After learning about the numerous methods and ideas behind online journalism, I find crowd sourcing to be the most interesting and futuristic. Crowd Sourcing is the idea of having the public integrate their ideas into a news/media organization. This gets more involvement and brings up the viewer ratings of any website. While the idea seems to negate the need for journalists, it does quite the opposite. A journalist or professional is still needed to monitor and allow these posts by people to ensure their legitimacy and make sure they are appropriate.

While this idea is very fresh and new, there are other ideas that are simply not cutting it. I think that digital media has many flaws. The fact that they can post news items so quickly makes it much easier to make mistakes. When it comes to digital media it is important to still take the time to double check all spelling and facts because viewers notice the mistakes more often than they notice a perfect story. I like the idea of print and broadcast news better when it comes to this because there is less room or excuses when it comes to a factual error in a story.

The trends we discussed in class will help me be well versed in digital media. They will help me understand what viewers want and need so that I can present it to a company and make myself knowledgeable in this particular field. While I do not necessarily want to work in the online journalism world, I do recognize that it is the future of the news and knowing these trends and methods can only benefit my future in the journalism industry.

In today’s world, people are trying to become more and more involved in the internet. They want people to hear their voice just like any other writer or journalist. There are numerous sites that offer comments to be posting in regards to a news story or video, but how many sites actually allow the average person to post a story of their own and receive feedback on that?

This week, I viewed a website called News Assignment , which is a open sourced journalism website which is looking to test the idea of having average people write their stories to post. The title of the website reads “get involved” from the the second you click on the website. This idea of becoming involved immediately catches the viewers eyes to attract them to the experiment and make them want to help and give an input.

This idea will fill the need of the readers who want to become involved. If the experience works, it is a great way to get news that a reporter couldn’t necessarily report on because of importance and situational relevance. There are only so many reporters in our country and they cannot be everywhere at once, but with revelations like camera phones, etc. people can just click away to report the news on a website such as this one. Although this website is still in its beginning stages, if people continue to participate in their “news assignment lab,” it could mean great success for both the website and people all over the world.

The idea that Shirky presents in regards to models becoming too intense and making viewers disperse and start again on their own is exactly what this website looks to improve. By involving the readers and simplifying their website to find exactly what stories are needed, they will ultimately be able to maintain their viewers and keep them constantly entertained with stories from real people who report on real events.

I think that this website could work extremely well because it is a website involved in 100% reader involvement. The idea of it serves to include people, rather than just having them read stories reported by the same people over and over again. It will need to be scanned daily for legitimate news and as previously mentioned when it comes to crowd sourcing, there will need to be limits as to who can submit stories, but in the long run it is a compelling and fun idea for the media and the internet to utilize.

The Huffington Post has proven time and time again to be a fun and entertaining website to get a news in almost every category you can dream of! Interaction, however, is not included. The Huffington Post doesn’t feel the need to engage their viewers when it comes to polls, maps, etc. This clearly is not working, at least for readers who want to play a part in the news and the opinions being portrayed on this page.

My first question is why not bring in a poll? Polls are a great way to engage the reader and make them want to come back to the site to see a final outcome. In this story about the Tea Partiers being turned against the GOP http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/wall-street-reform-obama_n_540453.html, it would benefit Huff to maybe a put a poll on the side to see what sort of blogs they should write in regards to their politics, or if they should take something out. Polls are fun for the readers, but they are also educational for the site as a whole because they give you an exact estimate of what people want… a percentage for every single answer available. why wouldn’t you include one?

I take my next issue with maps. Come on, why no maps?? There is a volcano eruption in Iceland; MAP IT! Here is the story Huff put up in regards to this phenomenon: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/iceland-volcano-experts-d_n_540889.html. While the pictures are compelling and the blog is interesting, it would have been significantly better if they gave readers and idea of what exactly was happening and where.  If they had added something along the lines of this:
View Larger Map

The website might have had a better chance of engaging the viewer.

Interaction is a key to successful journalism. It always has been the easiest way to involve readers and get them to want to come back and continue reading. As the Huffington Post is not doing the best job at this, I would suggest an online news source step up their game in the involvement aspect, otherwise interest will be lost and viewings will go down. Huff’s best bet is to jump on the interaction bandwagon so to speak and put polls and maps throughout the site, its fun and it makes everyone happy!

