Fair or Foul

In the case of U.S. v. Matthews, I think the judge’s ruling was fair.  It seems odd to me that a journalist working on a story of this magnitude would have no notes, no story drafts and not even any evidence of a single interview.  I also think that an established, veteran journalist like Matthews would not have the good sense to cover his own tracks and make sure he was legally covered on a topic as controversial as this.  Matthews argued that he was simply updating a similar story that he had done a year earlier, but since there was no evidence that a story was being worked on it kind of sounds like he might have been drawn into that world while working on the earlier story.

Effects on the Future

I don’t think that this case should have any affect on the ability of a journalist to cover controversial topics.  It should, however, serve as a lesson for future journalists that they always need to be thorough in their research and cover their legal bases, especially when going undercover for stories about illegal topics.  Matthews should have taken specific steps to protect himself from any legal liability while covering this story.  The evidence was simply stacked too high against Matthews in this case.

What if . . .

This case would have been completely different if Matthews had been researching adult pornography rather than child pornography in that there would not have been a case.  The controversy in this case is not about what journalists are ethically allowed to cover, it is simply a matter of legality.  Child pornography is illegal, adult pornography is not.  If Matthews had been caught with pornography featuring adults nobody would have cared whether or not he was working on a story.  But when a journalist chooses to go undercover to research an illegal topic, whether that topic be child pornography, illegal substances, human trafficking or organized crime, the journalist must accept the risks of researching such topics and make sure measures are taken to protect him or herself while doing said research.

Obviously, the first thing I noticed when I logged onto the website for the Charleston Gazette was the giant expanding ad that takes over the majority of the screen.  As a consumer I hate these invasive ads, but I do understand that they are a necessary evil in order for the business to survive.

There were a couple of things on the home page of this site that I really did like, though.  Once you close the giant ad, there is a “Breaking News” banner right below it that shows a short headline about the latest news in the rescue efforts in the mine shaft and it shows what time that news was posted.  The Breaking News headline also serves as a link to a short story that gives more details about the headline.  I also like that the big picture on the left side of the page rotates among three different stories.  Most newspaper sites that I’ve seen just keep one picture from their headline story in place as the biggest feature on their home page.  But the Gazette uses the rotating method, as most sports sites do.  I think this is a good feature because it gives the site more chances to hook in the reader.  If a reader logs on and isn’t interested in the first picture shown, maybe the second or third will do the trick.

As far as the site’s coverage of the rescue efforts for missing miners, the only thing I really think they should have done better on is the photos.  The story has one AP photo connected to this story.

I feel like this story is worth sending out a photographer and putting up some video or at least a slideshow.

As far as interactivity goes, I think the only thing they’re missing is a poll question, but I’m not sure one would be appropriate in an ongoing story like this where people’s lives are still at stake.  Readers can leave comments, but they have to register with the site first in order to do so.  However, I do like that when you click the link to leave a comment, a little rule box pops up asking everyone to play nice.

Post a comment

Step 1: Owning Your Insights -I don’t know that this step really applies to this particular story.  As I understood it, this step was about understanding the moral or lesson to a story.  Maria’s report was not so much about an individual’s story, but a snapshot of the things she had seen in Haiti and trying to convey the chaos that was going on in Port-au-Prince.  I think the one lesson she did try to convey was that, despite the efforts of the world in assisting Haiti, there was still not enough help to go around and as a result the victims felt abandoned.  And she just flat out said that at the end of the slideshow.

Step 2: Owning Your Emotions -I think Maria did a good job of describing the emotions of various people in her story.  She talks about a father who was scared for his daughter’s life and a family that collapsed upon funding their son who had been missing for days.  There are a lot of emotions conveyed through this story that I think most people can relate to although they might not be able to imagine being in those circumstances.

Step 3: Finding The Moment – I think “the moment” described in this story is when Maria talks about the family collapsing after seeing their son who had been missing for four days.  I think this is the key moment of this story because among all of this death and destruction there is this unique moment of happiness in the reunification of this family.

Step 4: Seeing Your Story -I think that the pictures used in this story were excellent.  Some of the pictures were a little graphic, but at the same time, I’m sure they are not the worst images to emerge from this earthquake.  I think they used pictures that would upset the viewers just a little bit, but they conveyed what the story was about without sugarcoating it or being over the top.

Step 5: Hearing Your Story -I think that Maria made the right choice in narrating the slideshow rather than setting it to music.  I think her words, describing what she saw, were more powerful than any song could have been with that slideshow.  Also, by narrating it, it lets the viewer know that the reporter actually went to Haiti and saw all of this.

Step 6: Assembling Your Story – Although this wasn’t really a narrative story, but rather a series of random scenes, I think the order in which the scenes were described made a difference in how the story is perceived by the viewer.  She describes the destroyed hospital, then the father who was worried his daughter would not be saved, then the dead bodies in the streets, then the boy reunited with his family, and finally she talks about the people’s feeling of abandonment.  It lets the viewer know the immensity of the situation, that despite all the global help that Haiti has received there still isn’t enough to go around.

Step 7: Sharing Your Story – I don’t think that this was really an issue that needed to be considered in this story.  Maria went to Haiti as a reporter for the Boston Globe, so she knew that her story was gonna be shared with a large internet audience from the get-go.

I have to admit that, at first, the layout of Pegasusnews.com seemed a little too chaotic.  There are a lot of different fonts and text colors, and the text of the date is laid over each other.  It seemed a little too busy.

Another negative about this site is that there is not very much to read “above the fold.”  The space where the date is displayed and the horizontal navigation bar seem to be a little bit thicker than they really need to be.  By the time you get past the top banner ad, the space for the weather and date, the navigation bar and the following banner ad, you’re down to the bottom quarter of a page of content.  And even then you’re only looking at the top half of pictures and a few headlines.

