the Economist’s chart of the day on “Digital Verbosity: What’s In A Tweet?”
Steve Buttry posted his “Suggestions (But Not Standards) For Live-Tweeting.”
Finally, there was an excellent piece by Mallary Jean Tenore at Poynter – who earlier in the month wrote about “10 ways journalists can use Twitter before, during and after reporting a story.” - on how “In real time, journalists’ tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history.” It looks at the work of NPR’s Andy Carvin and the remarkable job he did collating tweets during the Arab Spring, with his plans for archiving that unique material.
Preservation is what we – in our own much smaller and less serious way – have been trying to do with the Muck Rack Daily for the past year. The real-time stream is, by its nature, ephemeral and tweets that add to a collective understanding, or offer a witty observation at a specific instant evaporate partly because of the audience’s time-zone, but primarily because of how events move on and the debate shifts throughout the news cycle. Anything we can do to preserve even a snapshot of a noteworthy conversation at a given moment in time that readers may otherwise miss, we consider worthwhile.
We hope you agree.
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NOW HIRING
We recently started a new feature on the Muck Rack Daily where we pick out a few choice media jobs each day – here’s a selection of the openings we highlighted in the past few weeks. We’ll recap a selection of them at the end of each month here on the blog.
The national desk at NPR has an opening for a reporter to cover technology from Silicon Valley.
The Des Moines Register is looking for a Business Reporter.
Newsday.com is looking for an assistant news manager for sports and another for news, to oversee the site at night.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock has an opening for an assistant online news editor.
News Corp wants a Video Desk Editor.
The Boston Globe is looking for a reporter in its Globe West bureau.
CBS’s 1010 WINS in New York has openings for on-air talent.
Three TV jobs going in Las Vegas: KPVI Channel 6 wants a News Anchor/Reporter/Producer, while KSNV Channel 3 needs a Traffic Assistant and a part-time Production Assistant.
The ASPCA has an opening for a Media Coordinator based in New York.
In the UK, Press Gazette has found 10 new UK-based jobs today (and check their board regularly for more opportunities.)
Craig Kanalley tweets: “We’re looking for a social media editor at @HuffingtonPost. Drop me an @ or DM if interested.”
Meanwhile, Cynthia Collins tweets: “Come join @nytimes. We’re looking for a dynamo Social Media Marketing Manager.” For that one, being a huge Springsteen fan doesn’t seem to be a requirement, but I guess we’re still at an early stage of the process.
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So, it was quite a month. What was your favorite story? Let us know.
If you don’t get the Muck Rack Daily, you can sign up for free here. You can also follow us on Twitter here – where you can keep up to speed on which journalists get mentioned in the Daily – or like us on Facebook.
And as always, thanks for reading.