Please evaluate two of the following:
Any New York Times blog, or several–take a look at several before you begin, at least. Does it seem like they have a consistent style or corporate method? How much leeway do official Times blogger seem to have? [You might find it interesting to compare and contrast these questions with the behaviors of the huge stable of bloggers that annarbor.com is currently employing, although this comparison is a bit unfair since the two organizations have such different budgets/audiences/experience/resources.]
Whitehouse.gov–our government is blogging! How authoritative and/or reliable do you find this blog? Would you read it for actual news, or do you see the content as spin?
Drudge Report / Daily Kos–I’m providing a “conservative” and a “liberal” option for this choice so you can evaluate the way the blog is framing and distributing information without being completely absorbed by how much you hate the angle they give content, if you do.
Gladwell.com–So, there are certainly still pieces of longer journalism. Gladwell is an example of a reporter/essayist who supplements his published work (mostly in the New Yorker) with a blog that allows for comment on, and sometimes expansion or revision of the ideas his long essays address. Sometimes I feel like this is great–information is fluid and dynamic, and why should it be constrained by the limitations of print? Other times I feel overwhelmed by the fact that I not only need to keep up with Gladwell’s articles, I need to keep up with the continuing discussion of the articles–the meta-material as well. What do you think? (I highly recommend reading one of his articles–“Underdogs” which is currently on his front page is fascinating, especially for you sports fans.)
The Rhetoric of Blogging 
October 17, 2009 at 4:19 pm
It seems as if the Drudge report is full of conservative media. I also thought that it was more of an entertainment scandal news website. I know that it reports many political stories, but most of the current event news listed on the website is more of entertainment.
I do like that Drudge report uses many links to different news sources from all over the world. I think that by providing readers with coverage of news articles from many places of the world, attracts more viewers to this news media.
I believe that even though their website is kind of messy, in some sort of way it seems very interesting and eye-catching. The way in which the hyperlinks are designed, seem to be as what has been on the US news recently. In this case, the story of the balloon boy. This story has been reported through CNN and FOX, and many other news sources.
Other news links that are part of Drudge Report are many entertainment websites such as E!, Splashnews, Star Magazine, National Enquire; political websites such as new York times, L.A. Times, Washington Post and the conservative news channel, Fox News.
Even though the political news that are covered through Drudge report seem to be of a conservative side and important news as if today, I still believe that the most part of the news links published here are more of a news/entertainment scandal such as Anna Nicole Smith’s drug overdose, and Disney’s dilemma with ‘Ho white and the seven dwarfs. I also think that Drudge Report does a good job in providing us with the world’s current events. Sort of the highlight news of each country.
After analyzing thoroughly the Drudge Report website, it is notorious that it is very different from The Daily Kos. The Daily Kos seems more of a blog where people are involved in. I think it is very interesting for the viewers to participate in threads, and even right down their own opinions for the news headlines.
It seems that The Daily Kos reports more stories of the liberal point of view. I therefore believe that by having the opportunity to participate in various ways through the blog, it reinforces all the participators’ democratic views.
The blog seems to divide into to primary sections: encyclopedia and diaries. The diaries are written by the members and viewers of the blog. In the diaries they write about a news story that caught their eye or they write their entry as an opinion column to what has already been written.
It is very interesting that within the diaries, they have the opportunity to receive comments from others. This makes collaborative work amongst each other, and discussions to become more interesting. The diaries also include videos and photographs.
Aside from the diaries, there are also open forums and thread discussions to specific news theme. For example, there are different opinions you can read now on Mothertalkers, Street Prophets and about Congress Matters.The home page also recommends you the suggested diaries to read.
As a whole, The Daily Kos is a political liberal blog where anyone can create an account and comment on the headline stories in the US. It does not include entertainment news, and their news stories seem to have a credible point of view rather than a non-believable one.
