Wednesday, January 17, 2007

2 post april

CNN is very plain. It didn't have many pictures or color, it basically just had a list of headlines to chose from. I found it boring. It did provide video clips to several stories but nothing really stood out. USA Today, was more vibrant and more pictures. It has little icons next to different headlines, and has a mixture of important national news along with more pop culture news. ABC News seemed to be more relevant to their station, advertising for their programs and recapping Monday's award show. What I did like is how the provide a big image that changed with a little teaser to a story.
I think online websites should have plenty of color and images to grab readers attention. It should provide video clips and be more personal to the reader in allowing choices. It should provide updates on weather and breaking stories.

Post #2- Morgan Reedy

When looking at the online versions of the newspaper I saw a big difference in the sites. The first site I looked at was cnn.com in this site the first thing you notice is that it fills the page with stories you can look at. After that I looked at msnbc.com on this page I saw it was more compact, it did not fill the page. Obviously when I opened abc.com it was video's about everything. This was expected though concidering that abc is a video/tv based network. The final site I looked at was the New York Times. Truthfully, this site was the most disappointing. When I opened the page it did not contain the weather or traffic updates that you could find. I think that all websites dealing with the news should have weather, traffic updates and the most current local and world news.
I think that the most important thing that we need to fix is the world news. What happens around us is very important but you never hear about what is going on around the country. I think if that was concentrated on more that people would really find some of the news interesting. I think we as American's are sheltered that thinking our way of living is the only way of living.

online publications-Greta

The first publication I looked at was USA Today. Their website was very interactive and clear to read. Each category was represented by colors, ranging from Money, Travel, and Weather. Also displayed was a slideshow of pictures to go along with the stories featured. This is good because it catches the readers eye and initices them to read what the story is about. The second online publication I viewed was The New York Times. This is set up much like newspapers online. You can see your topics on the far left column, which provide links to go straight to the story. Also featured are videos of media stories. The final online publication I looked at was MSNBC. This site is set up like the others, with your topics in a column providing links. But it seems kinda plain. Not much color or things to catch your eye as a reader. Video links are provided but a smaller than the other sites I viewed.

Three things that should be featured are the weather and updates if severe weather is hitting near your home. Another feature should be stock markets. People have a lot of investments in the stock markets. And a final thing that should be featured are classifieds. People are looking for jobs, cars, homes, and deals all the time.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Post 2- T. Zipperer

The first thing that I noticed is that the USA today page grabs the reader's eye more than did the others. The use of movement via slide show pictures and color coding the different classifications of news helped keep the attention. They all have links that will bring you news that is region specific. CNN's site had a larger variety of news categories and the placement of the links were spread out making it a little tougher to navigate. They also seemed to feature more stories on death and destruction. One feature that was unique to ABC's site were the links to some of their television programs. All of the sites had a search feature which is handy for people looking for a particular story. They all also had a place where you the reader were able to contribute an opinion, and links to various video footage.

All online publications should have the ability for the viewer to interact either through contributing opinions or accessing video links. They also should have a way to personalize they way the page is viewed by the reader. This helps the reader find articles that are relative to their local area, as well as an easy to find daily weather report. The most important feature however is live up to the minute news.

Post #2-Laura

*USA Today is more compact, it has the basic News, Business, Sports, etc. links, but it is contained to a small space of multi-colored bars, where CNN and MSNBC are more spread out and slightly harder to read.
*CNN and ABC news emphasize the live videos that are available on their websites. Both have the option to view video at the top right hand corners of the screen, making this the first thing that you see.
*All of these sites have the advantage of breaking news. With the print versions you get the news at the begining of the day, and no news after that. For The New York Times and the Washington Post, they don't have the televised version as well, so the website allows them to break the news as it happens.

First of all I think all of the news sites should have posted the top stories of the day right up front to let people know what is going on in the world.
Second I would make sure there is the option to search for the news stories of our choice.
Lastly since the weather is something that effects us all, I think that it should be featured up front as well.

Post 1- Morgan Reedy

The first thing that is obviously noticeable is that when you open the online version of The Kentucky Enquirer is that you get to see everything that you can read and it's very mixed up. Whereas in a newspaper where it is organized page by page. For example, you can get whether and traffic on the same page as the new's on the Bengals Head Coach. Whereas on the front of the paper it's articles on Day's low fares lure local flies and related topics.
The second thing that makes the online version different is that it can be updated daily. In the newspaper, there could be new news and you wouldn't know until you watched the news or got the next day's paper. This makes the stories a lot more reliable and faster for people on the go to keep up with the stories and what's going on in today's society.
You can also watch video's on the internet and get real live action. This is not going to happen with a paper obviously. You also have to carry the paper around, and it's easier if you work at an office to just log in and check the news for today on the internet. Watching an online clip from something is much more entertaining than just reading about it to most people so I can see why people would just visit the website. As for the coupons too though your only going to find them in the paper!

print vs. online media

The online enquirer differs from the print version in several ways. The first thing I noticed is that the online enquirer offeres live traffic reports, weather, and stories are updated through the day. The print version offers pictures of some of it's top stories and online they offer video clips. I like being able to have more update information and and can easily scroll through the sections on one page without fliping through the paper. The online is also more readily availble to me than access to a tv through out the day and I don't have to pay for the newspaper.

I think the newspaper has more detail and probably more correct information before posting the story. Online makes posting as soon as the information comes in and the story could possible not be as well formed with all the details that the newspaper might provide the next day. Most people want their news fast so they are going to go online to get it. There are those people out there that don't have internet access and still use the newspaper as their source for daily information. They rely on it and if they need more up to date information they can watch the news throught out the day to get their updates.