Last week, both bloggers and Twitter users got caught up in an online prank played on a teenage pop star.
For the week of July 5-9, fully 19% of the news links on blogs, and 7% on Twitter were about an Internet prank aimed at teen idol Justin Bieber, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
When a pop culture-oriented website, Faxo.com, polled users about where the 16-year-old singer should tour next, a viral campaign generated almost half a million votes for the isolated totalitarian nation of North Korea. The campaign was reportedly led by 4chan, a website that has earned a reputation for creating mischievous online campaigns.
Most bloggers and Twitterers who highlighted the story used the occasion to poke fun at Bieber while savoring the prospect of the fresh-faced singer meeting one of the world's most infamous dictators.
Read the full report, Teen Singer Gets Singed in Social Media on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.