October 18, 2009 at 12:30 pm
White House Blog
I thought that this would have more facts. I imagined it would be like a blog version of the Press Secretary. It kind of was, but kind of was not. There were some facts about what is going on with the economy and the health bill, but it was mostly fluff. There were pictures of events, but there was more speculation than anything. I found it rather irritating. The blog conveyed less facts and more hopes. It tried to humanize the White House and show the lives of the people involved, but to be quite honest, I don’t care. I don’t care about ending distracted driving, or about Michelle’s new crusade against child obesity. Tell me about Afghanistan, or what is really going on with the economy, or what the President is going to do about Iran.
The layout of the site was nice. I am not a fan of the tiny font, but there weren’t tons of links and the blue and white color palette was attractive. It was a pretty piece of propaganda. Not a lot of relevant content, so it read more like a personal blog rather than a news blog.
The Drudge Report
I don’t get why people like this site. It is like an ugly, angrier version of Fox News. It seemed like every headline was angry at the world, making it read like a hybrid news tabloid. There was no organization, and the top story was one I don’t care about. I am tired of the Balloon Boy, everyone else has talked about it already, find something new to say. The articles on this site definitely have a bias, but I suppose the same could be said for any news site.
The layout was chaotic and ugly. It was not organized by content. I don’t know why the headlines are in that particular order. The font was distractingly hideous, and there were very few images. I think that this blog is geared towards an older audience that does not really care about style in their news. It also seemed like this was the first website that the author has ever made, which explains this amateur attempt at a blog.
October 18, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Whitehouse.gov/blog-
I have heard about this blog before but have never taken the time to look at it. Before I looked at it, I envisioned a blog that was very sophisticated and one that would be very hard for me to understand since I am not so good at keeping up with current events. However, I find this blog to be very easy to understand. While it is still sophisticated, I feel that anyone would be able to understand the articles. I find this to be a plus because you don’t have to be so knowledgeable about political news to enjoy this blog. This blog also, unsurprisingly, covers a lot of topics from citizens in New Orleans to teens driving. I find this blog to be pretty reliable. Because it is on the government website, I feel that it is credible and I can trust what is written to be true. I don’t know that I would read this blog for actual news because I do feel that it would spin everything in a positive light. It talks more about the solutions than it does the problem. I thought that this blog would be a little more impressive with the widgets etc. There was no topic section so it was not that easy to navigate and there was no archive (you just had to go through all the pages).
NYTIMES blogs-
I looked at the New York Times’ blog “Motherlode”. Motherlode is a blog that depicts the adventures in parenting. I think this blog is interesting to compare to Dooce because it is about the same topic. However, motherlode takes less of a personal route. This blog provide pictures of Lisa’s family like Dooce provides. I didn’t seem to get a great sense of Lisa Belkin’s life either, while I felt like Heather Armstrong was one of my new BFFs. I noticed that the advertising on Motherlode is very specific to the site. The advertisement that was apparent on the page when I was looking at it was for a book that is for talking to your kids about sex. I do not think that this blog leaves much leeway for the blogger. It seems that she has to stick to giving advice or talking about things that aren’t so personal. While she does include herself and her experience as a mother in some of the articles, it seems like she has a limit as to how much she can include. I think that this blog is for people who need advice about how to raise their child and that only parents would want to visit this blog.
– Chelsey
October 18, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Daily KOS
I disliked their layout. The orange color scheme, and the banner were not very aesthetically pleasing, and I wouldn’t like looking at them for too long. Also the ad bar in between the columns of content was really annoying. Then I noticed that if you subscribe you don’t have to see ads, which is a way for them to make money. I would be very surprised if many people pay $4/month to see the site without ads, because with so many options for online news if I don’t like something about one site I would rather just pick another one.
