Have you checked out Media Cloud? This Cool Tool is a great website to see the news agenda in aggregate. It uses “heat maps” and word clouds to give you a sense of the news both in terms of geography and by topic. You can also search and compare sources to each other. Really great stuff from Ethan Zuckerman (now the new head of the Center for Civic Media at MIT), and the Berkman Center at Harvard.

And the Tip of the Week. Inevitably, the mainstream press will become obsessed with some topic that does not deserve the amount of coverage it is getting. Casey Anthony is a good example. It makes you wonder what you are missing right? At times like these, check out international news sources to hear about DOMESTIC US news. Try it!