Plug the word “context” into the Google News search box today and you’ll get 30,073 results.  This is a bit of a downturn over the last ten days as some of the stories driving the totals, like the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and and the heat created by people contesting the citizenship of President Obama, have subsided.

In fact, there was no single story or small group of stories that drove the total.  This makes it all the more remarkable.  Context as a concept, context as a mandatory element, context as an aid to understanding the news is being applied far-and-wide.  It has taken hold in politics, art and even math.

This is good news.

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Plug the word “context” into the Google News search box today and you’ll get 32,769 results.  This is a continued uptick, 7 percent over a week ago.

The totals continue to be led by coverage of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor as we get close to the Senate vote on her confirmation.   The man who nominated her, President Barack Obama, is a close second.  Driven by the persistence of the “birthers” who claim the President is really foreign-born and the noisier arguments over health care reform.

One interesting note is that the concept of context is moving off-shore.  In New Zealand, it is reported that the unemployment figures are not as bad as they seem.  They need to be seen in context.  This is no sleight-of-hand, but a realization that information isn’t insight until it is seen in context.

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