Following the tragic shooting last weekend -- in which six people were killed and 13 injured including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- we followed how reaction played out on YouTube during the week. We noted that the community posted initial thoughts and tribute videos to the victims, a moment of silence was observed all the way from space, and remarks made be the President drew much attention
Of news and current events searches on the site, January's top spiking search so far has been "gabrielle giffords," followed by searches for the President Obama's speech delivered in Tucson mid-week. The President's remarks at the memorial were viewed half a million times just on the PBS Newshour's channel alone.
Many of the tributes posted were musical in nature, and we collected a diverse range of them in this playlist below:
The President of Tunisia dissolved the country's government today in the midst of widespread protests and confrontations between protesters and police, according to CNN. Clips of the unrest on the streets have poured onto YouTube for several days in multiple languages and searches for "Tunisia" on YouTube are at an all-time high this week.
We've pulled together this playlist of videos posted in the past 24 hours beginning with alleged footage of a clashes between authorities and protesters in Kasserine:
(Use the arrows above to navigate through the playlist or view all the videos here.)
YouTube users in Australia have been uploading videos in large numbers over the last few days documenting the massive flooding taking place in the state of Queensland. CitizenTube has compiled this playlist of videos, which we'll continue to update, from users in the area. The lead off clip is particularly gripping:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here. We've also pulled out some below.)
In the hours following the tragic shooting in Arizona Saturday, YouTube users began posting reactions to the news. Today, "arizona shooting" was still among our top spiking search terms. As of posting, there are over 1,000 videos from the last 24 hours containing those terms and over 2,500 containing the term "giffords."
We looked into some of the user responses to see what types of reactions were surfacing. Many users were expressing their anger and confusion about the shooting. Some were simply sharing their take on the news. Simultaneously, arguments were brewing about the culpability of political rhetoric. This playlist runs the gamut of that raw user reaction:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
Some of the more religious-minded users also began posting prayers and meditations on the tragedy. Here's a quick playlist with a few of those:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
One user also posted footage from the vigil that took place at the Arizona state capitol. Here's the closing of that ceremony:
Reaction videos are still streaming in, so we'll look to update these playlists later today.
A partial solar eclipse was visible today from parts of Europe and the Middle East and it seems a number of YouTube videographers in the region set up cameras to capture the event. The playlist below contains the viewing angles from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland, respectively:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here)
Students in the United Kingdom protested -- sometimes violently -- in London yesterday into the evening over a hike in the maximum tuition fee resulting in 12 officers and 43 protesters injured, according to the BBC. Many of the students and bystanders were carrying cameras and capture different perspectives on the day's events. We've collected an assortment of them in the playlist below and more have been continuously uploaded throughout the day.
The Transportation and Security Administration has been a hot topic in the past month, and today our top trending video is footage captured at an Oklahoma City airport of wheel-chair bound Tammy Banovac who stripped to her underwear to avoid a search. That clip, which you can view directly here, has been viewed over a million times in the past day.
The holiday season is still young, and we're still a few weeks off from the next surge in domestic air travel, but the height of TSA hysteria might be behind us for now. Looking at data for users searching "TSA" on YouTube, you can see on the graph below that search interest peaked on the 22nd, the busiest travel day of the year and the day that two of the most-viewed videos received the most media attention.
Searches first began to pick up after John Tyner posted the video above of his experience at the San Diego Airport. You can mouse over the points below to see when the above videos were posted.
Two other interesting asides about the search data:
The largest spiking search term associated with "TSA" in the past 30 days was "pat down."
The state "TSA" searches were most popular in? Utah. (The video of the young boy being searched was captured in Salt Lake City.)
YouTube's CitizenTube channel has begun collecting citizen-reported footage from the disastrous forest fire that's struck Isreal today. The wildfire is reportedly the largest in the country's history and has killed over 30 people.
