Jessica's News Analysis

Using Photos in Blogs, Okay By Me

2009-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

We had a discussion about what type of photos were and were not allowed on our blogs. It was decided that we were not allowed to use photos unless they were our own. However, I feel like this is inconsistent with the practices of other blogs and even other professional news sites. Not only that, we are really limiting the content that we post if we have to rely on our own cameras.

Just take a look at The Huffington Post. In one of the articles that they wrote about coal-fired powerplants in Kansas, the photo that was used was taken from a Flickr account. Flickr is in its own way very much like a blog except that instead of written posts, users post their photos. These accounts can be public or private. CNN also uses photos from other sources. In a story about a giant inflatable rat, CNN used a photo from the company that owned the giant rat. I think this is reasonable, but in the context that we were given in class it would not be acceptable.

The only problem is if the photo is inaccurate, which is something else that we also discussed in class. The photo that was used in the Huffington Post article was actually a photo of a smokestack in Chicago, not Kansas.

But I think the main point is that blogs are supposed to be places were people can find more information. And photos are also one source of information. As long as we give credit to who took the photo and where we found it, I see no problem with using other people's pictures that we find online.

Photojournalist - Rick Rocamora

2009-01-31T18:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I was able to hear Rick Rocamora speak about his work as a photojournalist. I learned a lot about his profession as well as many tips about how to use photos to tell a story.

Oftentimes, photos are used in news articles and are accompanied by captions. But Rocamora said that a photo is even more powerful when it can convey the whole message without words. You should always be looking for details and ways to tell the story without having to write a caption to support it. Of course, this is not always possible because sometimes photos can be interpreted the wrong way, but for the most part this holds true. He also talked about how photos should create emotion, whether it is joy, anger, sadness, etc. Those are the most powerful.

He showed us a few collections of his work including one about women during Obama's win for presidency and a collection about Muslims in America. He gets his inspiration for his pictures because he can find a different perspective on a widely covered topic or he finds something that really angers him or really pushes him into action, such as the Muslims in America collection. He is always looking to share his story and perspective along with those of his community.

Rocamora encouraged us to go and find stories to tell within our communities. He mindset when taking pictures of other people is that he is not just doing it for himself and his job. He is trying to invoke others to tell their own story so that others can hear it. He said that when he approches strangers with this kind of thinking, they are always very cooperative and willing to help him.

Beat Blogging

2009-01-27T18:43:00.000-08:00

Beat blogging is a pretty new method of journalism that is being used now. Journalists use their blogs as social networks, getting readers to comment and submit information about their beats. This helps them out a lot in their stories and gets them even more depth and scope about the topics that they are covering. It is also really beneficial for journalists because they can get news out to their readers in real time without having to wait for the paper to publish or broadcast on television. They are in control of when their news will be heard.

It is extremely necessary for these journalists to have a large network of users. Without the users, there is no sharing of information and the more users the better. I think that it is a great idea for journalists and is something that they should definitely utilize.

There are a few issues, such as creating a big enough community and also getting good people to comment on posts. One of the posts on beatblogging.org said that in some blogs, the comments are even more valuable than the posts themselves because of the great community of readers who contribute to their beats. The post also talked about how it is really important for blog authors to respond to comments and create a conversation with their followers because it makes them feel more involved and less likely to create "comment ghettos" filled with inappropriate and off-topic comments.

My New Perspective on Blogs

2009-01-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

My homepage is set to Yahoo! Before I started taking Online Journalism, for the most part, the little featured section is where I would get my "news" (which I put in quotes because the items are not always necessarily news articles). Since this class, I have reached out to other areas for news, but Yahoo! is still the first thing I see every time I open my browser. Today, one of the featured items was an article from TheHuffingtonPost.com about private Obama photos.

I thought it was interesting that Yahoo! would link to The Huffington Post since it is a blog site. Most of the time, Yahoo! either links to a subsection within Yahoo!. If the item is a news article, it is usually from the Associated Press. I think that this shows the significance of professional blog sites such as The Huffington Post and how blogs can be real sources of information.

I also decided to take a closer look at TheHuffingtonPost.com. I found that it is powered by Moveable Type, a business blog software combined with social networking. In a sense, blogs such as these are almost like websites of their own. They have features such as links to other pages within the blog, search bars, advertising, and the ability to create an account and login, just to name a few. This type of blogging is much more advanced than what I had originally thought blogging consisted of.

