TrendIn this week: The Pope, the President and the Company
Isabelle Roughol
Building news organisations where people love to work｜Journalist & media executive｜Public historian
In a few short weeks of writing this column, he made top trending topics twice.
Benedict XVI first got you talking when he joined Twitter. Now, two months and 35 @pontifex tweets later, the pope announced he will renounce his position. Going against 600 years of tradition, Benedict XVI declared he was too frail of "mind and body" to lead the Catholic Church until his death.
Another world leader takes second place on the Trendin podium, as Barack Obama gave the State of the Union address Tuesday. The president called for policies in healthcare, education and the economy to support a "rising, thriving middle class". (If you missed it, the White House released an "enhanced" version of the speech on its site.)
Third comes the company. You know, that company that refuses not to trend every week. Even when it's not saying anything. Apple – of course – is now rumored to be working on a smart watch and of having tasked 100 engineers with the project. Can wearable devices be the next iPhone for a company that hasn't disrupted anything in... 2 years?
Finally, it didn't make the podium, but it did trend: the Harlem Shake. Haven't caught up on this last meme? It looks something like this.
Thanks to LinkedIn senior data scientist Viet Ha-Thuc for putting together the TrendIn numbers.
Photo under Creative Commons license: M.Mazur/www.thepapalvisit.org.uk via Flickr.
QHSE Consultant at JGC
12 年Isabelle, truly I admire so much our POPE for his self sacrifice attitude just to save his ministry. He has to break the tradition just to give way to the younger capable generation while President Obama is continuously focusing his resources to uplift the life of every US citizen especially to the middle class just like most of the company's CEO who are after the health and financial status of their employees. Cheers!!!
Founder at Hermes365 LLC
12 年Isabelle, much appreciate your updates. I, more often than not, am guilty of being caught on the wrong side of old news.
Building news organisations where people love to work｜Journalist & media executive｜Public historian
12 年True, Ed. Frankly with a meme like that, one day is already too much. But you'd be surprised: as I was writing this, I polled a few coworkers, who hadn't heard of it at all.
Founder at Hermes365 LLC
12 年Caught up with it? It's already over a week old! People are openly asking for it to stop. At this rate a meme's epitaph will be written ahead of introduction and fame.