The audience the were aiming for was liberal, obviously, but it seemed like it wasn’t targeting young liberals. Although some of the content was interesting to read, I could tell that I would not come back to this website, but maybe an older liberal person would like it. I didn’t like that the different posters formats were different styles. I think I prefer reading content from one person or on a website that has a very uniform layout for all of their posts, but it bothered me that some had pictures, some charts, some nothing but text, some had big boxes of quotes, some had bullet points. The dkosopedia was kind of a cool feature, and I liked looking at that a lot more than the home page.
gladwell:
I liked that this layout wasn’t chaotic, and was easy to look at, but it was a little boring looking. I like that he didn’t have advertising besides some pictures of the books he wrote. I think the target audience is probably comprised of people in business/ white collar jobs who like to read his books about things like why certain people are successful.
It seems like he mainly posts his articles for NY magazine again, and sometimes supplements them, and also reacts to certain articles and issues. The articles were really well written and more reminiscent of “real” journalism than other blogs.
October 18, 2009 at 7:16 pm
NYtimes Blog, Lens –
This blog is both riveting and emotionally jarring. On an aesthetic level, it is very different from the other NYTimes blogs which have a white backdrop and clear sequence of posts. The Lens, buy contrast, is in all grey. When you first enter the page it is divided into a ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ half. The Top half has a sort of slideshow gallery of the most recent posts. Each post contains a picture, caption and link to more information on the topic. Some posts have one picture and some are more like projects which contain a series of photos with some common motif or for the purpose of telling a story. The ‘bottom’ half of the site divides posts/articles into three categories: articles/photos of personal journalism (submitted by the readers), more archival articles/posts of pictures taken in the past, and articles on the ethical implications of photojournalism. I enjoyed the latter category the most. For example, there was a post relfecting on Newsweek’s cropping of a Dick Cheney photo for editorial purposes. The picture showed Cheney cutting meat but Newsweek had cut out his family in the background in order to convey a message on Cheney’s cold-blooded character. In reality, the photographer intended this to be a ‘famiy’ photo not bate for an editorial piece. There was also an interesting post discussing the legal and moral implications of displaying war time photos and the effects these images have on our perception of war.
Although the content of this page is great, there is something really confusing about the site. It is quite hard to tell what consitutes a post on this page. Namely because each picture contains links that navigate you to a different page with a long article (so it is hard to tell if this is a ‘post’) which has more links on it etc. Sometimes it is also hard to tell if a series of images belongs to one post. I guess my main predicament is that this ‘blog’ just doesn’t really feel like a blog but more like a photojournalism site. Which raises the question: what is the difference between a webpage and a blog? I usually associate blogs with a ‘string’ of posts – that is, one post follows another. But on this blog it feels as though the posts are more scattered on the page. There was also a list of contributing photogrophers on the side (which was very long) that might explain why confusion over the sequence of posts is inevitable.
I love the content of this page. I could (and did) spend hours browsing it but this is defeniately not a ‘light’ read. Although many of the posts were in celebration of life ( I saw a cool video montage created by one of the contributing journalists where he captured what he considered to be wonderful ‘moments’) many of the pictures conveyed a pretty grim reality of the war-stricken and poverty-ridden world we live in. The blog, with its grey background and difficult content, had an overall serious and, at times, even grim tone to it.
WhiteHouse.Gov –
This blog is surprisingly ‘upbeat.’ Then again, I guess it’s not so surprising that our Government’s Blog wants to put its’ citizens in a good mood. Maybe I found this blog especially rosy since I’m comparing it to the Lens, which I have just spent our browsing and depicts some pretty grim realities around the world. In contrast to the Lens, though, WhiteHouse.gov is all rainbows and butterflies. The blog addresses serious issues such as Healthcare reform, safe driving and tax reform but everything is done in a very optimistic light. I’m trying to figure out why the ‘tone’ of this block is so striking — probably because i’m used to the barrage of cynicism displayed by all other conventional and non-conventional news sources. This is so ‘friendly’ and non-controversial that it just doesn’t feel like news, hah. I mean who could write hateful comment in response to a picture of the White House dog nibbling on some left over brownies? Who could contest a hope-inspiring post on teens leading the way to end distracted driving? Or a post called ‘let the sunshine in’ which exclaims the White House’s transparency and publication of receipts showing the efficacy of the Recovery Act. I guess its nice to hear good news once in a while ( In a way this page reminds me a bit of the fake New York Times site we visited earlier this year).
