WordPress.com Bloggers Who Covered the Biggest News Stories of 2011
As 2011 comes to end, we thought it’d be interesting to look back at the events that made headlines this year, and a few of the bloggers who were there in person (or closely connected to the events) to document history in the making. Here’s a recap of some of the biggest news stories of the year, as blogged by WordPress.com users.
January 25: Tens of thousands of people take to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities to demand an end to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
Cairo-based journalist Max Strasser reported on the events from Istanbul. Marilyn Gardner posted updates on the situation after speaking with her daughter, who was living in Egypt for school.
Flickr.com/photos/sarahcarr
March 11: Japan is hit with an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in its history.
The author of Amblerangel.WordPress.com was at a grocery store in Shibuya-ku when it happened. She recounted the experience in We’re Being Shaken and Stirred in Japan. According to Liz Tagami, who was at Narita International Airport when the quake hit, “It started as a silent rolling wave.“
Amblerangel.WordPress.com
June 24: New York legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state in the U.S. to pass the law. It goes into effect thirty days later on July 24, 2011.
TalkAboutEquality.WordPress.com was on site at the New York City Clerk’s office to chat with the couples who lined up for marriage licenses, as documented in the post Thousands of New Yorkers Put a Ring on It. In August, Jacob Murphy shared photographs of a pop-up chapel ceremony in New York City’s Columbus Circle.
TalkAboutEquality.WordPress.com
July 9: South Sudan becomes the world’s newest nation after seceding from Sudan.
Uganda-based photographer Will Boase was there to capture the celebration, which he blogged about in Happy Birthday South Sudan.
TheMzunguDiaries.WordPress.com
July 20: WordPress.com blogger discovers a fake Apple store in Kunming, China.
The author of BirdAbroad.WordPress.com published pictures of the store in a post titled Are You Listening, Steve Jobs?, which quickly caught the attention of major news outlets around the world.
BirdAbroad.WordPress.com
September 11: Americans remember 9/11, ten years later.
In the post 3,652 Days Later, Dale Roe of Project 2,996 declared, “Take this day, not to remember mass murder, but to remember the 2,996 people who are loved and missed.” The project uses WordPress.com to organize tributes to the victims of 9/11. Amalie Flynn was just blocks away from the Twin Towers on 9/11. She started SeptemberEleventh.WordPress.com on 9/11/2010 and posted every day last year.
Project2996.WordPress.com
October: The Occupy Wall Street movement gains momentum.
Terrell Starr visited New York’s Financial District to document the demonstration. Many Occupy movements like Occupy Oakland, Occupy London, Occupy Albany, and Occupy Together use the WordPress open source software or WordPress.com to power their web sites.
HiddenNewYorkers.com
November 18: UC Davis campus police pepper spray nonviolent protestors, sparking outrage.
The next day, Nathan Brown, an Assistant Professor at UC Davis, wrote an Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, demanding that the school’s chancellor resign.
BicycleBarricade.WordPress.com
Will you be the next blogger to break or cover news live from the field?
Download WordPress for your mobile device and you’ll always be prepared to share your perspective with the world! To make your posts easy for others to find, be sure to include relevant tags that indicate the city, venue, or event that you blog about.
What did we miss?
Did you live blog any major news events this year? Leave a comment with a link to the post!
December 5th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
This is a great way to show how the year progressed. Nice choices!
December 5th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
That’s cool! But I always find blogging from computer/laptop more convenient than mobile and tablet devices. But for on-spot blogging, mobile device would be handy. Great that WordPress.com has apps for nearly all kinds of devices out there.
December 5th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Incredibly honored that I made it to the list, especially alongside Max Strasser – He is a friend of my daughter’s. Heading to Egypt on December 21st. Hopefully more stories – Thank you!
December 5th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Wonderful collection
I always love to read first-hand articles about important events. This post is a like a treat for me! Gonna read them all 
December 5th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Thanks for continuing to celebrate original content creation — the main thing separating WordPress.com from Tumblr, Facebook, and so many other platforms.
