The key flaw is that their criteria for distinguishing between mainstream media and blogs is whether a source is indexed by Google News. Which, of course, ends up labeling a lot of blogs from Daily Kos to Wonkette as mainstream media. But that's not so much a flaw of the study, which was intended to demonstrate a meme-tracking technique, as it is a flaw with the NYT article, which doesn't mention the dubious methodology.
posted by Zach Seward at 2009-07-12 23:33:06 
OK, here's my corrective to the Times article: "<a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/07/in-the-news-cycle-memes-spread-more-like-a-heartbeat-than-a-virus/">In the news cycle, memes spread more like a heartbeat than a virus</a>." Scott Rosenberg also <a href="http://www.wordyard.com/2009/07/13/caveats-on-memetracker-study/">tweaked</a> the Times, and Chris Anderson (not of Wired) has <a href="http://journalismschool.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/another-perspective-on-how-news-diffuses-the-francisville-4-from-inside-the-newsroom/">good research</a> to add as well.
posted by Zach Seward at 2009-07-13 19:04:22