October 19, 2009 at 4:06 pm
NYTimes Blogs-
After scrolling through many of the NYTimes blogs, I was surprised to find a range of topics that bloggers blog about here. I assumed that because these blogs are associated with the NYTimes, a credible and reliable newspaper, the blogging topics would all pertain to relevant news topics or sections in the NYTimes. However, this is not at all the case. While there are topics of course about government and politics, the War in the middle east, daily news and stories, and the current economic crisis, there are also blogs that contain topics such as parenting, how to choose and apply to college, and “funny stuff from all over.” The blog I chose to look at more closely and evaluate was a fashion blog called “On the Runway.” I liked this blog for a variety of reasons- First, I enjoy fashion and enjoy reading fashion blogs. Second, I really enjoyed the pictures that Cathy Horyn incorporated in her blog. They portrayed an accurate image of the runways she was describing, and as fashion is aesthetically pleasing, the pictures were all a joy to look at. Finally, I particularly enjoyed this blog because all the posts were written by the same person, Cathy Horyn. This made the blog seem more comprehensive and complete. The writing style was the same for each blog post and were all comments written in a similar way pertaining to the same topic. This was contrasted with many of the other blogs on the NYTimes site (such as At War and The Lede), in which different writers posted different blog comments, making the blog feel disjointed and disconnected in many ways. It is for this reason that the NYTimes blogs don’t seem to have any consistent style or corporate method, and the bloggers seem to have a good amount of leeway to blog in whatever way they see fit to their topic.
Whitehouse.gov
I also looked at the Whitehouse.gov blog to see in what way is our government blogging. I found it very interesting that our government is keeping us so up to date with specific step-by-step plans and current actions going on. Perhaps because the top of the website says “The White House” and “President Barack Obama” and so I was able to feel that the information was coming from The White House directly, I was able to find the source extremely reliable and authoritative. Every post seemed accurate to me with informative and important details. I would most certainly use this blog for actual news and don’t see the content as a spin. However, this may be due to the fact that I don’t generally follow the news, either on t.v. or the newspaper (as ashamed as I am to admit this). Perhaps to someone who is an avid news-follower, this blog would seem less credible as a source for sufficient news presented in a a real and accurate way.
October 19, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Whitehouse.gov
Initially I thought that this type of blog was a great idea for the Government to put information out there on what President Obama had to say about specific issues. After reading the first couple of posts it was completely different from what I imagined it would be. It was more about Going Green and various other soft topics rather than the War in Iraq or other serious matters. This is definitely not a source for the news. This blog is more of a spin off of government ideas and what it’s involved in. If I ever needed the news I would go to the New York Times or USA Today, but not this blog. I was disappointed because I thought it’d be more authoritative.
What I did like about this blog was its formal format. I liked how it had blue and white as its main colors and the links were easy to access. I also liked how you could watch Secretary Clinton’s remarks from the posted video. Overall, I think it’s nice visually but not something I would go to to receive information concerning our country’s latest news.
Gladwell.com
I loved reading Gladwell’s work. I think this is a great idea for him to not only receive feedback but also for his readers to understand him more. It’s nice to see that a New Yorker reporter is interested in what his viewers have to say and to elaborate on his articles. However, I do agree that it’s a lot of reading and I can understand why someone would feel overwhelmed in not only trying to keep up with the articles but also his responses on his blog. It’s a lot of reading but if you’re particularly interested in something he published that month you’d love to read the extended text. I also liked his layout for the blog. I do think it’s a tad bit boring but to me I believe it suits his work. Not saying its boring by any means, but that it just gets the job done and used for nothing more. Clean and simple. I enjoyed this blog and maybe if I have some extra time on my hands I’ll come back to this and see what his new article entails.