December 5th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
What an amazing recap … really shows the power of bloggers in their ability to tell stories, add perspective and shape public dialogue!
December 5th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Couldn’t possibly hoard this post…had to share with my network. Thanks Erica!
December 5th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Thanks for the list of out-there bloggers . Congrats folks on making the front page of the wp.com world. You guys inspire.
On another note: dammit, I hate all ya’all. Why don’t I ever make it to these lists!
December 5th, 2011 at 6:27 pm
What a great idea, and good motivation for us bloggers to tackle current affairs on our sites. Hopefully next year I will be included
December 5th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
What I find fascinating about this article, and its timing, is that it comes hot on the heels of word that the U.S. has fallen behind on Information. Clearly, the mainstream has lost and it’s the people and commitments that you mentioned on your list that are turning how we gather and process our information, our news, our reporting of events and perspectives completely on its ear. And for that, I am thrilled beyond belief. It’s only going to get better.
December 5th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
The power of Blogs have increased significantly allover the world, as people realize what an important tool we have in our hands, faster and better quality information will be available to everyone through incredible Blogs like these! Let’s keep blogging with imagination and quality!
December 5th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Thank you
December 5th, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Yes I did! I covered the Canada Post lock-out, with a 3-blog follow-up. In news, it can be hard for citizens to be properly informed. I’m proud of laying out the issues in a manner we non-policiticans can grasp. It’s an honour, to be invited to introduce you to my own blogs. A hug to everyone shining light on modern events! Xoxo, C. http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/clarifying-canada-posts-battle/
December 5th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
On October 25th, Italy had a destructive flooding of the Cinque Terre (Vernazza and Monterosso). There was absolutely no news coverage, the only information available was through a small group of bloggers and travel guru Rick Steves. I have been posting info and trying to get the word out to others around the world. Thank you wordpress for giving me the platform to do so!!
http://onceinalifetimetravel.me/2011/10/27/cinque-terre-vernazza-flood-update/
December 5th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Thanks for including my recount in the newsletter. This certainly shows the power of social media and its impact on the world. People everywhere responded to that post with offers of help and support for the people of Japan. Truly heartwarming.
December 5th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Great posts! I also want to share my blog photos of Occupy LA: http://www.scottwitterblog.com/?p=483 Thanks!
December 5th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
I’m a journalism student in Vancouver, and we just saw Adriane Carr elected as our first Green Party Councillor on November 19th. I blogged about the historic win, drawing from interviews I did the week after with Adriane herself, as well as Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. You can read it here: http://writerinthenite.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/155/
December 5th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
You asked to leave links to covering a notable event, and living in Niagara Falls, NY I was at the Falls with my camera for the first gay, group wedding to be officiated at the Falls. http://gardenwalkgardentalk.com/2011/07/25/niagara-falls-a-kiss-and-a-vow/
It was a beautiful affair on a rainy day that turned to sun right as the vows were being performed. That can be seen in my images of exchanging the rings. It is similar to the the post you noted, but it was a very big deal for our area, reestablishing our area as a world noted wedding capital. I was an event televised and seen by many, and I posted it immediately after the event.
December 5th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
This is freaking awesome thing to do at the end of the year. Very good of you that you guys focus on engaging with your community.
I also wrote a post ’9/11 A Decade After; Thoughts of a Very Common Pakistan’
December 5th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
The Passing of Steve Jobs, I did a piece, but I wasn’t there
DarkJade
December 5th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Dear Erica,
Thanks for this great effort in collecting all the major events. i was delighted to see Egypt on top of the list. I have a post regarding the few days we lived with no police in Cairo. I thought of sharing ti with everyone.
post is called Days of Horror. My blog is egyptreborn.wordpress.com
Regards.
December 5th, 2011 at 9:40 pm
They deserve to be listed there! great job!
December 5th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Bloggers rule indeed. Proud to be part of a fantastic community.
December 5th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
I am a local photojournalist who covered a 9/11 Memorial Service. Below is the link to one of my favorites:
http://dianedaviesphotography.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/911-memorial-service/
December 5th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
i prefer here for more original contents
December 5th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
This is amazing! What a wonderful way to recap a story.
