Top 10 Stories of 2007

At this time of the year, news organizations release their own version of Top 10 Stories of the Year. Browsing these lists reminds us of not only what happened for the past year but each newsroom’s distinctive angle for news selection.

The process of selecting top 10 stories varies. Some newsrooms ask readers what they think was the biggest story, others run a special team for the selection. In most cases, reporters vote.

Let’s have a look at a variety of lists!!

Virginia Tech massacre - the top story of the US

The US editors and news directors in the Associated Press’ annual vote chose Virginia Tech massacre of 32 people by a student gunman as the top story of 2007. The story received 82 first place votes out of 271 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. AP said: “It was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.” The war in Iraq, the top story of 2006, ranked third this year. No. 2 story is the mortgage crisis.
1. VIRGINIA TECH KILLINGS
2. MORTGAGE CRISIS
3. IRAQ WAR
4. OIL PRICES
5. CHINESE EXPORTS
6. GLOBAL WARMING
7. MISSISSIPI RIVER BRIDGE COLLAPSE
8. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
9. IMMIGRATION DEBATE
10. IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Madleine McCann - the most searched story in the UK

One of the easiest ways to pick top 10 stories is just counting the online clicks for stories. The Times Online did so. “Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran” recorded the top story with approximately 650,000 views. Such an online version of top 10 tends to include more soft news than those based on reporters’ votes.

1. Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran (655,000 views)
2. Scientists hail frozen smoke as material that will change world (650,000 views)
3. Madeleine McCann: the key questions (535,000 views)
4. Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil (530,000 views)
5. Israelis blew apart Syrian nuclear cache (520,000 views)
6. Sex ban on the Airbus A380 (485,000 views)
7. An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change (480,000 views)
8. Rally champion Colin McRae dies with son in helicopter crash (475,000 views)
9. Could nude pictures of Vanessa Hudgens sink Disneys billion-dollar franchise? (430,000 views)
10. Skydiver charged with murder after love rival fell 13000ft to her death (420,000 views)

Times Online also released the most wanted SEARCHE TERMS of 2007.

1. Madeleine McCann
2. Anna Nicole Smith
3. Airbus
4. American Idol
5. China
6. Spice Girls Reunion
7. Kate Middleton
8. Fopp
9. Global Warming
10. Afghanistan

Vladimir Putin - TIME's Person of the Year

The US magazine Time annually picks the Person of the Year. The magazine describes TIME's Person of the Year as this:

“It is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.”

In 2006, Time chose “You” as the Person of the Year. “You” meant those who participated in the Web 2.0 Internet to make the online world more productive and innovative.

This year’s candidates included the Nobel laureate Al Gore, the Harry Porter writer J. K. Rolling and the Chinese President Hu Jintao. Time’s pick went to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from the American consciousness as we became mired in our own polarized politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the U.S. but also by the rising giants of China and India.

"That view was always naive. Russia is central to our world—and the new world that is being born. It is the largest country on earth; it shares a 2,600-mile (4,200 km) border with China; it has a significant and restive Islamic population; it has the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and a lethal nuclear arsenal; it is the world's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia; and it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the Middle East.

"For all these reasons, if Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.”

Murdoch Buys Wall Street Journal - the top media story in the US

The Editor and Publisher, a US journal covering the newspaper industry, picks top 10 newspaper industry stories. This year’s No. 1 went to “Murdoch Buys Dow Jones”.