Salvacion - Week 8 Exercise

COM127L - Week 8

Online Videos Affect Our Consumption of Media Information

As we all know, many people are now using the Internet to acquire information, education and as well as entertainment. Browsing the web is so much easier than using any other media in getting news insights and ideas. It can bring you to different sides of one story to widen your knowledge and analysis. Online videos are considered as one of the online media types that really change the way of how people utilize media information. It is very effective in giving out detailed actualities by the scenes in motion. In fact, online videos are growing rapidly for the reason that some web users are more convinced and influenced by what they watch on the videos. Even advertisers use online videos to reach certain number of audiences. Some nonprofessional film makers share their movie clips online to extend its viewers and gain fame for it. In the same way, bloggers also use videos (usually called vlogs) to have a twist in their blogging experience. Their readers somehow enjoy it whenever a blogger posts a vlog because they can see and hear how that specific person talks and acts. The last and most important online video that I know is the citizen journalism video reporting. It gives us the ideas of what is happening to various places around the world which can make us aware that unusual things happen or exist.

For me, this has changed my perspective towards media information since it offers a lot of information that cannot be seen on televisions. I seldom watch TV programs for information because the Internet has more updated news than the TV. I also don't find it interesting or entertaining anymore since I got hooked up with what the online world presents. Another thing is that the Internet has an interaction feature for the users.

I watch online videos almost everyday. Mostly, these videos are from Youtube and Vimeo. I view music videos, funny clips, interviews, talk shows, and sometimes, news related videos to keep me informed and entertained. These videos are appealing for me for the reason that it provides a diverse treatment to every facts or even fiction messages to exercise my own understanding on it. I love how it alters or simply maintain my perception about the different things in life.

Salvacion - Exercise (Week 7)

COM127L - Week 7

Photography and Online Journalism

These are the three photographs that I found very uncommon and fascinating.

 

 

 

 

Source: Steve McCurry's blog

 

Stories are better told when they are represented by photographs. Sometimes, the photograph itself gives the idea of what to tell based on its subject matter. In today’s generation, many people, mostly teenagers, think that a news article or story is credible enough if it has photos as evidences. It also provides a better understanding towards its intended information. Come to think of it. If we were to read or listen to any stories such as news, conversational, feature, entertainment, etc. without the presence of photographs, it would be boring and hard to comprehend. Not only that, people also needs to use their imagination to grasp the contents of the story. The problem with this is that people have different points of view which can lead to misinterpreting or misunderstanding the gist of the story. So in order to improve a certain story, writers should have pictures to make it interesting and reliable. In that way, people will have a mutual perception. Just make sure that the images are related to the given narrative. At times, same subject with unlike angles presents different stories too.

 

The three photographs that I chose show the unusual things that I haven’t seen in person. It gave me the impression that the things which were impossible for me can be possible for others. It’s true that photographs can lead you to the places that you’ve never been, the things that you’ve never seen or heard, and the feeling that you’ve never felt.

 

The common qualities of these 3 photos are:

1.       Exceptional

2.       Have strong feelings

3.       Real

4.       Persuasive

 

For me, digital photography is one of the best developments in our generation. It helps us to view the beauty of our world and captures unmeasureable experiences that can last for a long time. It processes images easier than the old photography way.  If this was not invented, many things would probably be unknown for us. We will just believe the things that we personally witness and not the stories that are just told without proofs. We would not know how tragic the wars in other countries are and how joyous the celebrations of the festivities of particular cultures in various countries are. Other than that, it would be hard to collect and document the history of significant events. Today, we used digital photography in crime scences, weddings, birthdays, and many more happenings to keep records of it. Lastly, it sometimes makes facts more convincing and trustworthy.

 

Salvacion - Exercise 4B

Priscilla Mae Salvacion
COM127L - A98

Reporting News for the Web

Reporting news in the web is very different from print, radio, and TV. Since we are living in a world full of technological advances, we tend to rely on the web when it comes to getting new information. An online news writer constructs news in simplest manner so that the readers will understand it immediately. One advantage of an online news reporting is that they can update their news in just one click away. It is easy to share update news items unlike the radio, TV, and especially print. Not only that, news for the web provides related photos, videos, and past stories that are connected to the specific topic to make it more clearer and concise. It is important to know that even though it is easy to put up such news item on the web, news websites should be credible and avoid having flaws. Interesting headlines are constructed to persuade the readers to read the whole news story. It sometimes administers interaction between the audience and news reporter for a better understanding.

