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"Which Oscars nominees are lighting up Twitter? Where's the groundswell forming on Facebook?  Who's the toast of the blogosphere?  Check out our new mRank social buzz leaderboard to find out what's most buzzed about at the Oscars right now, and keep checking back to see who's going from toast-of-the-town to roast-of-the-town.\nI'm happy to announce that we're launching Mashable mRank today to help illuminate trends on the social web at the Oscars, and bring data journalism front-and-center to our readers.  Think of mRank as an uber-social version of the golfer leaderboard on the PGA tour, but mRank tells you what's buzzing (which topics) and where it's trending (Twitter, Facebook or the blogosphere). It's the kind of thing you can look at and instantly understand how the conversation on the social web is ebbing and flowing at any given instant, and then look back a little later, and see how things have changed.  And, we're proud to say, that mRank is presented by Samsung, as part of a year-long partnership.\nHere are the key ingredients of mRank:\n\nData, data and more data: Our partner, PeopleBrowsr, eats the Twitter firehose for breakfast, then moves on to Facebook for lunch, with a dinner made up of the blogosphere.  PeopleBrowsr knows data.\nThen it's our turn: At Mashable, we put on our swimsuits and dive headfirst into that data, identifying trends and tracking them on a myriad of topics.  \n\nOver the next year, we'll release a series of other mRank leaderboards on topics that we're passionate about, on subjects that we know are near and dear to you as well.  So stay tuned for more.\nWhat's Data Journalism?Atoms, the itty-bitty kind, like to bounce around to their own little beats, but if you excite them with the right kind of energy, they erupt with photons, which can be focused by reflecting mirrors into a powerful beam of light (i.e., a laser).  (The same kind that Han shot at Greedo, or the other way around depending on who you ask.) \nIsn't that exactly how the social web works?  Someone tweets to the masses supplying the catalyst, others in the network get excited and tweet in response propagating the message, the overall conversation gains focus as its bounced back and forth on the social web, and before you know it, it's evolved into a laser-focused movement that has the power to change the world.  \nThe conversation on the social web matters. It's more than just a reflection of society; it has truly become an accelerant of culture and change.  And it's vital for each of us to follow that conversation, but it's more complex than ever to clearly identify what's beginning to trend, what's going to become a movement, or even predict the next meme.  More so today than in any other time, we live in a world overwhelmed with data. The social web gives off the kind of data exhaust we can all use as tea leaves for the future, if we could only collect and understand it. This age has ushered in a true rise of  data journalism: We all need to know the numbers, and try to understand them.\nSo head on over to our mRank Oscars leaderboard and let us know what you think.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, EdStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/02/24/mashable-mrank/>