New Media Journalism Summary - Part 2

The New York Times publishes a daily newspaper and has an online edition that is updated daily. Online, they have a Global Edition and a U.S. Edition as well as video news. They group related stories on the page with pictures and external links.

The Times makes its money primarily from its paper sales, but with more and more people using the web, it needs online revenues as well. There are a few small adds on the website, and there is a TimesReader 2.0 which will deliver the Times to your computer for $4.62 a week.



Conversely, NCPR generates revenue from listener and underwriter donations, so there are no ads on their site or on the air.

They focus on local news from their listening area, which includes southern Ontario, northern NY, and western VT. There is a lot of multimedia on their website, including audio of all their stories, photos, interactive maps, and occasional videos.

NCPR is the only radio news outlet I followed for this class.



The Blog Herald is, pretty obviously given its name, a blog. Their news isn't the general news of the New York Times; Blog Herald posts about social media/social networking news.

But like the Times, Blog Herald uses ads posted on it's site to make money.

New Media Journalism Summary - Part 1

I have split up the comparison of the four news sites into several blog posts in favour of shorter, easier-to-read segments. In this post, I'll be talking about Ecuador.com news.



Ecuador.com news isn't an actual news outlet, but a news aggregate picking up stories from sources all over the world. They have recent stories from the BBC, Wall Street Journal, Times of India, and the LA Times.

Most of their news is relevant to Ecuador, but some stories only mention Ecuador and get posted on their site. In a recent India Times article talking about tennis, an Ecuadorian player is just mentioned- the story is about an Indian player. Another article, from Voice of America, is about diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela. The only mention of Ecuador comes in the last sentance: "In 2008, Venezuela and Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombian troops raided a FARC rebel camp in Ecuador, killing FARC commander Raul Reyes and at least 20 other people."

But the site does offer reliable and pertinent Ecuadorian news. It is the only site I have been following that does not employ its own reporters.

Objectivity Report

Out of the 8 people surveyed, half of them most often get their news online. However, only 25% said online news was the most trustworthy source, and 37.5% said that online news was least trustworthy given the choice of online, newspaper, magazine, TV, and radio. The population of my survey said that online news is more objective but less trustworthy than other sources of news.

Here's a screenshot of my summarized survey results:

A New Look at Obesity

gitbigger.com

I've been reading this blog and I just can't seem to comprehend why someone would want to gain that much weight, or put in that much effort to gain weight. Don't get me wrong, I don't disapprove of people who are naturally bigger, or who don't want to/can't lose weight. But to live off fast food so that you have the pleasure of trying to work around your huge stomach..

Some of it could be psychological, according to this article.

Training Programs or Sweatshops?

Looks like the New York Times is getting into the multimedia thing - I didn't know they had video news!



This is pretty profound. But I also thought it jumped around from person to person too quickly to really figure out what was going on. What do you guys think?

Ridiculous

Congressman wants to reinstate the draft. What I really don't understand is how he wants the draft because there are too few people fighting in the middle east, but at the same time... he supports Obama pulling out the troops.

Also, I had no idea men had to register with the SSS. Is this still true? I was reading this for more information.

Top Secret America cont'd

Click here to watch the video. There are also links to other interactive features.

Though it kind of seems like they spent more time on that, and the hype, than they did on research.

My boyfriend told me about this, saying at his company (a defense contractor) they were afraid a lot of top secret information was going to be divulged in the report. But in actuality, most of it is just companies and locations. Information that is pretty readily availible. And coupled with scare tactics, I guess they've got themselves a story.

What do you think?

Top Secret America

Washington Post investigative journalism report.

Lots of Photos

The news is just depressing today, so I decided to take a look back at the 'moment in time' photos that were on the NY Times blog a few months ago. If you haven't seen this you should really check it out.
A Moment in Time

how could I forget?!

Radiolab!
I can't even think of an explanation that would do it justice, so just go to their site and listen. WNYC's Radiolab

If you want something specific, this story by Laura Starcheski, called Goat on a Cow, is a really good, captivating listen. Link to her story on the Radiolab site.
Or listen to it here!

Really Good Radio

I'd like to take this time to link to some radio stories I think serve as great examples, if anyone else is into radio journalism. (Or maybe this will inspire you.)

First- a peice from the Third Coast Festival about a whale that had washed up on a beach in a small town in Maine. It was done without any narration by the reporter- it is just told through the voices of the townspeople. Just Another Fish Story by Molly Menschel.

Second- a story produced by NCPR's David Sommerstein. He was at the Ithaca farmers market with his family when he noticed people getting ready to roll rutabagas down the long isle. Check out Root, Root, Root for Rutabagas!

