·         Pay Attention, Please

·         Harvard Is Better

·         Nice, But Crowded

·         Linkage

·         The Eye-Catching Times

·         Unsolved Mysteries and Eerie Silhouettes

Timeliness

My blogs were on time and a few were early (Pay Attention, Please, Linkage). I have noticed that throughout this process people do tend to comment on your blog if it is posted early.

Depth

I was very happy with Yes, I Am Timid When It Comes To Diversity because I took a small risk publishing a personal feeling. I also read other people's blogs (Josie Rush) before mine to decide if I wanted to talk about diversity. Also, Katie Vann left a thoughtful comment after she read my blog and I learned she shared similar hesitations about posting personal ideas about diversity.

And for the purely personal reason that I love Unsolved Mysteries, I like my blog talking about Unsolved Mysteries and Eerie Silhouettes. I think it is important to make connections to anything you like or are familiar with because it deepens your level of understanding. I hadn't realized that journalists have an obligation to protect citizens just the same as a TV show like UM does. 

Interaction

As I stated above, I had a good interaction with Katie on my  Diversity blog.

My blogs about the news papers (The Eye-Catching Times, Harvard Is Better and Nice, But Crowded) got some great comments from Aja Hannah, April Minerd, Jennifer Prex, and  Richelle Dodaro.

Discussion

See above. Also, I think our blogs prompted some great class discussion as well. It makes me wish I record it and post it on my blog to cover this section!

Xenoblogging

I definitely did some linking in this round. I linked to This funny article I found while looking at the Cavalier Daily's news paper.

I linked to the Unsolved Mysteries Wikipedia section.

And I also linked to several classmates as well as back to some of the articles we were reading.

Wildcard

I consider my blog Linkage to be a Wildcard because I didn't just post it for class. While I was posting it I had to figure out what I wanted to use for my research aspect of my news article. By writing this blog, I thought about where I could get my information and I realized I could use state websites as well as other schools websites that pertained to the idea of a school merger.

So I will take Haiman's section as a call to increase public awareness of fact checking. Just because a journalist can publish something "unfair" doesn't mean the public should let them get away with it.

If you have time, read This. Truly entertaining.

My biggest complaint is that it is overcrowded. I think if you were a student there it would probably be more user-friendly because you would be looking for a specific story. But to the passer-by, the section headings are too small and they tend to just disappear on the page.    

LVSD website- The report is listed under the District Feasibility Study. That way, people are welcome to read findings in the article in their original context.

I would also like to link to pages of school districts that have merged successfully as well as to a site where things aren't going as planned (maybe Blairsville and Saltsburg).

After reading an investigative report people should walk away knowing something new. And hopefully they will be inspired to do their own research, or write to the paper requesting another article written on the subject matter!  

So overall, the videos and the pictures definitely add to the view-ability of the NY Times online. Not only is it more appealing to a technological generation it's very convenient for those who don't have time to watch the nightly news on TV. The important pieces of video are right online and you aren't stuck watching a "filler" story about Mrs. Mumford's cat stuck in a tree.

Here are my entries:

Tracking A News Story: A Fire Hall Catches Fire

Depth:

 Tracking A News Story: A Fire Hall Catches Fire - I continued to update this story.

Interaction/Discussion:

 A few of my blogs have comments posted on them including:

Timeliness:

 My blogs were on time for this round.

Xenoblogging:

I was rather proud of myself for making connections outside of class when I stumbled upon this bit of sweetness! SpongeBob And The News

First of all, after reading the section on Haiman I most wanted to comment on the section about diversity. But I had to jump back to our class website to make sure other people were talking about diversity too (Thanks Josie). And it is because I am uncomfortable with the topic. I've grown up in a fairly tolerant world but I have never thought that "tolerant" is enough. One day I would like each race to view the other as nothing more than another human being with different cultural beliefs. And I would like to see an across the board understanding of everyone's cultural beliefs so that it will only be embraced, not discriminated against. BUT we aren't there yet.

I'm glad Haiman addresses this issue and I think it is done well. I chose the above quote because I think, in general, that news is too often blood, guts and mayhem. And if we THINK Hispanics are causing the crime rate to go up, we report on the Hispanic crimes. But if there is a special celebration of Cinco DeMayo, we don't cover it. But we do cover the St. Patrick's Day parade. Why is one holiday more "coverable" than the other? I understand that it depends if something is newsworthy or not, but do we let our prejudices CREATE something newsworthy about one cultural celebration and not the other?

I do think that by doing what Haiman states above will allow for a larger understanding of the many different cultures merged together in America.

I accessed this through the BBC news site. Upon reflection, it isn't a well written article.  

I thought this was very interesting because I (we) attend a Liberal Arts university. I really enjoy seeing Liberal Arts degrees and classes appreciated. Many people don't understand the analytical/deep thinking goes on during these classes. Students are asked to put aside their own biases to learn about another time period or another culture or religion.

So yay! Journalism majors who get that liberal arts core. They are ahead of their peers who only have an English degree because they know what their own biases are and they know how to work around them to learn and report.

So despite an editor's hesitation, the public are O.K. with the idea of correcting a mistake, however frequently. This is an issue I can see both sides on. As a member of the public I would like to see a mistake corrected. I think this promotes honesty and establishes a trust between the reader and the newspaper. If they are willing to correct a mistake, we (the readers) are willing to forgive the error.

But as an editor, who wants to admit mistake after mistake? The text mentioned the public doesn't expect perfection from such a fast-paced industry, but what about are the competitor's expectations? If there is a newspaper that can print news with fewer mistakes than that paper may gain customers. If you can get away with a mistake here and there, why draw attention to it?

I also wanted to comment on Dr. Jerz's blog about the surprising statement issued by a Yale professor. I had to read the first statement three times before I understood what it was saying. It's such an odd statement and it was jumbled. Once the light clicked on and I understood what was going on in the statement, I agree that it was a sexist statement. It also brings to light that any quote can be used if put into the right article to sway a reader's opinion. For instance, if that quote was used in an editorial discussing the un-advancement of women in the 21^st century due to male stereotyping, it would have a great impact on the editorial and on how people felt about the issuer of the quote.