December 5th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
WUWT Covered Climategate 2.0
http://wattsupwiththat.com
December 5th, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Love this post! Really shows how bloggers are creating a new news medium.
December 5th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
Brave Summary and Posts!
South Sudan get independence the same day that my country, Argentina: 9th July (We, in 1816). Good luck all Southern Sudaneses!
I promise I’ll make a visit to all posts you quoted.
December 5th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Blogging is a powerful tool in the world of communication. It can frequently help us to see behind the headlines and meet the real people who are facing up to the challenges of the world.
December 6th, 2011 at 12:14 am
That is the beauty of blogging. It gives you a platform to showcase what ever your talent is. No need for publishers or elaborate marketing campaigns to handle the publicity of the written material. Thanks WordPress!
December 6th, 2011 at 1:24 am
Great recap. I didn’t know a few of these stories first broke on WordPress! All the other commenters are right, WordPress is a unique platform in that there’s actual content being created here! Here’s to many more!
December 6th, 2011 at 1:51 am
Don’t forget the flooding in Bangkok, Thailand in October! http://worldadventurers.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/bangkok-flooding-update-with-photos/
December 6th, 2011 at 1:55 am
Great collection! Makes me realize how so very much happened this year…
December 6th, 2011 at 3:45 am
Power of words, freedom of press (expression), blogging & wordpress will keep on getting better & popular. Thanks for a comprehensive Recap.
December 6th, 2011 at 3:50 am
Thanks to wordpress I was easily able to blog about three phenomenal idea-sharing, change-maker events at Chicago Ideas Week. If you want to read about some of the people speaking, check out http://naturestage.org/2011/10/11/chicago-ideas-week-part-i-social-entrepreneurship-forum/
December 6th, 2011 at 4:07 am
Thank you
December 6th, 2011 at 5:08 am
Ahem. And nothing about Occupy Vancouver?
December 6th, 2011 at 5:15 am
Yay WordPress! I had no idea that WordPress bloggers were so on top of world events in such a timely fashion. I did my share, with edgy, muckraking posts like, “New Words You May Not Have Known You Needed” (http://daisybrain.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/new-words-you-may-not-have-known-you-needed/).
December 6th, 2011 at 6:26 am
I covered it more as an opinion piece than news article, but I wrote on Gabriel Giffords getting shot:
http://seekingsearchingmeaning.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/politically_speaking/ & http://seekingsearchingmeaning.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/life-goes-on/
http://seekingsearchingmeaning.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/current-events/
I don’t know if those count, but they speak to news of the day!
December 6th, 2011 at 6:27 am
What about Casey Anthony? It got national attention. Just a thought..
December 6th, 2011 at 6:48 am
Great Ones! WordPress is certainly a very respectable medium and people who blog here are respected worldwise too.. I feel great to be called as a fellow blogger to these great writes.
December 6th, 2011 at 7:05 am
Reblogged this on toni.org.
December 6th, 2011 at 7:32 am
wordpress rock
December 6th, 2011 at 8:39 am
This is Fantastic, Here in Tanzania I’m cerebrating knowing WordPress.com. The information is more than enough,Stay blessed
December 6th, 2011 at 8:48 am
@Erica Johnson: That’s great, but before January 25, you forget the Tunisian Revolution that took place in January 14th. Over than 10 thousands of tunisian people take to the streets of Tunis and other tunisian cities to demand an end to the rule of President Zine Abidine Ben Ali.
Please Have a look to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_revolution
December 6th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Nice recap to end the year.
I was here in Tokyo,Shinagawa-ku when the March 11 earthquake happened.
My post describing my live experience can be found at…
http://tokyotravels.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/the-great-japan-earthquake-2011/
Thank u !
December 6th, 2011 at 11:03 am
A least I now have an account of all that took place in 2011.Memories enhanced.
December 6th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Based in Bangkok and Pattaya, I blogged about the Thai flood… :p
http://kenl315.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/evacuation-normalness-and-flooding/
December 6th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Great way to keep track of events and remind us of what transpired in 2011.