October 20, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Gladwell.com
I really like Malcolm Gladwell and I was excited to find he has his own blog. Gladwell has done a lot of work lately (collaborating on articles, having fun arguments, and working on Podcasts) with my favorite ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons. So, it was cool to see Malcolm’s own stuff outside of his books and the New Yorker. His entries were very lengthy, but I didn’t mind reading through them and honestly I feel like I wouldn’t expect short entries from Malcolm Gladwell. Plus, he tended to write a lot about sports or help further his concepts or ideas through sports. I also felt like this was a great tool for people that enjoyed his books because it is almost like he helps clarify more in-depth what he is saying in his books.
The layout for the blog was simple and easy. I liked that in this instance because all the focus was directly on what Gladwell is saying and nothing else. No ads, or flashy colors. I feel like if you go to his site, you are going there to read what he says. I feel like this is a blog I definitely will find myself venturing back to in the future because his insight truly is great. He also has a style of writing I really enjoy.
Whitehouse.gov
At first glance, I really liked the layout of the blog. It just looked very official to me and I expect that out of the White House. I like the blue trim at the top and the tons and tons of links you can find to anything else related to the American government. Other than that there isn’t too much going on, which I liked.
I really am not that into politics, I pretty much know the big happenings in our countries but not a lot. So, I would have to say this blog is very authoritative and reliable because I don’t know anything else. Also, this is the US government we are talking about so I sure hope the blog is authoritative! The content seemed to be very informative and not written in very formal language where I couldn’t understand that. It seemed the posts were about stuff a lot of people might not have that much knowledge in and that the White House finds as important to the US population. I also like that the blog used a good amounts of pictures and video to change up the blog. I wonder who decides what goes on the blog and how high up it really goes.
October 20, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I’m very conflicted when it comes to the subject of Malcom Gladwell. First I’ll evaluate the blog from an impartial standpoint and then I’ll briefly mention my feelings about the man himself. The blog is pretty simple. There are recent posts, a creepy picture of Gladwell (really?) a short bio about him, links to buy his books and recent articles. That’s the entire blog. There are no ads on the page, but that’s probably because Malcom doesn’t need the money. He doesn’t post very frequently, because I imagine he’s busy either doing longer pieces for magazines or writing another book. As for Malcom as a writer, like I said, I’m conflicted about his work. I’ve read all of his books, and I liked each one more than the next. His writing can be a little anecdotal though. He draws large conclusions from data that a real statistician wouldn’t necessarily draw conclusions from, so a lot of it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Also, regarding his underdogs post, I’m going to have to disagree. I read the post when it came out and I disagreed with a majority of it. He oversimplifies the idea of an underdog and the tactic of pressing. But that’s a whole other story (maybe I’ll blog about it).
Compared to Gladwell’s blog, the Daily Kos makes my head hurt. This site is clearly in it for the money (not that that’s a bad thing), as there are a million different things going on. I’m not a big politics guy, so I wasn’t that interested in the posts. But I guess I can call myself more of a liberal so I could relate to the tone. There is a huge about section regarding the ins and outs of the site. Because there are so many people that post, it probably makes it easier to update the site on a daily basis. The site offers a lot of other reading materials as well as recommended sites. The Daily Kos has been around for a while, so they have an established readership and a core of people who are very dedicated to the site. The top of the site offers different polls and a link to DailyKosTV.
October 20, 2009 at 8:57 pm
ArtsBeat:
I didn’t like this blog as much as I expected to. I love going to plays and museums in New York City, and I did not feel that this blog gave me the inside scoop on any of that. The first post was about who is producing the Oscars, and not only does that not occur in New York, it’s not necessarily something I want to or would read to check out what’s going on on or off broadway, or what is the new museum to go to. I just didn’t really find it useful, and I did not think that it had anything unique or different that I would enjoy. It appeals only to a select grouping of people, and not really the masses. While I do consider myself very interested in arts of all kinds, I did not think that this really was my cup of tea…
On the other hand, I thought that the posts were well-written, and neither too long nor too short. The blog was easy to follow and aesthetically pleasing. Though it did not appeal to me, it is not a poorly executed blog.
