Please evaluate and critique www.Roanoke.com, which is the Web site of the Roanoke Times newspaper. Roanoke produces some of the best multimedia content in the country. It was also highly praised for its coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.
In your critique, please pay special attention to its multimedia content. What projects did you like? What did you hate? Where could the Web site improve?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Drudge Report
NOTE: The deadline has been extended for evaluation of The Drudge Report until Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 5:45.
Please evaluate and critique The Drudge Report, or www.drudgereport.com. You should pay specific attention to the content of the site--specifically what kind of stories are posted on the site, their sources and any potential biases.
Please evaluate and critique The Drudge Report, or www.drudgereport.com. You should pay specific attention to the content of the site--specifically what kind of stories are posted on the site, their sources and any potential biases.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Huffington Post Chicago
Please evaluate and critique Huffington Post.
Huffington Post essentially acts as a news aggregator, culling editorial content from across the Web and presenting it at one location. It supplements the aggregator with a network of liberal bloggers, including several celebs.
It is a very controversial Web site in that the content it aggregates is not paid for. Many media outlets complain that Huffington Post copies and pastes content from their sites directly onto HuffPo, with minimal attribution. Other critics complain about the outward liberal bias of this "news" Web site.
Last fall, Huffington Post launched its first city-specific site--right here in Chicago. The editor of Huffington Post is a Ben Goldburger, 25 and a former reporter for the Sun-Times.
Click around the site and pay specific attention to the content. Questions to consider:
Where is the content coming from?
Is there enough attributions? Should there be more attributions?
Do you think Huffington Post should pay for the content it links to or is it fair game?
What about the alleged liberal bias? Do you see it? If so, where?
What about the Chicago page in particular? What is your opinion of it? Is it comprehensive? Or do you need to supplement it with other Web sites?
Is there anything that Huffington Post could be doing better?
Huffington Post essentially acts as a news aggregator, culling editorial content from across the Web and presenting it at one location. It supplements the aggregator with a network of liberal bloggers, including several celebs.
It is a very controversial Web site in that the content it aggregates is not paid for. Many media outlets complain that Huffington Post copies and pastes content from their sites directly onto HuffPo, with minimal attribution. Other critics complain about the outward liberal bias of this "news" Web site.
Last fall, Huffington Post launched its first city-specific site--right here in Chicago. The editor of Huffington Post is a Ben Goldburger, 25 and a former reporter for the Sun-Times.
Click around the site and pay specific attention to the content. Questions to consider:
Where is the content coming from?
Is there enough attributions? Should there be more attributions?
Do you think Huffington Post should pay for the content it links to or is it fair game?
What about the alleged liberal bias? Do you see it? If so, where?
What about the Chicago page in particular? What is your opinion of it? Is it comprehensive? Or do you need to supplement it with other Web sites?
Is there anything that Huffington Post could be doing better?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Triblocal.com
Please evaluate and critique www.triblocal.com.
Triblocal is a publication sponsored by The Chicago Tribune. 42 communities in the southern and western suburbs each have a Triblocal Web site. Anyone can register for Triblocal.com and post their own photos, stories or event listings directly on the site for their town.
Each week, a staff of Chicago Tribune reporters select the best postings to Triblocal.com and publish those postings in a weekly newspaper. The "user-generated" content is supplemented with original reporting and photography by the Chicago Tribune reporters.
Currently there are 10 newspapers serving the 42 communities, with plans to almost double that number by the year's end. Triblocal first launched in August 2007 with two newspapers serving 6 towns.
In your critique, please analyze the design of Triblocal.com. What do you like? What don't you like? What is confusing? What could be better?
Also take a look at the kind of postings Triblocal receives from users. I will bring copies of the printed edition of Triblocal to class on Wednesday so you can see what the final product looks like.
Triblocal is a publication sponsored by The Chicago Tribune. 42 communities in the southern and western suburbs each have a Triblocal Web site. Anyone can register for Triblocal.com and post their own photos, stories or event listings directly on the site for their town.
Each week, a staff of Chicago Tribune reporters select the best postings to Triblocal.com and publish those postings in a weekly newspaper. The "user-generated" content is supplemented with original reporting and photography by the Chicago Tribune reporters.
Currently there are 10 newspapers serving the 42 communities, with plans to almost double that number by the year's end. Triblocal first launched in August 2007 with two newspapers serving 6 towns.
In your critique, please analyze the design of Triblocal.com. What do you like? What don't you like? What is confusing? What could be better?
Also take a look at the kind of postings Triblocal receives from users. I will bring copies of the printed edition of Triblocal to class on Wednesday so you can see what the final product looks like.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Chicagobreakingnews.com
Please evaluate and critique Chicagobreakingnews.com's Web site.
On Wednesday, Jan. 28 we are going to hear from Bill Adee, who is the editor of digital operations at the Chicago Tribune. A few months ago, Bill launched Chicagobreakingnews.com which draws breaking news content from Chicago Tribune.com, CLTV and WGN.
This week you should pay attention to the content posted on Chicagobreakingnews.com. Questions you might consider:
-Why was this considered breaking news?
-Where did the content come from? Was it a reputable source? How can you tell?
-How quickly after the news broke was this posted to the Chicagobreakingnews.com?
-What kind of holes are in the stories as they are posted to the site? Are those holes later addressed? How?
-Is there any kind of news that the site is not covering that it should be covering? What would be some examples?
-What are the ethical issues that you think ChicagoBreakingNews.com deals with on a daily basis?
-What could this site do to improve? Or does it not need any improving?
On Wednesday, Jan. 28 we are going to hear from Bill Adee, who is the editor of digital operations at the Chicago Tribune. A few months ago, Bill launched Chicagobreakingnews.com which draws breaking news content from Chicago Tribune.com, CLTV and WGN.
This week you should pay attention to the content posted on Chicagobreakingnews.com. Questions you might consider:
-Why was this considered breaking news?
-Where did the content come from? Was it a reputable source? How can you tell?
-How quickly after the news broke was this posted to the Chicagobreakingnews.com?
-What kind of holes are in the stories as they are posted to the site? Are those holes later addressed? How?
-Is there any kind of news that the site is not covering that it should be covering? What would be some examples?
-What are the ethical issues that you think ChicagoBreakingNews.com deals with on a daily basis?
-What could this site do to improve? Or does it not need any improving?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
USA Today
Please evaluate and critiqueUSA Today's web site.
This week you should pay particular attention to the site's overall design and organization. Questions you might consider:
-What is my first impression of this site? Why did I have that impression? How does it impact my trust of the site's content?
-How easy is the site to navigate? Can I find things easily?
-What does USA Today put a value on? Breaking news? Feature stories? Multimedia? Blogs? How can I tell?
-As I am skimming the site, what catches my eye? Headlines? Decks? Photos? Videos? Ads?
-How organized are the sub-pages such as Travel, Money, Life?
-What about advertising? Did I even notice it? Is that a good thing?
-What is one thing I would do differently with USA Today's design?
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