If you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on the media industry, PR planning, media analysis and social media, these are the must-read stories from the last week.

This week’s top PR and social media picks:

• Twitter announced that yes, it’s true, you will soon be able to download an archive of your tweets. But, like all such things, the feature is being rolled out “slowly”.
• A change to Instagram‘s terms of service had the photo-sharing community up in arms. An analysis from the New York Times Bits blog advised unhappy snappers to delete their accounts. Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom responded with a blog post assuring that ownership rights and privacy settings remain unchanged.
• The CIPR blogged about trends in digital PR. Measurement was cited as a “growing requirement”.
• Gorkana interviewed OK! deputy editor Christian Guiltenane about the ever-changing world of celebrity weeklies.
• The Wall took a look at how Obama’s analytics and social media teams are still working hard.
• Speaking of Obama, the White House released what may be the best candid photo ever of the US president:

• Mashable paid tribute to Gossip Girl, described as the first show to portray the hyper-connected millennial generation.
• End-of-year lists, round-ups and debates have officially taken over our media. Reuters selected its best photos of 2012, ranging from the awe-inspiring to the hard-hitting.
• Time Out revealed that a picture of a stray cat sleeping in a Lewisham health centre waiting room was its most ‘liked’ Facebook post of the year.
• The PR News Blog pinpointed five PR lessons learned in 2012.
• Content marketer and blogger Adam Vincenzini compiled a list of interesting social media tools from 2012.
• PR service Releas’d digested the year into bite-sized chunks.
• Brand insight specialist Gareth Price assessed the state of social media research in 2012.
• Watch a year of Hollywood films condensed into a seven-minute trailer.
• AdWeek compiled a list of the 20 biggest brand fails of 2012. (Someone should really make a list of the top 20 lists to feature the word ‘fail’.)
• Several social media giants released year-end videos. Twitter‘s is short and simplistic, Google‘s is longer and more emotive, while YouTube got all self-reflexive and made its own Gangnam Style/Call Me Maybe parody, featuring cameos from viral stars:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

• The Christmas holidays are nearly upon us, so let’s get into the spirit. Vulture selected the top ten Muppet Christmas videos ever. (The one we featured a few weeks ago, featuring Cee-Lo Green, is still pretty good.)
• The Week offered a professional dissection of the injuries suffered by the dim-witted burglars in that most iconic ’90s Christmas film, Home Alone.
• Mariah Carey teamed up with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for an acoustic version of All I Want From Christmas Is You (one of a handful of seasonal pop hits that never gets old):

Can’t see the video? Click here.

• And what about the year ahead? (If the Mayan apocalypse doesn’t suck us into the ether, that is.) Kantar listed 10 digital predictions for 2013.

Infographic of the week: Christmas 2012

Infographic by The Poke.