Here is the good flash project. All the technical issues (and Depot head-scratchers) have been resolved.
https://depot.northwestern.edu/jfs360/public_html/Final.swf?uniq=fegqqt
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Websites Good and Bad
A prime example of a website that maximizes usability and navigation is http://www.sun-sentinel.com/, the Web site for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which covers the Fort Lauderdale area and the surrounding counties.
A brief glance at the front page of the Web site reveals several crucial components of a good site. As we discussed in class, the "F" of hits on a Web page means that crucial information should be put at the upper left-hand corner of the Web site. On the Sun-Sentinel's site, the top story is placed on the top left, with a succinct head, a nut graf, and a picture. The user is not confused as to what is the paper's most important story, and readers are often offered supplemental links to multimedia. On Sunday, May 27, the lead story was on the preponderance of boating accidents in South Florida; viewers were offered an interactive map of past accidents (http://www.sun-sentinel2.com/mapping/boating/). This is itself a prime example of visual journalism, as users roll over a specific site and get a descriptive of the corresponding accident.
To the left of the main story, a small weather graphic gives users a concise look at the current weather and the radar. Placed so close to the main story, this unobtrusive yet effective graphic allows visitors to the site to quickly get the local weather, not unlike the Dashboard weather widget on a Mac.
A toolbar of sorts across the top of the screen offers links to the other sections of the Web site. These sections are just as well-ordered as the front page, with the lead story on the top left and links to blogs and other multimedia posted near relevant stories.
Indeed, the large number of links on the front page of each section allows for greater navigation. Once clicked on, an exhaustive panel running down the LEFT side of the page offers links to almost everywhere else in the Web site. This combination of seamless navigation and extensive multimedia is why this Web site is, to me, ideal.
In contrast, the Web site for the Daily Freeman (http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.asp?brd=1769), a paper in Ulster County in New York, lacks many of the tools necessary for a user-friendly Web site. Interestingly enough, it is not that the setup is wildly different from the Sun-Sentinel's; it is the little things that make the difference.
On the front page, the lead story is placed correctly in the upper-left corner; however, there are no supplementary multimedia options. In a world where different media are coming together more and more, simply offering the reader the text of a story is not enough. A paper's Web site must offer more than the hard copy of the paper does, or it will quickly become obsolete.
Below the front page, lesser stories are offered, along with sub-head. Here, quality is actually less important than quantity, as the sub-heads and nut grafs take up space that could be used by more stories. CNN.com does it best, but many Web sites offer a cornucopia of headlines, allowing the reader more access.
The front pages of the site's other sections have the same dearth of multimedia and long, space-gulping sub-heads. While the basic setup of the paper allows for some usability, the site lacks the meat of multimedia and linkage so obvious in Web sites like the Sun-Sentinel's.
A brief glance at the front page of the Web site reveals several crucial components of a good site. As we discussed in class, the "F" of hits on a Web page means that crucial information should be put at the upper left-hand corner of the Web site. On the Sun-Sentinel's site, the top story is placed on the top left, with a succinct head, a nut graf, and a picture. The user is not confused as to what is the paper's most important story, and readers are often offered supplemental links to multimedia. On Sunday, May 27, the lead story was on the preponderance of boating accidents in South Florida; viewers were offered an interactive map of past accidents (http://www.sun-sentinel2.com/mapping/boating/). This is itself a prime example of visual journalism, as users roll over a specific site and get a descriptive of the corresponding accident.
To the left of the main story, a small weather graphic gives users a concise look at the current weather and the radar. Placed so close to the main story, this unobtrusive yet effective graphic allows visitors to the site to quickly get the local weather, not unlike the Dashboard weather widget on a Mac.
A toolbar of sorts across the top of the screen offers links to the other sections of the Web site. These sections are just as well-ordered as the front page, with the lead story on the top left and links to blogs and other multimedia posted near relevant stories.
Indeed, the large number of links on the front page of each section allows for greater navigation. Once clicked on, an exhaustive panel running down the LEFT side of the page offers links to almost everywhere else in the Web site. This combination of seamless navigation and extensive multimedia is why this Web site is, to me, ideal.
In contrast, the Web site for the Daily Freeman (http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.asp?brd=1769), a paper in Ulster County in New York, lacks many of the tools necessary for a user-friendly Web site. Interestingly enough, it is not that the setup is wildly different from the Sun-Sentinel's; it is the little things that make the difference.
