By Siobhan Courtney

Welcome to The Buzz, our weekly round up of how the stories we report are being talked about in the blogosphere, twitterverse and other social media.

It is clear that it swine flu is not just infecting people, but cyber space too.

For schools in California it is out with the traditional posters and leaflets warning about the threat of swine flu and in with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace as health officials try to get the message out to students.

Twitter is well on its way to filling up with frenzied tweets about the virus - and #swine flu has, unsurprisingly, been a trending topic all week.

On Facebook, there are hundreds of groups dedicated to swine flu. I lost count after 482.

Nielsen Wire has been monitoring how much social media discussion there is about swine flu. It claims that the topic is thrashing discussion levels for the peanut butter/salmonella scare earlier this year and is even surpassing recent chatter about pop singing sensation Susan Boyle.

Some are asking how much this "viral outbreak" will contribute to creating panic.

It seems that people who are selling or renting their houses are worried about visitors entering their homes.

Parentdish wishes the experts would make their minds up when dishing out advice to pregnant women.

Others are asking what happens if you are about to fly off on holiday?

And what is the etiquette for churchgoers when shaking hands in Mass?

And what do you think about buying Tamiflu online? Some are using Twitter to advertise where to buy it.

Reports that the BBC have stocked up on Tamiflu have not gone down well.

Of course all eyes are on a potential swine flu vaccine, but some have been asking questions about whether the vaccine will be safe for young children - questions which Newsnight's Susan Watts has been getting answered. .

But it's not all doom and gloom, at least the Jobbing Doctor is managing to keep his chin up.

Newsnight had James Purnell's first TV interview since quitting

James Purnell told Newsnight this week that he hopes he was wrong over his comments that Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a Labour election defeat more likely.

Some viewers who watched what was his first television interview since resigning from Cabinet were not that impressed by his performance.

The Thoughts Experiments got posters talking after concluding that Mr Purnell's comments in the interview were confusing.

While the New Statesman concluded that he was "revealed as an emperor with no clothes on".

But it may be of some consolation for Mr Purnell that there is some support - in the form of Iain Dale.

Falkvinge's Pirate Party won seven percent of the vote in the EU elections

Newsnight travelled to Sweden to report this week on why pirates are on the rise in Sweden.

No, not the walk the plank, avast me hearty pirates, but the supporters of copyright and patent law reform ones.

Sweden's Pirate Party won seven percent of the vote in recent EU elections.

The party is opposing country's Fra Law - also described as Big Brother in Sweden which allows the monitoring of international phone calls, e-mail and internet traffic without judicial oversight.

You can imagine how well this went down with the blogosphere in Sweden - like a sinking ship.

Footage of anti-Fra Law protests, albeit peaceful ones in Stockholm, were uploaded onto YouTube, check them out here.

So, what effects will the Pirates have on the debate of freedom? Answers on a postcard rather than an e-mail, particularly if you are reading this in Sweden!

This should leave with you a smile on your face. A fight broke out in South Korea's parliament over the decision to launch a fraud investigation into presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak.

As Michael Winner might say - calm down dear it's only politics....

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