IN THE GOOD old days, it was enough just to count the number of people who read an article.
Nowadays, articles get tweeted, Facebooked, emailed, and commented on within minutes of being published, with the result being that a significant amount of traffic for TheJournal.ie now comes solely from social media .
The most shared articles on Facebook this year were a disparate bunch. Unusually, a lot of them were political. Often the articles that are shared the most are about big breaking news stories – and while there are some of them here, such as the death of Robin Williams, exactly half of the stories in the top ten are politics-related.
Here’s the list in full in reverse order:
10. Poll: Should a general election be held before April 2016? Number of Facebook shares: 5,145
9. Child rescue alert cancelled as two-year-0ld Hassan Khan found safe and well. Number of Facebook shares: 5,178
8. Sinn Féin is now the most popular party in the State. Number of Facebook shares: 5,461
7. Joan Burton accidentally poses with giant spliff. Number of Facebook shares: 5,734
6. Tens of thousands take to the streets of Dublin to protest against water charges. Number of Facebook shares: 6,181
5. Mary Dunne – the O’Connell Street dancer – passes away aged 87. Number of Facebook shares: 6,322
4. Column: ’He was given a clean bill of health, walked out of the hospital and took his own life’. Number of Facebook shares: 8,637
3. Robin Williams found dead at his home in suspected suicide. Number of Facebook shares: 10,028
2. Hundreds of women held a silent vigil at Coolock Garda Station tonight. Number of Facebook shares: 11,167
1. Today marks 100 years since the beginning of the First World War. Number of Facebook shares: 12,480
And let’s not leave Twitter out of it. Here are the top five most tweeted TheJournal.ie articles this year:
1. Catalonia defies Spanish government and makes independence vote official. Number of Twitter shares: 1,274
2. Tens of thousands take to the streets of Dublin to protest against water charges. Number of Twitter shares: 990
3. Dublin council bans animal-act circuses on public land. Number of Twitter shares: 984
4. 15-year-old Sait Canbullu found safe and well in Sligo. Number of Twitter shares: 859
5. Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four were released 25 years ago today. Number of Twitter shares: 770
All figures correct at the time of being compiled
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