The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) has been a key provider in news and entertainment blogs over the past few years. They have put forth an abundant amount of effort to encourage readers to return to their site, including adding specific cities, college sections, etc. The Huffington Post has a very well organized layout as far as harmony and unity are concerned. The sections are all color coordinated in blue and white, with black captions unifying with pictures.

www.huffingtonpost.com

The blue colors and black writing all coordinate to inform the reader that blue indicates a certain section, whereas black indicates a title. The titles on this page perfectly unite the picture and the caption, pulling together an excellently designed page which leaves little confusion to the viewer.

www.huffingtonpost.com

The homepage for the Huffington Post differs from their smaller pages because it makes an effort to tell the viewer exactly what their most important stories are. All headlines are posted in large red writing and have a picture to accompany it. In this case of the supreme court justice, the headline catches the viewers eye immediately before anything else, and then the viewer quickly turns to the picture which is a clear representation of what the story will be about.  This imagine also incorporates ideas of contrast into the homepage by making one picture larger and more noticeable than the other. they also contrast the red large font with the small black font towards the bottom of the page, indicating blogs and opinions rather than hard news stories.

www.huffingtonpost.com

They contrast the black and blue in the blog section in accordance with the rest of the website. There is little color change except when it comes to main headlines with they use the red to make it evident what is seen as important. The shapes change throughout the webpage as shown above. the picture sizes differ and the boxes throughout the page (including the “most popular” box) are all different, but somehow incorporate with each other to work.

www.huffingtonpost.com

When searching a topic or story on the Huffington Post, the layout is impeccable, every result comes in the same size and color in addition to a relevant picture. The pictures sizes are perfect to make out what each image is trying to show, yet the shapes and sizes still all coordinate with each other to make it easy to find the specific title the viewer is searching. Since the viewers eyes automatically go to the left first, they notice a picture before the title, and as each picture is relevant to the title, a viewer can easily find the results they needed within a matter of seconds.

The overall website is very simplistic and easy to navigate. The Huffington Post incorporates ideas of hierarchy as seen on the homepage, contrast, and proximity. They are doing an excellent job of aiding the viewers into finding the most important and popular topics. While some sites make it difficult for viewers to navigate their way through the news organizations, the Huffington Post is constantly ensuring simplicity and an understanding for the importance of design.

Video increasingly seems to be the new way of acquiring news, especially online. People prefer to watch the packages and clips that are streamed onto a website, rather than read an article about a video. This is so that each viewer can fully understand the story without having to rely on their own imagination as to what is being spoken about.

The Huffington Post, is doing a phenomenal job of streaming video on their website. The site has an entire section called “video” where viewers can click to find articles in the different sections. The video sections include, “The Blog,” “Entertainment & Comedy,” “Politics,” “Media,” and “Other.” Within each of these columns, viewers can scroll down to reveal numerous videos relevant to each section of interest. When sections such as politics and media get boring or dull to the viewer, they can scroll down on the left side to find funny videos of entertainers, funny clips, etc. to lighten the mood.

Clip of the Video Site on HuffingtonPost.com

In addition, bloggers of the site are allowed to post videos of relevant topics to each category. After the Oscars, William Shatner posted a video congratulating each of the winners, while inserting his own humor and fun into the video. In this way, viewers get to know the bloggers and understand what they are about.

The one key element in web video that the Huffington Post is lacking is their user-submitted videos. It is important to get the opinions of all aspects of a topic and in order to do so, Huff Post should include people who are not a part of the news industry. This would benefit them because it would give them credit for involving people outside of the news industry who may have opinions and insight into a certain topic.

The rules for online web video are still being written, however, it is important that one rule be followed and that is to include livestreaming and user-submission. These two methods engage the viewer and keep them coming back to see what people have to say and how they go about showing these ideas through a video.

Video media is both informative and fun. People who visit the Huffington Post website can get a full day’s worth of news simply from their video section. The upkeep of this section is great and up-to-date. It is an excellent way for viewers to get to know the staff and the people who are in fact the news. The only criticism is to include more user submissions, but as a whole, the site is doing an excellent job of incorporating web video into a respectable newscast.

This captures a moment because you can see the race for the ball and the quality of the game

This shows emotion because the players are very happy and excited about their current winning score

capturing the moment of a goal shot, which ultimately did not make it and gave the winning title to DPhiE

Perspective- shooting upwards instead of straight on

capturing a moment from an angle other than front. Shows the effort and the race to get to the goal.

After numerous postponements, the SDT-DPhiE intramural soccer game finally occurs on Comcast Field. DPhiE triumphed over SDT with a score of 3-2.

Photo Credit: U.S. Embassy New Zealand

Photo Credit: Informatique

Many industries have begun the idea of crowdsourced journalism, that is allowing the public to be a part of contributing to the news. While it is a great way to get involvement and gain people’s interest, journalism outlets need to beware of the problems that can come from this and keep up with professional journalism as well.

The Huffington Post has, of course, submitted themselves to this new frontier and offers numerous ways for people to get involved on their site other than blog comments and posts. Their new college section currently has a picture contest in which people can submit pictures of the most bizarre team mascot and give a title and description to be posted on the page. If the person does not have an interesting mascot, they can vote on the pictures they believe to be the most “weird” as HuffPost puts it.