White House Blog:
While I do not think that this is necessarily a place I would go to get my news, I did enjoy reading this blog. I think that it is a place to find interesting information, and useful information, but not necessarily news. Originally I shied away from reading this blog because I thought it would be over my head and maybe difficult to understand. On the contrary, I found it very accessible to me and seemingly to anyone who would want to read the blog. I believe that it is definitely a good authoritative source that I would be able to trust, although I think that this blog, like most of the things that the government puts out probably only contains things that the government wants us to hear. I do not think that this is a bad thing, however. I just think that this is probably the case, and it is probably for the better.
October 20, 2009 at 10:51 pm
NY Times Blogs:
I currently follow three drastically different New York Times blogs: The Pour , Domestic Disturbances , and In Transit . The Pour is written by the Times’ wine critic, Eric Asimov. I started following his blog when I interned at a wine marketing firm over the summer. Asimov is considered to be the “king” of wine blogging and he is notorious for being difficult to impress. What interests me most about this blog is how it differs from Asimov’s regular column, also named The Pour. The blog posts show more of Asimov’s personality and own personal tastes while the column is an example of more traditional journalism and is less subjective. However, both the column and the blog have long posts, with the blog having a “Read More” link that allows the reader to get an overview of recent topics.
I started reading Domestic Disturbances after I read a book written by the author, Judith Warner. This blog differs from other Times blogs because it is an opinion blog that doesn’t focus on one topic. Warner writes about whatever she wants and goes into great detail about her life and family. As a result, I feel like I know her personally. Recently she has written extensively about her realization of her own mortality and I find myself getting really annoyed with her morose tone. Although for some reason, I keep reading.
I read In Transit purely because it is utilitarian. The different bloggers post about various travel deals, airfare sales, and trends in travel. I like the broad array of travel-related topics they cover. I may not be interested in every destination they post about, but I like to be in-the-know about various travel happenings. As opposed to Domestic Disturbances, I don’t even know the names of the bloggers or any personal details about them. Because of the blog’s news focus, there is not room for subjective comments from the authors.
The Drudge Report:
Even without reading the headlines in detail, I was immediately put off by the layout of this blog. The font and the excessively large headline make the blog seem very amateur and therefore not a reliable news source. I do not like the laundry lists of headlines, columnists, and news outlets that permeate the page. I found the sheer number of them to be overwhelming. I didn’t know where to start to look for other news sources because there were so many links. I know that this is a very popular political blog but once I looked around for awhile, I was shocked that this blog has such an enormous audience. Once I got beyond the unattractive layout, I focused on the actual news headlines. The news is presented without any semblance of order and again I found it difficult to find the information I wanted.
October 20, 2009 at 11:13 pm
White House blog
The White House blog is lacking one thing other popular blogs have- advertisements (rightfully so). It is very clean and updates multiple times a day. While it is VERY text heavy, the occasional picture and video is posted which is a nice relief.
“The Blog” is posted under “The Briefing Room” which leads me to believe it is a solid news source. Since the whitehouse.gov isn’t a campaign site I would hope the information would be unbiased and accurate.
I noticed that there is not a comments section, which is probably for the best. While there are no “post to twitter” or similar links, the top of the right column has options to “stay connected” through facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. which seems consistent with Obama’s campaign and administration trying to reach the younger citizens.
I noticed that more than one person blogs for the White House. The name that appeared most frequently was Jesse Lee, who, according to Wikipedia is the White House Online Programs Director, just in case anyone was curious.
