According to the latest Pew Research Center News Interest Index, the Web "blackout" protest of antipiracy legislation (PIPA and SOPA) was the most-closely followed news story of last week among national news consumers 18-29.
That was the protest -- which was ultimately successful -- against anti-piracy legislation that Google, Yahoo! And other Web companies argue goes overboard. In the run-up and wake of that protest, numerous legislators withdrew their support from the bills, which were tabled for the moment, and likely for good.
According to the just-released report, 23% of those under 30 said they followed news of the online piracy fight most closely, compared to just 7% of the general population who said so, number four on the overall interest hit parade.
The national news media monitored by Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism devoted about 5% of their coverage to the Web blackout story, about the same amount they gave to economic news.
The top story among all those polled was the deadly cruise ship crash off the Italian coast, with 26% saying they followed that most closely, followed by 23% most closely following presidential campaign coverage, and 10% glued to economic news.
Only 1% most-closely followed the Boomer-fabric-tearing news of Kodak's bankruptcy.
