Two major news stories have developed post-election in the United States. The first is the escalating conflict in Gaza. The second is the announcement that Hostess is going out of business. If search queries are any measure of interest, then Americans are certainly more concerned about the loss of their Twinkies.
Early this week, militant missiles from Gaza prompted military action from Israel, and the conflict appears to be escalating. Initial reports suggest 50-100 people have died and hundreds more are injured. On Friday, Hostess announced it would be closing shop, threatening the existence of the iconic Twinkie baked cake.
Here is a Google Trends graph in the U.S. for the past seven days. The term “hostess” (red line) has reached an all time high, while the term “israel” (blue line) still hasen’t surpassed the interest it received during the short-lived conflict between Israel and Lebanon in 2009.
Even though the Twinkie is likely to survive the Hostess closure, Americans have raided stores and have pushed up prices for the remaining lot.
To be fair, happenings in the Israel-Palestinian conflict are much more common, so the news is less of a shocker. Nevertheless, America’s selective attention may be cause for concern. Without outcries for peace from the American public, future U.S. impact on the peace process is more likely to be benign.
Pingback: Twinkies Are More Important Than Gaza Attack News To Americans | The Tech Journal
Well, for one thing the Gaza thing apparently hasn’t been *reported* very much; I heard about the Twinkie thing quite promptly but this is the first I’m hearing about Gaza.
Also, you can only shout ‘the sky is falling’ so many times before people stop really listening.
Pingback: Guilty | ansible
Do you think the Hostess story is huge because people are mourning the loss of their Twinkies? Or is it largely because of the growing negative sentiment toward labor unions in this country?
I wouldn’t give the average Google searcher that much credit, but there’s more than just crappy pastries to that story.
Pingback: U.S. Shows More Interest in Twinkies than Israel | İSTİHBARAT SAHASI
Well u could also argue that twinkies and hostess are the only words u’d use for that search, while “Israel” is a pretty inefficient way to find out about the current situation there, u might write Palestine, gaza, hamas, name of harbor town, names of dead Palestinian leaders or IDF..(etc) and ud probably get more relevant hits if u use various news-searches, not google- who will mostly send u to various timeless info sites
Pingback: Late Night Computing: November 19, 2012 | RAWRG!
Pingback: Late Night Computing: November 19, 2012 | YourGameTube.com
Pingback: Late Night Computing: November 19, 2012 | ANZ Competitive