Gladwell
I didn’t think I had heard of “Gladwell” before- and then I visited his site. I was really excited when I realized I had already read “Underdogs” over the summer. The story is really great and I had used it as a way to look at political campaigns. So, right from the beginning I love this site.
The blog is plain but I didn’t find it boring. The simple format made me think the information there would be no-nonsense. I found the narrow columns very helpful, I feel like the text would be overwhelming if it was closer to an essay format. I also liked that a short bio blurb was offered to you on the main page and you didn’t have to go searching. I like knowing whose work I am reading.
Back to the Underdog article- when I read it for the first time a couple of months ago it was in printed form (my boss printed it out for me, I never print anything even though I dislike reading online). I usually don’t invest the time into longer articles like that online and looking at it now I think it is unlikely that I would have stuck with it. Knowing this, I don’t think I would get much out of this blog because from what I can tell it requires a larger investment in the material.
October 21, 2009 at 12:24 am
(Whitehouse.gov)
I find it so interesting how the government is blogging. The white house is currently using, facebook, twitter, flickr, myspace, youtube, vimeo, and itunes to spread information about the government. I find it amazing to see that corporations and the government are using the internet to reach new age groups, the government almost has to use all of these internet tools to reach college and high school age groups.
I think it’s informative and a great way to get accurate news straight from the white house. Rather than sifting through news channels such as ABC and Fox, it’s hard to avoid people like Glennbeck and O’Reily among many others, that introduce controversial topics and information that can be falsified. The blog provides quick entries on what Obama is doing in the community, small details about the white house and then also touches on serious topics. There’s no better way to read about White House news than on the White House Blog!
(Drudge Report / Daily Kos)
Both being political blogs, they’re very different on standpoints. In my first reaction to the Drudge Report was that the design was overwhelming, it looks like someone made the blog on a whim and didn’t put any thought into the layout. The blog feels like a cheap gossip magazine, the photographs relay an unofficial message. When visiting the Daily Kos site, I felt relaxed and immediately trusted the information because unlike the Drudge Report, had an about, contact, FAQ and contributor section. The Drudge report doesn’t have any information on the blog, making me uninterested in the information since it feels false. Though the information may be equally important, the way it is displayed makes one feel more polished and trustworthy. A great example how design can influence information.
October 21, 2009 at 3:59 am
On Gladwell:
I think the site has a great idea there. This really does work in theory, or if the reader is that much into the subject. Personally, I wouldn’t spend much time on the site, I found it very hard to finish one of his stories (the David/Goliath story was 8 pages long), let alone read even more about it in his blog. This site does little more than make me wish the writers I loved would create more content through blogs like this one, so I’d never have to be without some new piece from them.
On WhiteHouse:
This is also a very cool concept. A ton of people want to know anything an everything about celebrities all over the world. They read tabloids and watch “E!” and read even more blogs and sites online. Why not peer into the President’s life every once in a while? I think it’s very cool to see what Obama is doing every day (and yes, actually SEE, not just read a headline about it or hear it on the news). The pictures are very cool and put his work into a little bit of grounding, that he’s actually all over the world, or the country inspiring children or discussing world politics. However, you must take it with a grain of salt, and realize it IS a government-run website, there will obviously be some spin to it all.
October 21, 2009 at 9:06 am
Whitehouse.gov
I think this site is a good concept. I think it is important for a government to be involved in technology what the most recent ways to communicate with people– blogging. It makes sense for Obama to be involved in all dynamics of social media and web 2.0 since that is a reason for his election success. I do think that there is a lot that is not told for pr and national security reasons. To get information about the White House, this site would not be my first place to go because I could not rely that the facts were 100% true.
