A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

Worth the paper it’s printed on?

Last week’s light news success stories included…
… Celebrity Big Brother again, with 48 articles reporting on the series finishing with presenter and actress Denise Welch coming out on top, whereas just 29 reported on footballer Anton Ferdinand receiving a bullet in his mail…
…George Clooney, whose Best Actor Oscar nomination secured him 82 headlines, while EU sanctions against Iran only took 63…
…and finally, The Only Way Is Essex starting up for a new series, and bagging 47 stories in the process, far more than the 7 that covered the Yes vote on Salford’s Elected Mayor Referendum.
(Source: Journalisted)

Weekly high

The anti-superhero, lo-fi blockbuster Chronicle opened in cinemas this week. The film focuses on a group of friends who develop the ability to move things with their minds, amongst other talents, and soon discover one of them has pretty questionable intentions. To celebrate 20th Century Fox hired viral marketers Thinkmodo to fly pilot radio controlled planes made to look like people around New York airspace.

Weekly low

As the most valuable consumer IT company Apple is much loved. Clean, white, crisp designs suggest transparency, and the ‘everything in the box’ approach also supports this notion. It’s unfortunate to learn then that due to conditions in some of the factories owned by its Chinese suppliers there have been calls to boycott the household brand. There may be some explaining to do.

Battle of the tweets: Manchester vs London vs Johannesberg

Top Manchester #tags (seven days to 3/2/2012)

#mufc #mcfc

#lfc #towie

#10thingsthatareattractive #5thingsicantstand

#transferdeadlineday #cbb

#deadlineday #manchester

The window of opportunity for new signings in the world of football has now been temporarily closed (#deadlineday). Aside from sport use of #towie is back (as if it ever really went away), whereas this may be the last we see of #cbb.

One to watch: itvcorrie (Coronation Street – UK’s longest running soap; 5,5138 followers / 3,808 updates)
Top London #tags (seven days to 3/2/2012)

#lfc #5thingsicantstand

#mufc #10thingsthatareattractive

#towie #10basicfactsaboutme

#arsenal #cbb

#transferdeadlineday #afc

This week’s Twitter trends in London largely mirror those in Manchester, from the transfer deadline day to the comical combination of five things people hate and ten they love.

One to watch: bobbyllew (Robert Llewellyn- Conflicted wet liberal, amateur nerd, and every few years Kryten in Red Dwarf; 78,487 followers / 34,030 updates)
Top Johannesberg #tags (seven days to 3/2/2012)

#ausopen #dear6yearoldself

#djokovic #generations

#live #nadal

#mufc #useatwitterhandleinasentence

#lfc #3talk

The South African capital is getting in on the Premiership act with #mufc too, though Jo’berg residents beat the UK’s sports fans this week by actually noticing that Djokovic won the Australian Open with a blinding victory over Rafael Nadal.
One to watch: trevornoah (Trevor Noah- Stand-up comedian; 2,863 followers / 276,166 updates)
That was The Blagger’s Blog, a selection of statements, statistics and noteworthy newsies from across the media and social world, amalgamated, allowing the time-starved professional to start a conversation from thin air.
If there is a success story, blunder, or tweeting town you’d like to see included email [email protected] or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!