On the front page, the lead story is placed correctly in the upper-left corner; however, there are no supplementary multimedia options. In a world where different media are coming together more and more, simply offering the reader the text of a story is not enough. A paper's Web site must offer more than the hard copy of the paper does, or it will quickly become obsolete.
Below the front page, lesser stories are offered, along with sub-head. Here, quality is actually less important than quantity, as the sub-heads and nut grafs take up space that could be used by more stories. CNN.com does it best, but many Web sites offer a cornucopia of headlines, allowing the reader more access.
The front pages of the site's other sections have the same dearth of multimedia and long, space-gulping sub-heads. While the basic setup of the paper allows for some usability, the site lacks the meat of multimedia and linkage so obvious in Web sites like the Sun-Sentinel's.
Monday, May 21, 2007
More on the Pew study
Instead of analyzing a single statistic in the survey, I'm going to provide several salient points...
- Across all age groups, people say they like having a lot of information at their fingertips. Less than a third of respondents in each age group said they felt bombarded, with the highest percent in the 50+ age group (32 percent). In an age where more and more news is offered on the Web, this stat can only encourage online journalism. No matter how much information a newspaper can cram into its pages, the Web will always have more space for news -- cyberspace has no back page.
- Not surprisingly, liberals feel they are more represented in the media than conservatives. 71 percent of liberal democrats feel the media represents their interests, while only 56 percent of conservative republicans feel the same. Conservative cries of a "liberal media bias" have become as common as partisan bickering in recent years. Interestingly, 66 percent of those with a college degree feel their interests are represented, as opposed to 44 percent of those with just a high school education. This makes sense, because members of the media usually have passed through higher education. But the stat is low for both conservatives and less educated people. Coincidence? I think not.
- It did surprise me, however, that conservatives far outnumber liberals in the audience ideology profile. 36 percent of the audience identifies itself as conservative, as opposed to 35 percent moderate and 21 percent liberal. Part of me believes that this trend towards the center-right simply reflects a national trend, as the ideology of the country as a whole has swung to the right ever since the rise of the Moral Majority and the Reagan years. If that is the case, then it may explain why conservatives feel underrepresented in the media -- they just watch more. But it could also be that liberals are simply less eager to label themselves "liberals" and would rather place themselves in the "moderate" bracket.
- Finally, it appears that despite the rise in personal devices like cell phones and iPods, the growth of Blackberries has remained surprisingly stagnant. Over the last two years, Blackberry and Palm Pilots has actually declined, from 14 percent in 2004 to 12 percent in 2006. More and more, Americans are looking to get their news personalized and on the go (hence the rise in Internet access on cell phones). Why, then, is there not a rise in the Blackberry, which more than any of the new technologies allows people to personalize the news they receive, as well as get it wherever (and whenever) they want? For example, I was at the Northwestern baseball game on Sunday, and I wanted to know the score of the Chicago Cubs-Chicago White Sox game. Luckily for me, the man sitting in front of me had a Blackberry, and he was able to tell me the score within seconds. With people clamoring for news WHEN they want it, WHERE they want it, HOW they want it, you would think they would be smart enough to snap up some Blackberries.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Blog 6 -- Some Eye-Opening Stats
In the study on audience trends from the Pew Research Center, several key facts jump out, most of which revolve around the Internet.
We have constantly been told that newspaper readership is declining and that more and more people are getting their news online. These statistics, then, have little shock value.
What is much more interesting is that online readership is increasing more and more slowly. According to the study, the amount of people who get their news online three or more times per week rose only 2 percentage points in the last two years, from 29 to 31 percent. In fact, the growth of the Internet since 2000 has been much slower than I thought.
I first believed that a possible explanation for this is that many of the new Web users are from older generations. These people are more loyal to traditional newspapers and might shy away from getting their news online.
However, statistics show that premise is completely false. The 18-24 age bracket actually made the smallest increase in online news readership in the years 2000-2006. This young group's online readership grew a minuscule 3.4 percent, from 29 percent to 30 percent. In contrast, the group aged 50-64 grew 63.2 percent, from 19 percent to 31 percent.
In other words, not only did the supposedly computer-illiterate Baby Boomers grow as an online audience nearly 20 times more than the YouTube generation, but more Baby Boomers overall get their news from the Web.
For me, this fact is stunning. Consider how much online advertising is geared towards younger readers, and how major Internet companies constantly try to stay "hip," or with the times (ie Google shelling out $1.7 billion for YouTube). The reality is that if you marketed 401Ks and Caribbean cruises, you would actually be reaching a larger (and probably richer) audience.
