Online Media Analysis

To Tweet or not to Tweet

2009-03-01T20:53:00.001-08:00

After hearing so much about Twitter in classes and even in the news I decided to make an account and use it for my job. I work at a new media company called Cubico Media where we publish articles for streaming on multiple platforms in the areas of fashion, lifestyle and entertainment.

When I created the account I started playing around with the different features and the idea of micro blogging really appealed to me. As a writer I am constantly trying to "write tight" and with only 140 characters to work with, Twitter forces you to be concise.

I can really see how Twitter is making an impact on people and businesses. As a new media company we can tweet about what we are working on and connect with others who might be interested in reading or watching what we produce.

My first hour on Twitter proved to be a success. In that short amount of time I accumulated a few followers. Today I think we have over 70 people or so following us. I am anxious to see how Twitter changes over the next few months. I expect that like Facebook, or any other social media outlets, Twitter will continue to evolve.

It's interesting, when you really think about it, we are watching the birth of these tools but my future children will not know a world without these applications or the many tools to come in the next few months and years. Scary.

How much is enough?

2009-02-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, NewsTrust.net focuses on evaluating the credibility of news articles. After reading a posted article, reviewers are asked a series of questions. The answers to these questions determine the rating that the article receives. One of the questions that NewsTrust asks the reviewers is if the article is well sourced.

Keeping this question in mind I wanted to take a look at some of the articles on the Web pages that I have been reviewing. Looking at the LA Times' article about Clinton's trip to China the reporter used two outside sources in addition to quotes from Clinton's press appearances. For this article are three sources enough? The point of the article is reached, the reader is able to gather information from the article, but should the reporter have gone further?

It is hard to say exactly how many sources are needed in order to produce a well developed article. In some cases, a blog post for example, additional sources may hinder the main point of the piece. As a rule, journalists are taught to be unbiased and present information from multiple viewpoints. Yet, bloggers are not held to the same set of standards.

Jack & Jill Politics for example, features only one viewpoint in a majority of their posts. Does this make the information presented any less credible?

In this case I feel that it is a matter of expectation. When coming to a blog, one expects a somewhat skewed or limited viewpoint. On the other hand, when a reader picks up a newspaper they expect to see multiple points of view presented in an unbiased format.

Keeping it Factual

2009-02-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

Last week, our Online Journalism class was visited by a guest speaker from NewsTrust.net, Kaizar Campwala. He talked to us about the company and their goal, which is to provide a place where people can analyze and evaluate news.

After participating in a news hunt for articles about Obama's foreign policy in the first 100 days I began to think about the value of this site. The site itself is easy to navigate and use, which is extremely important in keeping users of all ages engaged.

The benefit of this site is the ability for users to contribute their thoughts and opinions about certain articles. In relation to the sites that I am monitoring, this is important because although the publications may be respected, it is crucial to note that journalists are often on deadline, they are human and sometimes mistakes are made.

Keeping in line with this, I decided to see how corrections are handled on the New York Times Website. I found the link to the "corrections" page at the bottom the the NY Times homepage. The corrections page listed seven corrections posted today (Feb. 21) paired with a link to the original article.

I imagine that more than seven mistakes were made throughout the print addition, yet these may have been the only ones brought to light. I don't find fault with publications that make mistakes. It is admirable to print the mistakes and move on. The idea that NewsTrust has doesn't take into account the corrections made by the publications; however, NewsTrust sparked my interest in this topic. It also caused me to evaluate the number of sources in articles, which I will discuss at a later date.

Living In Your Beat

2009-02-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

This past week our Online Journalism class had a guest lecture from Barry Parr founder of Coastsider.com. His Web site is an example of a hyper local news site.

Parr explained that the area he covers, which is Half Moon Bay and the surrounding coast side region, is the perfect size for a hyper local news site. He mentioned that he has had success in this business and plans on refocusing his attention on breaking news in the area.

With so many newspapers struggling today, one might wonder if these sites might become a new trend. So many people are losing their jobs and the answer might rest in journalists actually living in their beat, breaking news online as opposed to publishing print editions.

There are tremendous strengths in this idea. Paper won't be wasted, people will have access to up to date news specifically for their local area and reporters will be needed to cover the information. Yet, there are drawbacks. The stress of a 24/7 constantly updating stories may be hard for even the most experienced teams of journalists to handle, and there is also the trouble of access for those that do not have a computer or Internet.

I find hyper local journalism to be very resourceful, especially for medium sized areas that are not often covered in mainstream newspapers. However, I do not believe that the creation of more of these sites will reduce the need for major newspapers, such as The New York Times or The LA Times. I do foresee the possibility of local weekly newspapers moving entirely online, creating their own hyper local news page, in order to cut costs and increase profit.

Parr brought forth a new wave of using the Internet at a local level. I feel that this type of journalism has the potential to bring communities together and incorporate audiences that may not be consumers of news otherwise.

