Katie Couric’s debut on the CBS Evening News drew high ratings and mixed reviews, according to the Washington Post. Indeed, her debut drew strong buzz and excitement in the blogosphere — enought to have surpassed last week’s debacle around CBS’s doctored images of Couric.
However, it’s interesting to note that despite Couric-mania, the blogosphere was far more concerned over the death of Steve Irwin, aka “Crododile Hunter.” The first Blogpulse graph below showcases the percentage of all blog posts over the past six months that include “Katie Couric”, along with the names of her two predecessors, “Dan Rather” and “Walter Cronkite”. The second graph showcases mentions of “Katie Couric” versus “Steve Irwin”. As you can see, you need a magnifying glass to decipher the tiny blip in buzz that Couric received relative to Irwin.
Who knew Crocodile Hunter drew so much hidden passion? In comparing Couric versus Irwin, could this be a case of superficial versus hardcore fandom? Certainly the blogosphere, at this early stage, is biased to young males, and they’d seem to resonate with Crodile Hunter. But it seems the extreme level of passion runs much deeper, beyond that demogrpahic explanation. What do you think?
(Below: Blog buzz for Couric and predecessors)
(Below: Blog buzz for Couric versus Croc Hunter)
