MichelleTantlinger

Coverage

·         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.

This last section of Haiman really emphasizes that we have a responsibility as a reader. I have this website booked under my favorites because I am constantly checking what I read or hear on the news. I think, that while it is very easy to spread a lie or an "unfair" piece of information, it is just as easy to get caught. We have the access to the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From our phones, from our laptops, from our desktops; we are always connected. We can always check a fact. The problem is that most people just don't. They have their favorite news source and they stick with it no matter what is published (ahem Fox news, fair and balanced uh-huh sure).

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.

While this site is less crowded, it is also less informative on the front page. As you scroll down you don't get any more information than the headline. To an outsider, this means nothing to me. If I am perusing a news site on the Internet I would like at least a sentence or two after the headline to decide if I want to read the article. The pictures at the top of the page are also a nice touch.

If you have time, read This. Truly entertaining.

I actually really liked the website. Like Jessie said, the site is updated daily. The media page is easy to read and has a very nice layout, very professional. The FlyByBlog section was great as well because it was a one place stop to get into the minds of the average Harvard student.  

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.    

I plan to include the school website's link because that is where the Warner study is published.

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!  

The New York Times is one of the "gadgets" on my igoogle homepage so I get a lot of exposure to their website. Often times one of the news links is actually a link to a video. Today, on their site the first thing you see is a slideshow of President Obama's meeting in China. I love viewing news online for the fact that there are many different types of media on one news site. Although you also get big, colorful, moving ads on the side, something you wouldn't find on the front page of a print newspaper. Which begs me to ask the question, do sales increase for the ads found on the front page of a news site? Today it was an ad for Cadillac. Which I think represents the demographics for those who read the NY Times online.

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.

Coverage:

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

"Get reporters and photographers -- and editors -- regularly out of the office and into minority communities for orientation and education. The fact is that most white journalists, as other white professionals, are likely to live in predominately white neighborhoods and are likely to be unfamiliar with predominately minority neighborhoods and communities or what is going on in them (Haiman 46)."

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/06/fort-hood-shooter-alive

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