Janet CollinsRemembering the Decade
December 23rd 2009 05:32
Do you want the good news or the bad? When we are about to get news that relates to ourselves, pretty well all of the time we want it to be good. Why is it then that the top news stories always tend to be bad? We love them. Even so, some of the worst stories around the globe are very easily forgotten as recent published biggest news stories of the decade conveyed.
Remembering a decade? What comes to mind most when we think of the years from 2000 to 2009?
Earlier this month, the Global Language Monitor, published an analysis of the top news stories of the decade and as could be expected most (but not all) were about war, terrorism, death or disaster. We shouldn’t forget that the Global Language Monitor is based in the US.
GLM’s Top 15 Stories of the Decade:
The Rise of China
The Iraq War
The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
The War on Terror
Death of Michael Jackson
Election of Obama to US Presidency
The Global Recession of 2008/2009
Hurricane Katrina
The War in Afghanistan
Onset of the Economic Meltdown
The Beijing Olympics
The South Asian Tsunami
The War Against the Taliban
The Death of Pope John Paul II
Osama bin-Laden evading capture
So aside from Obama becoming US President and the Beijing Olympics and possibly the rise of China, the list is made up of natural disasters, terrorism, financial disaster and war. The popularity of the rise of China as a topic can either be seen as a threat to the international order or as a really good story about a large poor country that has risen to become the world’s third largest economy.
This list was compiled by an analysis of the Internet, the blogosphere, including social media and the top 50,000 print and electronic media sites.
Compiling a list of its own about what defined the noughties, the BBC Magazine in the UK used a different method, inviting readers to submit what they believed to be the biggest events of the decade as part of a larger look at the decade.
The list varied tremendously from the one by the Global Language Monitor which indicates that what news people regard as important or memorable can differ depending on how they look at the world and where they look at it from.
The BBC Magazine’s List of the Biggest News Events of the Decade as voted by its readers:
The final 20 from the BBC Magazine
Danish cartoons controversy
Death of Dr David Kelly
Death of Michael Jackson
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
England win the Ashes 2005
Final Harry Potter book
Fuel strikes 2000
Human Genome Project
Indian Ocean tsunami
Iraq War
John Darwin, missing canoeist
Launch of Big Brother
Launch of Wikipedia
London bombings 2005
MPs' expenses scandal
Northern Ireland power-sharing
Run on Northern Rock
September 11th 2001
Smoking ban
Usain Bolt at Beijing Olympics
The only topics that overlapped between the two were the death of Michael Jackson, the Iraq War, 9/11 terrorist attacks and vaguely the Beijing Olympics. Some of course in the BBC’s list were local rather than global issues so it certainly seems that the closer big stories are in geographical terms, the more someone will be affected by them.
I had trouble locating any list that may have been compiled in Australia so I am going to attempt my own. These are the news and events that I remember most from the last decade:
My List:
The rise and rise of China
The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
The Iraq War
The War in Afghanistan
The Bali Bombings
The Madrid Bombings
The Bombings in Mumbai
The London Bombings
Refugee Standoff in 2001 and Christmas Island
The Conviction of Schapelle Corby in Bali
Hurricane Katrina
The South Asia Tsunami
Barack Obama becomes President of the US
Security at the Australian APEC Conference
The Collapse of Lehman Brothers
The Global Economic Crisis
Global Warming and Climate Change
Kevin Rudd becomes Prime Minister of Australia
The Social Networking Phenomenon
The Growth and Growth of Google
The Separation of the the two Bangleshi co-joined twins
In a decade that has been fraught with natural and unnatural disasters, changing fortunes and new world leaders, what do you remember most about the last ten years?
Sourced: languagemonitor.com; bbc.co.uk.
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Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
I saw a video which compiled the highlights of the decades somewhere, and they had the Britney and Madonna kiss in there, lol. I would never have thought to include it myself.
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Thanks for the visit and a very Merry Christmas to you.
Janet