Hmm... I had about five stories I wanted to talk about in this blog when I started typing. Oh well, more to follow later!

As Karen DeWitt reports...

I cannot believe we still do not have a state budget! No wonder people are angry with government these days.
A friend of mine called me last night to rant about a recent This American Life epidsode that talks about budget crises, etc. He said he could do a better job than most politicians in Albany right now, which brings me to...

Iceland.

When I was there a little over a month ago, local elections were being held all over the country. And in the capital city, Reykjavik, a comedian was elected as mayor! He is part of the Best Party, a smorgasbord of artists, actors and comedians who were sick of Icelandic politics and decided to do something about it. I guess the public liked their idea, because the guy who won does not even have a political stance. Check out the Telegraph article here.

Here's their campaign video from YouTube:
(It is long, but in the middle they call the other parties "blathering loons," which strikes me as... well, probably not something that would happen in the states.)

some multimedia additions...

I also got audio of the event- here's a short clip:

Clarkson University - Defying Convention and Moving the World

Clarkson University staff, students and Potsdam residents spent an hour today moving a large inflatable globe from old Snell Hall in downtown Potsdam to Cheel Arena on the main Clarkson campus.

Tony Collins, President of Clarkson University, said this was the first time the globe had made its symbolic trip linking the two parts of campus. We talked as we helped hand the ball from person to person down Maple St. "This was all organized by Dan Davis," he told me.

Dan Davis, Clarkson's wellness director, kept up a stream of encouragement throughout the trip. "We want this to be an annual event," he said excitedly. "The date is already set for next year."


Once we made it to the Cheel lawn, everyone crowded together to touch the ball one last time before finally putting it down. In the brief celebration that followed, several brave students stood triumphantly on the globe. Then the ball was packed away, ready for next year's event.

Online News Survey

I just finished my survey on surveymonkey.
Check it out!

Rent a White Guy - final comparison

While looking for information on this story, I've come to realize that there's only really two versions of this- one in The Atlantic Monthly, and one on CNN. I also just found this article on Hip Hop Wired as the only other article that did not just site one or the other of the aforementioned news outlets:
http://hiphopwired.com/2010/06/30/white-people-for-rent-in-china-to-boost-business-credibility/

I found this article to be brief and fairly unhelpful. It had one piece of information that I did not come across in The Atlantic or CNN - that women are also being hired as fake employees or girlfriends of white businessmen. At the end of the article, the wrong 'there' was used.

The Atlantic Monthly article is not very newsy. The reporter was recruited himself as a white guy for an important company event in China and wrote about his experiences. It is a good story - short and snappy and to the point. But again, it is more of a feature than a straight news story.

The CNN video is an interview of two men who had previously been hired to go to a 'white guy in a tie' event. The clip is almost five minutes long - long enough to be informative but not too long as to be dull. There is also an accompanying article that gives additional information not in the video. There are some facts presented, but the story is also personable and understandable.

I think that CNN had the best coverage of this story. They had a video as well as print information that was helpful and pertinent. They were also quoted in many other articles I found online.

sound bit

Still too hot to write too much, so I'll include a bit of sound I got from a church in Honduras near Christmas last year. Hopefully this works, there isn't an include sound feature on Blogger as far as I can tell.

Rent a White Guy - more, more, more!

Some interesting comments on slashdot about the CNN video:
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/06/30/1325258/Chinese-Companies-Rent-White-Foreigners

Too hot to write any more tonight.
ciao

Rent a White Guy - Comparison Assignment Part 1

The other day I was browsing NPR and a headline caught my eye - Job Ad In China: White Man. No Experience Needed
Hmm.. I wonder if the Chinese all know about this yet or not.
Heres a clip I found from CNN:



Comparison to come. I think there was something on this on slashdot as well.

a short rant

So I actually go to Clarkson, and in one of our faculty parking lots, there are about 10 spaces near the front that are almost always open. In front of each has a sign that reads something like "Reserved Parking for Hybrid or Alternative Vehicles Only."
I guess its nice and all that people get energy efficient cars, but heres the thing. My car, a 94, isn't the best on gas, but I bought it instead of a new car. Hybrid or not, new cars take a ton of energy, and gas, to produce. (I don't know how accurate this is, but I read somewhere that it would take a new hybrid car 10 years to start becoming more energy efficient than an old car.)
So if one insists on buying a new car, then a hybrid is great. But is the incentive of a nice parking spot really necessary?

p.s.

I just created a twitter account, check it
out at https://twitter.com/rspeedy142

Post, the first

Hello everyone.
I'm keeping this blog for my New Media summer class. I'll be following a few media sites:
-ncpr.org
-nytimes.com
-blogherald.com
-ecuador.com/news

And my facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542271207

ciao!