December 6th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I covered the police raid in Los Angeles.
Please view here: http://batesimaging.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/occupy-los-angeles-raid-113011/
December 6th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
A celebration of how events changed the way we think and feel…
December 6th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
great way to recap the year 2011
December 7th, 2011 at 4:10 am
The idea of reporting and covering news on a WP blog is great. I tell my students that they can do amazing things with photojournalism with their blogs. This will be a great article to share with them.
December 7th, 2011 at 5:40 am
Great selection of quality blogs! Thank you for sharing. WordPress continues to grow its reputation for providing solid attractive products, as well as an ever expanding community of sophisticated bloggers who are raising the bar for the rest of us. It is exciting to know that our society, through channels such as this, has access to dignified news sources and exchanges, which are not controlled or manipulated by a particular segment of the media.
December 7th, 2011 at 5:40 am
This was a great way to talk about 2011 talking about the good and bad. This helps someone who does not live in this era know how most things work around the world. This article did not just show one culture it showed many cultures the good aspect and not so good. So I think this was a great thing to do
December 7th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Great list!
December 7th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Excellent post
December 7th, 2011 at 9:48 am
Wonderful article — thanks for writing it!
December 7th, 2011 at 10:58 am
Brave!
December 7th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
a lot of days at 2011 was a feared days ,because the revolution spread at all Egypt cities ,but now we hope that the days be white and calm,
December 7th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Window on the great happening in 2011. Well done
December 8th, 2011 at 12:28 am
We are ready to provide information multifarious, anytime and anywhere!
Keep spirit!
December 8th, 2011 at 12:34 am
great job
nice choices of events for the year B-)
December 8th, 2011 at 12:51 am
2011 was quite a year! Congratulations to all the bloggers menitioned and others whose blogs kept us informed.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:46 am
This article is great… looking forward to another one…
December 8th, 2011 at 8:04 am
I was very encouraged to find this site. I wanted to thank you for this special read. I definitely savored every little bit of it.
Heathrow Minicab
December 8th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Nice round up, glad I live in such a boring place
December 8th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Hooray to freedom of expression!
December 8th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Shows the power of blogging and the speed that news gets shared out. Nice list. Quick run-down of this year’s top news and happenings around the globe.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
what an excellent reminder that this has been a globally inspiring and invigorating – if incredibly stressful – year…thanks to the bloggers out there bringing it to us in real time. and – as per @ yatin’s thoughts – thanks to wordpress for another platform for exercising freedom of expression.
December 8th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
We appreciate being part of the world of WordPress. It’s a great place for bloggers and their great work. We like to refer to the 2011 transatlantic diablog award. It’s our attempt to present the best blogs and blog posts of the year – nominated by bloggers and readers of WordPress. Thank you for your time. – the transatlantic diablog
December 8th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Definitely a great way to recap this year, a lot of big things have happened! Thanks for putting this together
-
Adrianna
http://www.theadornation.wordpress.com
December 8th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
This is terrific, and it’s what I love about WordPress. Thanks for all your excellent work!
December 9th, 2011 at 6:07 am
Very cool! Where did 2011 go? crazy how it flew by and we have couple of weeks left of it.
December 9th, 2011 at 7:21 am
On 22nd February the City of Christchurch in New Zealand was all but destroyed in a earthquake with a loss of almost 300 lives. To us, the event was as big as the revolutions in Libya and Egypt to the Libyans and Egptians, and even bigger than the discovery of an Apple rip-off outlet in China. You would be most welcome to come and have a look for yourself. Ten months after the event we are still cleaning up.
December 9th, 2011 at 9:34 am
THANK YOU TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR DRAWING INDIVIDUAL MIND TO THIS SITE,
MAY GOD PROTECT EVERY ONE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.
December 9th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
This is amazing! What a wonderful way to recap a story.
