Forget the war on terror and the election of President Obama - the biggest news story of the decade has been the rise of China, according to a major new study. 

    Media analysts found four times as many news articles about the financial dominance of China online than the Iraq War, which was the second biggest story of the last 10 years. 

    The research, carried out by the Texas-based Global Language Monitor, found China’s success story also trumped Michael Jackson’s death, which appeared at number five in the top 10, and the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S., which was the third biggest story of the new millennium. 

    Paul Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor and chief word analyst, said that the rise of China to new economic heights continued to challenge the international order. 

    “It is with little surprise that its ongoing transformation has topped all other news stories in a decade bespotted by war, economic catastrophe, and natural disasters,” he said.

    The Global Language Monitor used an algorithm to track the use of key words across news sites, blogs and social networking pages over the last 10 years to come up with the league table. 

    “The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity,” Mr. Payack added. 

    The Global Language Monitor, which also records the one million words in the English tongue, found “climate change” was the most popular phrase while “global warming,” “9/11,” “Obama,” “bailout” were among the top words of the decade. 

    Top 15 news stories of the decade: 

    1. Rise of China; 2. Iraq war; 3. 9/11 terrorist attacks; 4.War on terror; 5. Death of Michael Jackson; 6. Election of Obama to U.S. presidency; 7. Global recession of 2008/9;  8. Hurricane Katrina; 9. War in Afghanistan; 10. Economic meltdown/Financial tsunami; 11. Beijing Olympics; 12. South Asian tsunami; 13. War against the Taliban; 14. Death of Pope John Paul II; 15. Osama bin-Laden eludes capture.

    Source: Telegraph

“中国崛起”居榜首

　　忘了恐怖主义战争和奥巴马竞选吧，一项最新的重要调查显示，过去十年间最大的新闻事件是中国的崛起。

　　媒体分析师们发现，网上关于中国经济崛起的新闻稿的数量，是十年间第二大新闻事件——伊拉克战争的四倍。

　　这项由总部位于美国得克萨斯州的媒体调查机构“全球语言监测”做出的调查表明，在新千年发生的大事里，中国的崛起超过排在第三位的9·11以及排在第五位的迈克尔·杰克逊去世。

　　“全球语言监测”机构的主席及首席分析师保罗·裴雅克说，中国经济上的崛起会继续挑战现有的国际秩序。

　　他说：“中国持续变革的影响比过去十年间的任何战争、经济崩溃和自然灾害都要大，这一点也不奇怪。”

　　“全球语言监测”通过一种程序算法搜索在过去十年里出现过的新闻网站、博客和社交网页中的关键词来排定名次。

　　裴雅克说：“搜索时要监测词的使用频率、使用语境和在全球媒体的出现状态，还要考虑到其长期趋势，短期变化，变化势头和速度等因素。” 

　　“全球语言监测”还研究了英语中的一百万个单词，发现“气候变化”是最热门的词汇，而“全球变暖”、“9·11”、“奥巴马”和“（公司所受）紧急援助”是过去十年中最常用的词。

　　以下是“全球语言监测机构”评出的十年来重大新闻事件前15名： 

　　1.中国崛起；2.伊拉克战争；3. 9·11恐怖袭击；4.反恐战争；5.迈克尔·杰克逊去世；6.奥巴马当选总统；7. 2008到2009年全球经济衰退；8.卡特里娜飓风；9.阿富汗战争；10.经济崩溃/金融海啸；11.北京奥运会； 12.南亚大海啸；13.打击塔利班的战争；14.全球200万人参加教皇约翰·保罗二世葬礼；15. 本·拉登仍未能被抓捕。