“Does YOUR school have a WEIRD mascot? Send us a photo and a brief description! Find a picture, click the participate button, add a title and upload your picture”

This immediately catches the eye of the participants and below it is a button where people can click “participate” and be a part of the idea. Obviously this is not the most newsworthy method of crowdsourced journalism, but it is indeed effective in getting people involved. This is a great way for people to feel as though they are part of a news site/organization.

What was most impressive on the Huffington Post, was when I typed into the search box the single word “participate.” It is here that I found news-related crowdsourced journalism at its best (or worst- however you perceive this idea).  Although it is old, in 2007, The Huffington Post in accordance with NewsAssignment.Net offered avid readers of the site a chance to get involved in the campaign across the country and have their own voices heard.

“We are now ready to invite your participation. We are recruiting large groups of citizen journalists from around the country to cover the major presidential candidates. Each of these volunteer reporter/bloggers will contribute to a candidate-specific group blog — offering written updates, campaign tidbits, on-the-scene observations, photos, or original video.”

Arianna Huffington blogged this back in 2007 when the idea was launched. The idea was to have people express their experiences and opinions on the overall presidential campaign. The sites monitored and scanned these submissions by requiring all candidates first email their credentials and information to the editors in order to be approved for a specific presidential blog roll. While they most likely received a slew of candidates and information, they used their own specialized team to narrow down the citizen journalist and find the people best suited for representing their company.

This form of journalism is extremely popular now because it puts people into the news industry and allows them to fully understand the difficult task of presenting and reviewing the news. It is an upbeat and fun way of proving stories. Arianna puts it best when she describes crowdsourced journalism in her blog about the campaign:

“The end result will be more sources of information, more eyes and ears focused on a wider variety of subjects, more outside-the-mainstream voices given a platform. All in all, a fresh and innovative way of covering the road to the White House.”

Crowdsourced journalism should never be the only method of news, but it is a fun and interesting way of gaining popularity and readership among news sites and online media sources.

I tracked Shannyn Moore’s Twitter account and found her professional use of the site to be overall disappointing. As a whole, Twitter is a great way to promote business and news stories- if used correctly. Shannyn Moore writes professional blogs on the Huffington Post, but when it comes to posting her professionalism, there is a huge lack of integrity on her account.

Shannyn constantly talks about her personal life and jokes with her followers, making it easy to like her and earn a fanbase, but at some point it gets a little difficult to take her news in a serious manner. While she is promoting people to be her friend and respect her on a peer based level, she is writing on Huff Post for people to respect her, something she is not earning from
tweets. While it is understandable for reporters and journalists to want to have a social life apart from their job, they still need to keep in mind that being a professional is important no matter where you are. The constant misuse of Twitter leads me to ask: has social networking turned the professional world into a friendly environment?

While Shannon takes certain personal jabs at politics and the U.S. government occasionally in her Tweets, it is evident that Twitter is not her main use of promoting herself in the workplace. Her Twitter account is light and entertaining, yet does not show her as a journalist by any means. In any case, it is easy to get to know her personality and follow her tweets closely to keep up with the light humor and information she does provide.

It is important to keep professionalism no matter what site you are using. When social networking just turns into a place to post random thoughts and plans, it is no longer benefiting the whole of the news organization, but just the entertainment of the tweeter. When following bloggers or reporters for a respected news organization, shouldn’t people expect to get some news and information somewhere along the way? Professionalism needs to be held to the highest of standards, even in an increasingly unprofessional world. If this simple task cannot be done, maybe the advancements in the online networks are too futuristic for the journalism industry.

Within journalism, it is extremely important ensure that readers can always understand every aspect of a story. Online journalism has become a recent phenomenon where people can constantly find any story at any time on any news site. This of course makes competition more extensive because of the race to get people to a certain website and read their version of a story. Because of this and the fact that numerous organizations write about the same story, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become extremely important in manifesting a certain website.

Years ago, SEO’s, slugs, and Google did not exist, making the news industry simple with only a few ways of getting information. Now, with computer advancements and search engines, one can easily find any story they need at any given time. This makes it extremely important to properly advertise a story on Google or Bing so that people can always find your article rather than that of another company. It is a great method to ensure that people all over the world can read any given article at any given time assuming that the reporter or editor properly disposes words that will appear on a search site.

Many people look down on online journalism, saying that it should be the way it was created; in newspaper form. I welcome the complexities that come with internet because it offers journalists a challenge. Now, rather than waiting until the next morning to get the news, one can easily click Google and find the story just minutes after it happened. This means that journalists have a strict deadline, not because of their editors, but because of their competitors and the curious readers searching. Although the story may be ready and posted, the most important part is that of determining the SEO and getting it perfect so that your site is always the first a person wants to click.

Before learning about SEO’s I never fully understood how search engines worked and how they are always so accurate. As a journalist, I think that learning about and understanding how to properly use SEO’s in the online marketing industry is so vital in succeeding. While many people may overlook this small detail, it is crucial in getting stories across and gaining respect from readers across the globe on a daily basis.