December 9th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Wonderful way to support all of the writers and bloggers who covered 2011′s important events. Congratulations to all who made the list. My blog is small, but I want to share a post on a powerful film on the Occupy Movement, produced by Ian MacKenzie and Canadian filmmaker, Velcrow Ripper. Anyone interested can view it here: http://windybee.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/occupy-love-a-documentary-by-velcrow-ripper-and-ian-mackenzie/
December 9th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Great Article. Recaps the whole year wonderfully.
December 9th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Thanks… from Azerbajian.
December 10th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Russian protests are being covered right now in the Russianyear blog (http://russianyear.wordpress.com/). This blog has writers in three Russian cities (Moscow, Yaroslavl, and Irkusk) who have been following and photographing evolving events from the election forward. History in the making…hopefully for the better.
December 10th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Love this. Yup there are so many life changing issues that occur every year, it can be scary but inpiring and motivational as well. It can also open up a path for a country, city or state to be heard.
December 10th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Everything is amazing.
December 11th, 2011 at 1:51 am
These are historic times we live in. thanks for creating such a powerful and easy to use tool. Exciting and monumental things to be seen, read and shared on WordPress in 2012.
December 11th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
I was reviewing my blog posts from this year and enjoyed re-reading the first three from the Egyptian revolution – Jan25, Jan26, and Jan27, before the internet was cut. Good memories…
http://asenseofbelonging.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/police-day-palpitations/
http://asenseofbelonging.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/egyptian-protests-day-two/
http://asenseofbelonging.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/friday-in-egypt-a-decisive-day-a-turn-to-religion/
Still going, if you like Egyptian news from a simple American’s perspective.
December 11th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
This is so great to see! i’ve been writting a blog recently. I enjoy the way we can speak so freely about the way we feel .
December 12th, 2011 at 5:33 am
a really great posts to shoot the points in the year!
December 13th, 2011 at 6:07 am
I wrote a post about the last space shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center on WP-based Impre.com’s Piensa Digital blog [http://blogs.impre.com/piensa-digital/2011/07/08/exitoso-lanzamiento-de-atlantis-marca-fin-al-programa-de-transbordadores-espaciales/], and uploaded pics and embedded videos on my ElMundoTech blog here on WordPress.com [http://wp.me/pi7rs-4v8]. The pictures I took with my Nintendo 3DS were of Mario by the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, and Kotaku.com blogged about it [http://kotaku.com/5819677/mario-bids-bon-voyage-to-the-space-shuttle]. Woohoo!!! Others got to write too [http://www.zeldainformer.com/2011/07/mario-in-attendance-to-the-last-space-shuttle-launch.html].
December 13th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Great blogs! An inspiration to many!
December 14th, 2011 at 7:05 am
it has been a great year enjoy twenty twelve stay blessed
December 14th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
The West Londoner is an independent web- newspaper:
A quote from a wordpress.com blog – “The West Londoner is a news site focused on everything west of Westminster within London. Started by Gaz Corfield, a Brunel University journalism student, the site received 1 million pageviews in 24 hours at the height of the London riots of August 2011.”
from http://thewestlondoner.wordpress.com/about/
December 15th, 2011 at 5:17 am
Neat, it’s cool to learn cool stuff like that!!!
December 15th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
great to post all this things…Let u keep it up……
December 16th, 2011 at 10:56 am
It is rather interesting for me to read that article. Thanks for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read more on this blog soon.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Good list. But I definitely think the most historic event of the year was the death of bin Laden. Although my blog is mostly about the American Civil War, when that stunning event occurred, I had to go off topic and write about it. You suggested we post links, so here it is http://historicaldigression.com/2011/05/02/telling-my-daughters-about-bin-laden/
December 17th, 2011 at 7:49 am
Proud to be part of this fantastic community.. ^^
December 17th, 2011 at 11:46 am
All the best in the next year!
December 19th, 2011 at 6:34 am
Excellent format to recap world events for 2011. Tonight news of Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic longtime leader, who has died of heart failure (He was 69) interrupted reporting live from Iraq by Fox News’s Giraldo Riviero. I have opined on this historic event(s) on my blog. You can view it here – http://wp.me/p1LWhS-7s
December 19th, 2011 at 11:38 am
Well done everyone!