Another thing I would change would be to have some blurb summaries for the main stories on the Top Picks page.  The page scrolls through and has pictures for five main stories.  There is also a headline for each story.  Some of the headlines are descriptive, but others are unclear and unappealing.  I think a blurb that pops up with each picture (kind of like on this site) could generate more interest in clicking on the featured stories.

There were a lot of things I liked about this site though.  The first thing I saw that I liked is displayed to the left of the date and weather.  It is the “Local stuff that matters to you.”  It tells you events that are going on that day in the DFW area.

I also think that this site does a good job of being geared towards its specific demographic.  It is clear that this site is aiming for a younger, fine-arts oriented crowd in the metroplex.  The site is all about local music and food and uses a color-scheme far different from typical news sites.

Overall, although I like what this site is trying to do, it is just a little too chaotic for my taste.  Then again, I don’t have much of an interest in the fine arts and local bands, so I’m not really a part of their demographic.  I’m more interested in sports content, which is absent from this site.  But I do think this site does an excellent job of appealing to their target demographic.

MARCH 18

The L.A. Street Summit 2010 began last Thursday evening at Occidental College.  It opened up with a presentation by New York City Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan.

She challenged the city of Los Angeles to follow in the footsteps of NYC by making streets healthier and safer.

MARCH 19

On Friday Occidental College students and alumni went for a ride along with local community bicycle activists.

They pedaled from Occidental College through Highland Park and from Union Station to City Hall.  They were led by Sadik-Khan and Occidental College president Jonathan Veitch to meet with city officials.

MARCH 20

Saturday featured panels, films, hands-on workshops and strategy and brainstorming sessions aimed at moving from a city plan that serves vehicles to one that caters to people, the environment and alternative modes of transportation.

Kaiser Permanente, the California Endowment and L.A. Trade Technical College sponsored the event.  Curb Systems and Larry Silverton provided additional support.  And the event was hosted by the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College.

>Interactivity/Involvement (4 of 10) -Each article has the writer’s e-mail address in the byline.  They allow for comments and the site has a 4-star article rating system that allows the reader to grade the story.  Readers can also submit photos and story ideas.  The site also has links to the site’s facebook and twitter.  The article has one photo and no embedded links.  The article didn’t make use of timelines, fact boxes, slide shows or maps.

>Immediacy (4 of 10) -The top story on the site happened over the weekend.  Further down were some stories from today, but many of the stories were at least one day old, if not older.

>Integration (2 of 10) – This site uses among-media integration.  The stories clearly were not written FOR the web.  The style is obviously print format.

>In-Depth Opportunities (2 of 10) – This site doesn’t really go in-depth on any of their stories, probably because the one publisher is covering 14 communities.  Articles are rather short and out-dated rather than updated.

Suggestions: Overall, I would rate this site with a 3 for it’s performance as far as the 5 I’s are concerned.

>Interactivity and Involvement could be improved by simply providing polls, videos, and embedded links.

>Immediacy could be improved by adding story updates every day.

>Integration could be improved by adding interviews and videos with individual stories.

>In-Depth Opportunities could be improved by daily story updates, or in the case of the basketball team, doing a profile-type piece on a individual player.

1 >Grab their attention.  The best way of doing this on the internet is to use a large, colorful picture.  But the picture has to be related to the story or else the reader will feel mislead.  Follow up the picture with a short headline that is clever and that doesn’t use any uncommon jargon.  The final way to get their attention is with the blurb.  The blurb should be two sentences at the most and it should convey the general idea of the story without getting too complicated.  It should inform the reader without giving too many details so that if they click on the full article, they’re not just re-reading the same information.

2 >Entertain them.  The simplest way of keeping teens entertained is to simply talk to them in their language.  Don’t use uncommon jargon that too few understand.  Writing conversationally will keep them reading.  The most obvious example of success from a news organization entertaining their audience is The Daily Show.  They cover real news stories every day but they do it in a way that is clever and engaging to the audience.

3 >Don’t take up too much of their time.  Long stories that scroll on and on will rarely be read by teens.  Write tight without using unnecessary adjectives that will simply slow the reader down.  Break the story up into chunks, restricting one idea to each paragraph.  If a story NEEDS to be longer, then break up and title individual sections so the reader can skip what they don’t care about and only read what they want to.  Another part of this is avoiding large, annoying ads that readers have to “walk around” with their eyes.  Keep ads simple and don’t integrate them among the stories.

I think the best way to use crowdsourcing to report on this article would be to put out an open call for consumers who regularly buy this brand of sausage.  This would provide a human side to the story, which was missing from the article on the Oregonian’s site.  You also might put out a call for other consumers who have had similar incidents with other food where no recall was issued.

Site Name:  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Penguins – Empty Netter Blog by Seth Rorabaugh

The only issue that I have with this blog is that I think it may have too much information on it.  The writer does a good job of including lots of pictures, videos and embedded links throughout.  But there are so many videos on the page that my computer could barely load it.  One other good feature is that each entry has a link for leaving a comment, which allows for interactivity.

The writer is keeping the reader constantly informed by producing multiple entries each day.  But some of the entries are far too long.  The game recap entries have minute-by-minute description of what happened throughout the game; including the intermissions.  This style might be appreciated by the die-hard Penguins fan who, for some reason wasn’t die-hard enough to watch the game on tv, but it is far too much information for the average fan who just wants the highlights.

Overall, I would give this blog a 4 out of 5.  I like that the author includes embedded links, videos, photos and even photos sent in by readers.  But I have to take off a point because he went a little bit overboard with the videos.