I have my own private blog at Livejournal that I share among friends. My old idea of blogs was that it was a rather private thing, like a diary, despite being on the Internet. Most of the blogs I read were about people's personal lives. Livejournal, one of the first blog sites, is very simple. You choose a template, which is rather difficult to customize, and simply write your posts. The newer blogs sites that are available now are much more advanced with lots more features, such as Blogger and WordPress. Customization is easy and you are able to add gadgets or create some very professional-looking blogsites for free. Many of these sites are no longer simply about someone's life, but about any topic you could think of or for businesses and organizations. There can be one or many contributors. The possibilities are amazing and can be done easily at no cost.

I can see now why journalists would want to have their own blogs. It is so useful to be able to share information with such a large community of people available at your fingertips. Of course, it is often possible that you may come across some false information, but I believe it is much more useful than detrimental.

News Blogs - News or Opinion?

2009-01-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

I have been reading articles about the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States along side with community-specific blogs such as Jack and Jill Politics. In class, we discussed whether or not blogs could be considered news or if they were really just opinion pieces.

I think that it really depends on the writer of the blog, but the vast majority of blogs are of people's opinions. For example, I have been reading Jack and Jill Politics and even though all of the blog entries are about news pertaining to African-Americans, I'm not really sure if their articles can be considered more than just opinion pieces. Many of the most recent posts are responses to news articles or photos. Even the site itself is described as "a black bourgeoisie perspective on U.S. politics," which I agree is exactly what it is: a perspective.

Perhaps we need to also consider what exactly is considered to be news. One article that I read on CNN.com was about how the first family is changing America's perspective of the African-American family. It talked about how the Obamas are not like the typical black families that are portrayed on the media as being unstable, comedic, or aggressive. Is this news or is it someone's perspective? Or is it news about perspective? I think that it is definitely a topic worth discussing, but it just makes me confused about what is news.

-----------------------

Update: Blogs are places for people to share information, whether that is opinion or fact. I think it is just important for people to make sure that when a blog is trying to talk about something factual, that they make sure it is coming from reliable sources.

News on Our Cellphones

2009-01-20T03:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't really used the "news" section of my cellphone browser before. The main reason is because my browser in general is rather slow at loading pages so I tend to avoid using it at all. Also, I find it a little bit difficult to use since the screen is small and sometimes it is hard to click on the links. But I took a closer look today and found some interesting things.

First, the news is split up into general categories such as national, world, business, technology, etc. There are also categories for CNN, NY Times, ABC News, and Local News. Then, each category has links to headlines which you can click to get to the actual article. I'm not really sure where Verizon, my service provider, gets its news for its general categories. I tried to find matching or similar headlines online at Yahoo! News and some local news sites like sfgate.com, but couldn't find any. The CNN section, however, lists the exact same headlines as those posted on CNN.com. Even the photos were the same. I liked this because it was confirmation that I was getting up-to-date, "real" news, rather than news from some unknown source.

I think this is pretty useful for reading some quick articles of the top headlines and will probably try to use the news section on my cellphone more often. I only wish that it was faster at loading.

Multimedia Blogs

2009-01-20T01:43:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, my COMM142B class did an exercise where we had to judge three different websites. These websites are all professional journalism sites and all contained multimedia.

Before looking at these sites, I didn't really understand what "multimedia in online journalism" really meant. When I think about news online, I think about CNN.com and the "multimedia" that usually accompany articles are photos or slideshows. The sites that we looked at however, were almost like complete websites of their own. There were photos, connected with interactive maps and audio that you could click to hear. Certain content would move when you moved your mouse over it or when you clicked. There was no set starting point or ending point. You could go all over the site and find all sorts of information. There was tons of content provided by the communities that they targeted. And these sites were all considered journalism.

I did not have enough time to really site down and choose a winner during the class time. I thought that all the sites were really unique and interesting. I never realized that online journalism could be so interactive and visually appealing beyond simply reading or commenting on articles online. So, I think that they are all winners.

I've listed the sites below. You can be the judge.

- Not Just Another Number
- Plague of Killing
- Death Perceptions

Criteria and Expectations for Online News

2009-01-14T17:42:00.001-08:00

This blog is about my critique and analysis of online news. I will be following various newsblogs and news sites, which I have listed on the side blog roll. These will be updated as I find more blogs that I like and take away ones that I don't.

There is a difference between mainstream news sites and newsblogs and therefore my expectations for each are different. I have listed these below.

Expectations of mainstream news sites:

covers important top stories that are relevant to the general majority
have an organized and professional layout for presenting news
has news stories that are accompanied by media, photos, and videos
covers a wide range of topics
has thorough and accurate information that is unbiased
is updated frequently and timely
has links to more information

Expectations of newsblogs:
My expectations for a newsblogs are almost the same as for mainstream news sites. The one exception is that I expect newsblogs to focus on a specific topic or perspective that goes into more depth than a general news site would.