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Article by Todd Olmstead

My Recap:
Mashable lets the public vote on who they think should win specific Grammys. Granted, our votes won’t actually be counted to determine the winner, but it is fun to get our opinions out there.

I wanted to personally express who I believe should win each award.

My Grammy winners:
Record of the Year: Mumford and Sons “The Cave”
Album of the Year: Adele “21”
Song of the Year: Mumford and Sons “The Cave” p.s. I don’t know the difference between a record and a song, apparently.
Best New Artist: Nicki Minaj

Thank you, Mashable, for letting me voice my musical opinions.

under: Comm361, RachelWood
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Joel Achenbach does a fine job of educating us fellow journalists and the public. Primarily, he brings out that views on a webpage should not be measured to determine the quality of an article. He discusses different reasons why view counts are so skewed.

Often website owners will have one page linked to another. Achenbach also points out that when a page is refreshed the count goes up. Occasionally pages will connect to more than one page, which makes that second page receive counts as well. Although a million views can’t be fabricated, we must realize that not all of these views were purposeful.

Because of this, he believes that people should not focus so much on the views of the page, but rather on the content. Just because a certain article has received thousands of views, does not mean that it is better quality than the alternate article that has 25 views.

I couldn’t agree more. As humorous as his article was, Achenbach really brings out some important flaws in online journalism.

under: Comm361, RachelWood
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Briggs Chapter 3

Posted by: | February 7, 2012 | No Comment |


JournalismNext by Mark Briggs

Chapter three was good because it showed me the difference between crowd-source reporting and open-source reporting. It taught me the importance in the two.

Crowd-sourcing can help solve communal issues. However, it is vital to know when it can be applied and when it will fail. Especially in journalism, people need to know what their target audience is, or the crowd-source will fail.

Open-sourcing is what I prefer, because (as Briggs states) it breaks down the wall between journalists and the public community. It makes them more accessible. Granted, people won’t always want to reach out to them, but it is nice to know that it’s an option.

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Storify on Super Bowl Sunday!

Posted by: | February 2, 2012 | No Comment |

[View the story “Super Bowl XLVI” on Storify]

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Briggs: Intro, Ch. 1 & 2

Posted by: | February 2, 2012 | No Comment |

My recap on the intro, chapters 1 and 2:

This book is really putting things into perspective for me. I have had my reservations about diving into the field of journalism at this point in time because of (what seems to be) the downfall of newspapers. Briggs, however, is re-boosting my enthusiasm.

He discusses how newspapers had their struggles when phones came into play, but things quickly turned around. These new technologies ended up helping the industry, rather than the expected hindering. This information can give the current age, of so many new technologies, an optimistic outlook on what journalism and the media will be in the future.

Briggs also stresses that we need our young generation to grab the new technologies and take over. The older generation is so used to the traditional ways of newsgathering and reporting. College students, and those fresh into the working world, are starting with a clean slate. They have the opportunity to grasp this new age with a contemporary feel.

Chapter one came close to overwhelming me with all of the information. On the other hand, I’m glad someone is finally taking the time to explain all of these web-based techniques. It made me realize that I don’t know as much about the web as I’d like to. I had planned to borrow this book from a friend, but now that I see there’s so much it can teach me, I think I can make the investment.

When it came to chapter two, I was happy to learn the benefits of using a blog. Briggs talked about how when the internet first started to develop, people wanted their own websites. Unfortunately, many of those people would focus more on the aesthetics of the site, rather than what the site contained. This all changed when there was a medium that created the web-page for you. Blogs allow people to focus on what’s important – the content.

Thank you, Briggs, for all of the important information that you have crammed into my assigned first two chapters. I sense that it will come in handy.

 

under: briggs, Comm361, RachelWood
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My Media Pyramid

Posted by: | February 2, 2012 | No Comment |

My personal news sources

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Stealing the blog’s virginity

Posted by: | January 31, 2012 | No Comment |

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