What does it eventually mean? Considering the fact that younger users will always be more in tune with new trends than older users, it may not be incredibly significant. But in an age when web sites are obsessed with courting younger readers, media companies might want to take a look at marketing some lawn chairs.
We have constantly been told that newspaper readership is declining and that more and more people are getting their news online. These statistics, then, have little shock value.
What is much more interesting is that online readership is increasing more and more slowly. According to the study, the amount of people who get their news online three or more times per week rose only 2 percentage points in the last two years, from 29 to 31 percent. In fact, the growth of the Internet since 2000 has been much slower than I thought.
I first believed that a possible explanation for this is that many of the new Web users are from older generations. These people are more loyal to traditional newspapers and might shy away from getting their news online.
However, statistics show that premise is completely false. The 18-24 age bracket actually made the smallest increase in online news readership in the years 2000-2006. This young group's online readership grew a minuscule 3.4 percent, from 29 percent to 30 percent. In contrast, the group aged 50-64 grew 63.2 percent, from 19 percent to 31 percent.
In other words, not only did the supposedly computer-illiterate Baby Boomers grow as an online audience nearly 20 times more than the YouTube generation, but more Baby Boomers overall get their news from the Web.
For me, this fact is stunning. Consider how much online advertising is geared towards younger readers, and how major Internet companies constantly try to stay "hip," or with the times (ie Google shelling out $1.7 billion for YouTube). The reality is that if you marketed 401Ks and Caribbean cruises, you would actually be reaching a larger (and probably richer) audience.
What does it eventually mean? Considering the fact that younger users will always be more in tune with new trends than older users, it may not be incredibly significant. But in an age when web sites are obsessed with courting younger readers, media companies might want to take a look at marketing some lawn chairs.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Flash/Audacity Assignment
Here is my Flash Audio Assignment
https://depot.northwestern.edu/jfs360/public_html/Flash%20Audio%20Assignment.swf?uniq=-u1sryd
https://depot.northwestern.edu/jfs360/public_html/Flash%20Audio%20Assignment.swf?uniq=-u1sryd
Monday, May 7, 2007
Rich Gordon's "The Meaning of Convergence"
In Rich Gordon's "The Meaning of Convergence," the nascent concept of convergence is discussed. Convergence, the term coined by Ithiel de Sola Pool, is the blending of diverse -- and traditionally separate -- form of communication. According to some, it could result in a single network for all news, with the old forms of analog news rendered obsolete.
While Gordon sees that scenario as many years away, he nevertheless highlights the importance of convergence, breaking it up into five types.
Ownership convergence: When two divergent types of media are under the purview of one company (ie AOL Time Warner)
Tactical convergence: When although two different media companies are not jointly owned, they collaborate for their mutual advantage
Structural convergence: When within a single media company, cross-media policies are implemented
Information-gathering convergence: When a single reporter uses multiple types of media to cover and report on a story
Storytelling convergence: When a story is told using multiple forms of media (ie some of the visual journalism on the Web)
What struck me about the idea of convergence was the fourth category, information-gathering convergence. Many times in our classes, we have discussed the "new journalist," one who takes photographs, gets information, writes a story, then puts it on the Web.
Some of my classmates have expressed anxiety because this "new journalist" will have to be proficient in so many fields. But Gordon's article demonstrates that knowledge of all media will be necessary in the future, and that multimedia skills are among the most useful a journalist can have.
While Gordon sees that scenario as many years away, he nevertheless highlights the importance of convergence, breaking it up into five types.
Ownership convergence: When two divergent types of media are under the purview of one company (ie AOL Time Warner)
Tactical convergence: When although two different media companies are not jointly owned, they collaborate for their mutual advantage
Structural convergence: When within a single media company, cross-media policies are implemented
Information-gathering convergence: When a single reporter uses multiple types of media to cover and report on a story
Storytelling convergence: When a story is told using multiple forms of media (ie some of the visual journalism on the Web)
What struck me about the idea of convergence was the fourth category, information-gathering convergence. Many times in our classes, we have discussed the "new journalist," one who takes photographs, gets information, writes a story, then puts it on the Web.
Some of my classmates have expressed anxiety because this "new journalist" will have to be proficient in so many fields. But Gordon's article demonstrates that knowledge of all media will be necessary in the future, and that multimedia skills are among the most useful a journalist can have.
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