My Favorite Blog

My favorite journalism blog that I have discovered is http://moorparkmedia.blogspot.com/.  I read through a couple of their stories and they had a nice writing style.  I also thought it was a good idea to include pictures and videos for posts to show people other media of delivery.  I also found it intriguing that this is a blog put on by students, much like our own.  With blog posts dating back to 2007, it also shows that this site has some longevity to it, giving it a sense of credibility, allowing me to trust it more.  But one of the things that caught my eye on this blog that differed from other blogs is the fact that they have a bunch of tabs on the side that can be used to help journalists.  Links that help people with spelling, grammar and editing all show to be great helps and give me the urge to come to this blog when writing a story.  They also have links to other new related sites, such as the New York Times website and the Wall Street Journal.  I was happy to know that not only their perspective on news was being covered, but they showed links to a variety of other sites.  All-in-all this blog was great, giving a mix of news and links, to not only ensure that its viewers would be able to see the news, but also be able to write their own news stories. 

My Favorite Blog

After exploring through a variety of different blogs, there were a few that caught my eye but not too many that captivated me; making me want to continue reading until I ran across http://azurecow.wordpress.com/. This is a blog written by an Irish Journalism Major, the blog itself is called 'and ever onward to prudery', the unique designing of the blog itself is what immediately pulled me in. The graphics and photographs chosen to outline and give further meaning to the blog posts seem to be the perfect choices, simple yet complex, holding a story of their own. Reading each blog, there seems to be a trend of a story intertwined with a more political stance; after continued reading you are able to find hints of social issues scattered throughout the piece. Aside from the typical opinionated writing we often find in blogs, this particular site posts music, unique music that is different from the mainstream commercialized songs we hear on the radio nowadays. I must also mention that this blog interests me because it's based off the ideas of someone in Ireland, the blog focus' on Irish social issues and music; something that we don't often see. I myself enjoy learning about other cultures, and this blog is one way that I can touch upon the happenings of a different country; reading from the point of view of an opinionated nineteen year old student like myself. Overall, this blog is worthy of being bookmarked on my safari window; it's a breath of fresh air.

My favorite blog.

My favorite blog is the lostremote. I found the information most interesting. I really liked the first blog, TV anchor’s Facebook page adds 35,000 fans in single day, it caught my attention because I, like most teens, have a facebook. I also really like that people asked questions and they were answered because I found myself wondering the same questions. The next blog was about hulu, another site that I often use to watch movies and my favorite television shows. The next blog is about the Daily Show, which is a show that I watch. After this there are various blogs also about the Daily. I definitely think this blog drew my interest because of its topic and then held me in because there was good blogging. I also enjoy the pictures next to the people that post the blogs it makes me feel like I know them better and for some reason makes their opinion more real to me. Also the picture really helps me understand the blog better in some cases. For example the first blog is a women fighting a tumor, her picture helps me understand the blog better.

My favorite blog

My favorite blog is the Online Journalism Lab http://onlinejlab.wordpress.com/ because it talks about the presence of online journalism. I am interested in a future of broadcast journalism, but the presence of the web is always important to focus on and I obtained a lot of information when I visited this site. It gave me a chance to look into another aspect of media. Also, the blog talks about how other universities are using online journalism to move forward with their students and staff, Whitworth University being one of these institutions. I particularly enjoy reading about other school’s thoughts on online media because it gives a sense of national interest to how we can obtain our information these days while focusing on the media online and the importance of the Internet. This site gives its viewers examples to how you can grade someone’s Twitter tweets, making a YouTube account, and even stressing how important it is to have a Facebook account in this age. The most fascinating thing that I found on the blog was one of its articles, the same that stressed having a Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook account. It was saying “Google is introducing a feature that allows you to create a profile to show up in searches for your name”. This was just one of the many useful things I found in the blog, and for this, I decided it was my favorite.

My Favorite Blog...

I think the best blog is Photojournalism From A Student’s Eye: http://www.danielsato.com/blog/page/2/. For someone, like me, who’s interested in photojournalism, this blog is a really good resource. It includes not only pictures and videos, but also helpful tutorials and stories of the blogger's experiences in his photojournalism career. The blog is both descriptive and well laid out, but also extremely helpful and strongly written. The author has links to his projects, his résumé, his photos, and his contact information included, so that if an employer is interested in his work and wants to contact him, they can do so easily and efficiently, which I think is an extremely good idea for a photojournalist who is still and student and looking for work. The author also includes links to his tutorials, new media sites he likes, and other photo blogs, all things I feel are good resources for people who share an interest with the author and his material. The author’s content is both versatile and interesting, touching upon many aspects of photojournalism, journalism, and even graphic design. I feel this blog is the best blog because it contains what I believe to be most crucial and necessary elements that make up any strong blog website.

What do journalist do?

Journalists do a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. Journalists typically research stories first, they cannot begin to write until they research. Research may include a variety of things, interviews, traveling to report, asking questions, and finding as much information as they possibly can. Journalists write news stories, or scripts for television and radio, this script or story then has to be approved by the editor. Before it is approved by the editor the journalist must edit the story, they must take all of the information they found and decide what is most important, what must be included, and what can be left behind. They must check facts, to make sure everything is accurate. There have been many cases where facts were not checked and credibility is lost. They must make sure they worded things the way they like the best and make sure the story is the best it can be before the editor receives it. Another thing journalists may to is take photographs to go along with and strengthen their story, sometimes there are specific people assigned to take photos, but not always. Another thing a journalist may have to do in a small company is lay out pages.

What is news? What is Media?

News as we spoke about in class deals with relevance, usefulness, interest, impact, conflict, novelty, prominence, and timeliness. Relevance deals with how relevant a topic is to the audience, a topic that is relevant effects the audience. Usefulness is how useful the topic is to the audience, it should be helpful to their daily life. The piece has to be interesting to the audience, otherwise they will not read it. Stories often have impact, even if the issue does not directly effect it's audience it should in some way. Such as in Egypt, the protests will affect our gas prices. Novelty is a story that is interesting but does not particularly have relevance, people often enjoy these types of stories. Prominence deals with someone famous, which is why the public wants to know what’s happening with them. Finally timeliness is simply meaning that the story is happening now and is important now rather than last week.

Media is what form these news stories appear in. There are different types of media; radio, television, print, and online. These different types of media all include the news factors I previously spoke about, however, they present them differently. For example print uses a lead that is hard, it gets in all of the most important facts within the first sentence (who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes how). In contrast, on the radio they may start out with a line to get you hooked and then proceed with the facts.