Too Comfortable Online

2009-02-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

I took a look at Think Progress and noticed a recent post about Rep. Pete Hoekstra leaking secret government information via Twitter. I had to read the headline twice. Honestly, leaking government information through a social media outlet. What is the world coming to? Are we too comfortable online?

While I feel that recent social media developments, Twitter, in particular are an effective way of reaching and connecting people, I am having trouble buying into the idea that government officials should be tweeting away all day. This raises significant problems of security and national safety. Some things are better left unsaid.

It used to be that people were afraid to share their private thoughts. Diaries came with locks, journals were hidden under mattresses. However today we blog about our personal lives, we tweet our daily activities almost to the minute.

How comfortable is too comfortable when it comes to distributing our personal information via the Internet? Everyone has a line. As the ranking leader of the House intelligence committee you think Hoekstra would have better sense, and if not, at least he should have better things to do than post his arrival in Iraq on Twitter.

Top Blogs: Huffington Post

2009-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Huffington Post was recently named as the top blog on Technorati's Top 100 blog list. This title made me curious to spend time on the Huffington Post website in order to determine why they might have been given this honor.

In fact, when going to The Huffington Post you can expect to find up to date postings on a variety of topics. Contained within this one page there is information about everything from politics to Playboy! All news appetites can be satisfied in one way or another just by visiting this site.

The details of this site are impressive. Each section has its own color scheme. The homepage is Green, Politics page is blue, the Media page is orange and so on. The subtle change alerts the reader that they have entered a new section; however the overall feel of the individual sections is the same. That is to say, you still know you are on the same site because the layout is consistent throughout.

In some ways the layout feels more like a tabloid than a news paper because there are a lot of pictures. However some of the articles include a headline with a paragraph or so of the articles text to entice the reader.

What's nice about this blog is that information is truly and honestly presented. Some of the articles give the feeling of a newspaper article where facts are presented clearly. Then there is also a featured blog post section boasting "If you have something to say...Say it on the Huffington Post." Here there are opinionated blogs that feature the writers thoughts on a newsworthy topic.

After spending an extended amount of time on the site I can see why it would be named as the top blog.

Beat Blogging

2009-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

I was unable to attend the lecture by Katherine Fong; however I did take a look at Beatblogging.org to learn a little bit about the practice. The idea is to determine how valid and influential social networking and other web based tools can be in contributing to a reporters beat. Beat bloggers have been successful at getting their readers to help them further a story.

I find that Beat bloggers are even more important at the community level. It is an interesting idea that every day people can help contribute to the news. It shows how the web helps bring people together and deliver information.

On latimes.com there is a story about homeowners that are being scammed by individuals claiming to be bank officials and saying that they can stop their houses from being foreclosed. This article is an example of a story that could benefit from beat blogging. If citizens banned together they could spread the word of warning preventing others from being a victim. In addition, it is an example of a way that social networks and web tools can be used to stop criminal activity. If the news spread about the scam, those behind the scam may stop.

If citizens continue to actively participate in the news it will be more likely for news corporations to target their audience. You have to know who your public is in order to provide them with the information that they want and need. Beat blogging is a really good way for the public to get involved and stay engaged with the news.

Witnessing History

2009-01-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

I don't believe there was a media outlet that failed to provide commentary on yesterday's historical events. Numerous outlets included up to the minute coverage, maps of the parade route in Washington and news feeds from spectators. The innovative way of covering this empowering, historical event were rather impressive -- in fact you can say that the use of various multimedia to broadcast the inauguration is historical in and of itself.

In class we took a look at the interactive tools that CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and Yahoo! had to offer in covering the inauguration. We argued that the New York Times, as a whole had better coverage of the inauguration and other news as well.

Looking back, I wanted to see what The New York Times would cover today and compare that to the LA Times. I believe both our strong online media outlets, however I am still partial to the New York Times.

The current main story for the LA Times is about Obama and the policies that he is putting in place on his first day. On the other hand, the main story on NY Times' page currently is Caroline Kennedy's decision to decline the position as NY Senator. Obviously, for New York readers this is more important and newsworthy. I applaud the NY Times for ranking stories in order of their potential relevance to their local readership. I see the overall relevance of the Obama story, which NY Times has as their second main story and I understand why LA has it as their main story. My only concern is that other more local news might be taking a back seat to the news and excitement of the new President.

This is not to say that there should be less coverage of the changes happening in American government because I am truly excited to witness what is to come in American politics. In addition, I am interested in seeing how the news continues to handle and cover Obama's presidency. I wonder if, unlike Bush, Obama will continue to receive praise and admiration from the media not because he is making history, but because he has good policies and procedures-- one can only hope.

