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The Lowdown

News That Moved: The Biggest Stories of 2014

Matthew Green
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Another year, another year-in-review article.

In the sea that is breaking news, 2014 was a tsunami. A multitude of tumultuous events shook the world this year (sometimes literally). And although it'd be silly to attempt to quantify the "most important" stories,  it is worth looking at the topics that American audiences were most drawn to and that seemed to have the greatest impact. As a gauge, these are the results from the Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and an independent survey of Twitter's biggest news-related trending topics.

Associated Press' nationwide news poll

In the Associated Press news agency's annual poll, 85 editors and news directors at media outlets around country voted on the year's top news stories. The overwhelming first pick was the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garder, and subsequent protests. In second place, the Ebola outbreak. The survey was conducted before news of the U.S. and Cuba re-establishing diplomatic relations, the Sony Pictures' hack and the missing AirAsia plane. Click on the image to see AP's interactive visualization.

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Top 10 stories, by vote:

1. Police killings

2. Ebola outbreak

3. Islamic State

4. U.S. midterm elections

5. Obamacare

6. Malaysian Airlines plane mystery

7. U.S. immigration issues

8. Turmoil in the Ukraine

9. Gay marriage

10. Veterans Affairs scandal

Chatter on the Twittersphere: most tweeted stories

The right-leaning media firm Echelon Insights tracked news stories that generated the most buzz this year on the social media site Twitter.  Focussing only on political topics (as opposed to other major events like the World Cup), the group published a week-by-week analysis of what Twitter users overall were tweeting about in 2014.  They also followed the tweeting trends of political insiders as well as conservative and liberal activists.

Click on the image to view the full-size infographic.

Top 10 topics from all of Twitter:

1. Ferguson/Eric Garner

2. Midterm elections

3. Ebola

4. Israel

5. Iraq

6. Russia/Ukraine

7. Donald Sterling/Los Angeles Clippers

8. Guns

9. Obamacare

10. Marijuana

Top 10 among political insiders:

1. Midterm elections. 2. Russia/Ukraine. 3. Iraq. 4. Obamacare. 5. Ferguson/Eric Garner. 6. Ebola. 7. NSA. 8. Israel. 9. Immigration. 10. Mississippi Senate primary.

Top 10 among conservative activists:

1. Guns. 2. Iraq. 3. Obamacare. 4. Benghazi. 5. Israel. 6. Ferguson/Eric Garner. 7. Immigration. 8. Midterm elections. 9. Ebola. 10. Russia/Ukraine.

Top 10 among liberal activists:

1. Ferguson/Eric Garner. 2. Midterms. 3. Obamacare. 4. Iraq. 5. Guns. 6. Koch brothers. 7. Israel. 8. Russia/Ukraine. 9. Marijuana. 10. Immigration.

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