The Drudge Report-
The format is not too appealing. The titles are catchy, but very clear that this is a right-winged blog. I think that people come to the site because it’s edgy and different. It gives a new perspective on how to look at an issue, and it seems like there are no restraints. I think that they definitely need to reformat the layout of the site and navigation. I think the advertising layout looks tacky. I think it was interesting that they have a box for “SEND NEWS TIPS TO DRUDGE
[ANONYMITY GUARANTEED].” I am still skeptical on my thoughts about anonymity. I loved how it showed the visits to the site, categorized by time frame:
VISITS TO DRUDGE 10/21/09
025,059,086 IN PAST 24 HOURS
682,102,207 IN PAST 31 DAYS
8,035,783,911 IN PAST YEAR
October 21, 2009 at 9:15 am
New York Times’ “Bits” blog:
The Times’ technology blog, Bits, is interesting – I read a lot of tech blogs, and this one is kind of unique. There is a lot of crossover as far as what stories are covered between all the tech blogs I read, but Bits only crosses over with them maybe 50% of the time. Sure, they have the occasional “Apple released their new laptops” and “Google’s coming out with a new version of Android,” but there’s a lot of other stuff that you don’t find anywhere else – technology related human interest stories, auto technology, small startups and stories about bigger companies that aren’t as “exciting” as others.
This is very “New York Times” of them – even though it’s written for, on the most basic level, people interested in technology, it’s still written for the New York Times audience, who is maybe a little less mainstream (when I say mainstream, I mean reading to be entertained or reading for certain stories). I think this is definitely a corporate thing – you can see it not only in other blogs, but all around their site, especially the videos they put up – very different than the videos someone like CNN puts on their site. And the blogs do not have a personal tone to them at all – for the most part, they might as well be regular news.
Whitehouse.gov
I was even more unimpressed by this blog than I anticipated. Coincidentally enough, I was listening to a podcast yesterday where the group got very off-track and started talking about journalism – and how ethics standards are very different here than in other places. One of the things mentioned were how nowadays, there’s a new trend starting where companies are hiring people inside the company to write news, not just press releases – because they’re on the inside, and they can give, in theory, the most accurate (albeit biased) information. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, but whitehouse.gov’s blog really embodies this for me – I would certainly never read this for news, and I’m not sure if I would read it at all. First of all, it might as well just be a blog of Obama’s speeches – because that seems to be what all these posts are – and while the government may be telling the truth on things (which I am not so inclined to believe all the time), it obviously has a huge spin to it. This post is literally a list of talking points on small business health care. Sure, I want to hear these things, from the mouth of the government – but that’s not all I want to hear. Call me old-fashioned, but I still need some real reporting and analysis of multiple sides, even if it’s from people who, as John Dvorak put it in the aforementioned podcast, don’t know anything about what they’re talking about.
October 21, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Drudge:
Drudge Report slaps the reader in the face, tabloid-style. The site’s style is so bold (no pun intended) that you can’t help but notice it before you notice the content, whether or not you’re aware of Drudge’s reputation for conservative politics. The aesthetics (or lack thereof) of Drudge Report can be seen in two lights: either Matt Drudge chose the design and stuck with it, or the design is a deliberate reflection of its character. Drudge Report did, after all, become well-known for breaking the news on the Lewinsky scandal. Hell, the name just sounds like it’s written by a muckraker.
The site is organized along the same principles. Instead of sections, Drudge simply has an array of headlines. To top it off, the headlines are cut by ellipses, as if to tempt the reader to click for more. The typeface functions to create either an image of authority and objectivity (the titular report) or one of rebellion (like tabloids, on the line between exposé and fact).
The White House:
As someone who followed the 2008 campaign, I instantly noticed the aesthetic similarities between the White House’s blog and Obama’s online campaign. For readers who followed politics, this creates a visual connection between the messages of his campaign and the goings-on of the White House. For those who didn’t follow the campaign, the clean design and lack of ads focuses readers on the content.
The content is clearly a tool of the administration. Each post, whether written by the Secretary of Energy, a site administrator, or the Vice President’s wife, is an insider’s view that doesn’t betray the President’s agenda. Being hosted on a government domain will produce that kind of content. Essentially, the site serves as a press release machine with a splash of human interest.