How social media covers cerebral beltway speeches

I've been giving some thought to how social media could play a much stronger role in international affairs and global finance. (Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what you were thinking about too.)

Then I learn Ben Bernanke gave a talk on Tuesday morning to the Council on Foreign Relations.

I'm surprised at how small the initial response in the social media world was to the speech. Granted, there wasn't much in terms of groundbreaking news, but this is one of those moments when thoughtful, serious people can and should give global finance issues the airing they deserve.

So what did I find? The mainstream media - yes, that organization I essentially buried for the last two days - led the coverage. But there was one major exception - Dan Drezner live-blogged the event at his new FP blog. He essentially took quotes from the speech and gave a few thoughts on the Q&A session. It's worth a look.

I found it interesting that both CFR and the Fed haven't done more to make this information more accessible via social media channels. CFR only made Bernanke's remarks available as a pdf document and not html. The Federal Reserve's website did publish the text for all to see without downloading. Neither site gave the option of bookmarking or sharing the remarks or asked for comment.

Since I'm addicted to wordle, Here's the "speech cloud" for Bernanke at CFR:



The first bit of analysis I saw - not much more than a quote, but it's the context more than the content here - came from a Wall Street Journal blog post. I also saw quick responses from BBC ("Worst Crisis Since 1930's"), the New York Times and Associated Press ("Bernanke Says Regulatory Overhaul Needed").

I did catch some twitter chatter. It's interesting to see which news outlets are using Twitter (in multiple languages to just push content out like an RSS feed, and who's actually using Twitter to comment:

• Nieuwslijstnl: Bernanke: meer internationale financiële regels (BNR Nieuwsradio) http://www.nieuwslijst.nl/t/13138 10 minutes ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• VanessaAlvarez1: Bernanke: :We may see a recovery of the economy as early as this year", depends on the banks 10 minutes ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• RTLZ: RTLZ Nieuws: Bernanke: meer internationale financiële regulering, herstel in 2009?: Regeringen werel.. http://tinyurl.com/bhno7w (expand)
  10 minutes ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet
• cajunmaverick: Wait, did I hear Bernanke say we need to get rid of mark-to-market accounting? #tcot 11 minutes ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• Indexhirek: Gazdaság: Bernanke: Meglepő, milyen mély a válság: Az amerikai jegybank elnöke szerint akkor érhet vég.. http://tinyurl.com/dmkf57 (expand)
  11 minutes ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet
• ftuseconomy: Bernanke urges regulatory overhaul http://tinyurl.com/cp3qqm (expand) 12 minutes ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

• itzpapalotl: I know it's probably just me, but Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke is kinda hot. 17 minutes ago from twhirl · Reply · View Tweet
  
  
• capitalbeat: Bernanke Says More Study on "Mark to Market" Would Be "Useful" http://tinyurl.com/bdgmh3 (expand) 18 minutes ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet
• syafiza: Bernanke: Reform before rebound: U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says economic recovery hinges on sta.. http://tinyurl.com/cf3ylu (expand)
  18 minutes ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet
• thebodybreaks: Worst crisis since 1930s says Fed: US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke says the world is suffering from the wo.. http://tinyurl.com/cmm4ac (expand)

Let me stress that I do NOT necessarily share the above expressed opinions, especially @itzpapalotl.