Mobile News

2009-01-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

So, I just went to http://www.google.com/mobile/default/news.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=hussnw&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=mobile%20phone%20news&dc=gh0snw
to get News on my Blackberry. Despite the simplicity of the process I have to wonder how often I will use this new feature. I have to say that I find it thrilling and practical...after all my phone can do everything (I seriously love my Blackberry) so why can't I easily search Google News on the device..? Well, now I can. But will I?

I already get all of my emails, organize my life, navigate through unknown places, send and receive texts, go on facebook, play games...and of course make and receive calls on my phone...but read the news? I can't say that I have. Sometimes I enjoy the, dare I say, simplicity, of using the computer for certain things and using my phone for others but technology has fused the two so easily. While I was abroad I saved myself thousands of dollars making calls to my boyfriend via Skype on my laptop after the initial shock of my cell phone bill from my first few weeks of my foreign immersion. Afterall, if a computer can act as a phone, I guess I don't see why a phone can't act as a computer.

To be honest, I see great beauty in the joining of technologies. However, I must say that I have uttered a sigh or two of annoyance when the notification of emails on my phone far out numbers my texts. But I suppose being a card carrying member of the millennial generation forces me to welcome yet another opportunity to multi-task.

Ethics and Credibility

2009-01-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

The topics of ethics and credibility can, in part, be explored by looking at the layout and construction of each site. By examining how the site illustrates the difference between news and opinion, news and advertising, how it handles anonymous material, whether or not comments are monitored or if links run rampant and how errors and corrections are handled the audience can determine the care and responsibility the creators put into the web page.

I think it's fair to say that the difference between news and opinion is more difficult on blog pages. Blogs are meant to provide the audience with the opinion of the author, however, some blogs also provide the audience with news. For example blogs such as Pajamas Media, Think Progress, Latino Politico and Jack&Jill all provide their readers with posts that are directly related to relevant news. Yet, contained within each post is the opinion of the author. At times the opinion is subdued but at other times the author is extremely forthcoming with their thoughts. Check out http://pajamasmedia.com/ and look through the posts to determine which ones push their own opinion.

Mainstream news sites such as NY Times and the LA Times have distinct sections separating what is news and what is opinion much like they do in the hard copy of the paper. This limits any confusion. A reader knows for certain which article is a news article and which is an opinion article.

Nytimes.com, for example, separates the opinions from regular news with a box around the blue linked articles labeled OPINION. The Opinion page has the word "opinion" marked at the very top.

In regards to comments, all of the pages seem to include an opportunity for individuals to post comments. This contributes to the interactivity of the web page and the Internet as a whole. In terms of monitoring, I believe that would be handled on an internal level. I can not determine if the page monitors delete obscene or inappropriate comments but I imagine that they do so. Freedom of Speech is not dead, however, when a company's name is on a site, I imagine that they feel responsible on some level for what is displayed throughout the site...this includes comments posted by readers.

Ads can often be a problem on web pages. The sites must have advertisers in order to pay for the matinenance of the web page. The LA Times provides ads at the very bottom of the article in a box labeled "Ads By Google." In this way, readers aren't overwhelmed by ads that sit in the middle of the screen or clutter up the side of the page. Ads can be distracting; however, the LA Times seems to have devised a plan to rid their readers of ad overload.

Each site has different ways of handling certain aspects that contribute to thier over all credibility. These tactics differ from web page to web page; however I have found that these web pages are true to their name. A blog produces opinionated content, a main stream news site focuses on news but provides their audience with articles of all types (just what you would and should expect from a newspaper).

Overview of my Intentions

2009-01-14T17:02:00.000-08:00

This blog was created for an Online Journalism class at Santa Clara University. Over the next 8 weeks I will be analysing the way news is presented online.

I will be using mainstream news websites such as the NY Times, LA Times as well as news blogs such as Pajama's Media and Think Progress and finally community blogs such as Latino Politico and JackandJill. I will compare and contrast these different mediums in order to give myself and my audience an idea of what type of news is available to us on the Internet.

In class we discussed the criteria that qualifies a website as a News blog, Community news blog, or a mainstream news site. Similarly, we came up with a set of expectations that we, as news consumers, have for these various sites. In my personal exploration of online news pages I will examine the quality of information presented, the variety of topics that each site covers and the style of the web page as a whole.

With my observations I hope to become a stronger interpreter of news, a better writer and a more well informed citizen.

Keeping these goals in mind, I would first like to touch upon the issue of accuracy. As individuals coming to the news, we expect that what is being published in quality publications will be truthful and unbiased. We can expect that professional journalists will have found credible sources and shined a truthful light on the subject matter. However, with the introduction of the Internet there are many people that can report was is "news." Therefore, it is important to do research of our own, and shine a critical eye on what is fact and what is opinion.

Blogs, I think it is fair to say, are often biased and/or opinionated. If I am doing this well, my entries should have a level of opinion --for the sake of keeping things interesting if for nothing else. With this said, I will maintain my own level of accuracy and in-depth analysis and I am welcome to comment and discussion.

~*~