Based on the video, "What is Crowdsourcing?", Jeff Howe defined crowdsourcing as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated employee and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. This can be used in online/multimedia journalism if the journalists work hand in hand to achieve one main goal. They can set up their own website where they will post nothing but the truth so that the people will know what's really happening around them and in other countries. The journalists will gain the people's trust through this if the website will be useful for most of the readers.

Reporters should keep their professional ethics to gain the respect of the leaders. They won't lose any readers if they stay true to what they are reporting. Sometimes, if people find them good at what they are doing, more people will listen or read their works. It's also a big factor to maintain a lively and tight. It means that people want something straight to the point so the reporters should not make some extra information that is not related to the topic.

Salvacion - Exercise 4A

Priscilla Mae Salvacion
COM127L - A98

Journalistic Blogs

These are the three (3) journalists' blogs that I chose:
1. Jon Slattery

2. Journalistics

3. J-scribe

There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of blogging. Today, many people like professionals, freelance workers, and even students are using blogging websites to share their ideas and opinions about certain topics. The main advantage of this is that it freely gives you the time and space to let your thoughts be known throughout the Web. It allows you to express your feelings without having any doubts if people will agree or disagree with you. It is just a like a public diary where you can write down all of your life experiences and beliefs that may inspire the readers. But it's not only for personal use. It can also be used as a business or review blogs. People usually read various blogs as their basis when looking for comments and suggestions regarding a specific product or service. They seek others' opinion to know if the idea or product is effective or not. Sometimes, people trust the blogs more instead of what the company or agency is telling them. Another advantage of blogging is that it can improve the writing skills of the students. It makes them pursue a reasonably good article and avoid grammatical mistakes. If you are to make your own blog, you will know the benefits of it yourself.

On the other hand, the disadvantages of blogging are the opposite of its advantages. Blogging websites are public so you cannot claim the privacy of your work. Many people can read it just by searching some of the key words in your blog. Not only that, once you have gain potential readers, you need to update your blog everyday so they will have something to read the next time they visit your website. A blogger has its own responsibilities too. You need to gain the trust of the readers by writing the right information. Your credibility is important so that people will agree to what you are trying to say. Sometimes, there will be an opposing post that you may encounter so you should know how to manage it.

You can read some of the advantages and disadvantages of blogging here.

I observed a lot of commonalities in the three journalists' blogs that I have chosen. First, all of them stated their opinions regarding different things. They do not mostly agree to some of the trending topics that's why they post their own views about it. They encourage the people to know what's really behind every information that the media are telling them. What's good about it is that they give us the opportunity to see different sides of ideas to develop our logical reasoning concerning the given subject matter.

In an online environment, blogging is obviously different than news reporting. Blogging is more of sharing one's own opinion and ideas that influences other people while news reporting is more of facts and real situations that informs the people about what is happening around them. Blogging can also state facts but it doesn't give accurate information since some people have their own biases at some point. But in some way, both can give same information in different approaches.

Salvacion - Exercise 3D

Priscilla Mae Salvacion
COM127L - A98

Comparing 3 News Sites

Blog Entry #1

These are the 3 entertainment news site that I chose:

1. TMZ

2. E! Online

3. Entertainment Weekly

Design: These 3 entertainment news site have good designs in a way that they are simple and not distracting in one's eyes. They use white background which makes the website pleasing and neat. If I were to chose the best designed website, I will choose E! Online because it has colorful fonts that complement the whole web page. It makes the ideas or information more lively and attractive. The Entertainment Weekly has a lot of texts so it doesn't really caught my attention. My impression of it was "information overload". TMZ is a bit normal for me because it is somewhat the same like their TV program. It's just funny how sloppy they cut pictures of celebrities and put it on the middle part of the web page.

Content: TMZ and E! Online are known to have entertainment news, celebrity news and gossips. Both websites share the latest revelations about different personalities in Hollywood. But TMZ prefers to broadcast the negative things about the celebrities. Unlike Entertainment Weekly, it only focuses on the news about TV series, music, movies, books, family, and their newest, style. It gives the details about the releases of the TV series, movies, books, etc. It doesn't talk about an individual artist but instead, it informs the people about specific casts of a movie or TV series.


Usability: For me, TMZ is the easiest to browse with for the reason that you'll just scroll down to see and read the article about a certain topic. It has short articles with relevant pictures so that the people will get the idea of the information. While on E! Online, it has scattered photos with caption or title all over their web page so that makes it in a disorderly way. It's hard for a person to focus on one topic when he/she sees another interesting topic for him/her. But E! has its own advantage because they have live streaming for special events like Emmy Awards. Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, can also be used in an easy way but the website has a lot to offer. They have so many information posted on their page that may be less important. It's a good website if you want to see other sources about a related topics because they have multiple partners like the Huffington Post which you can also see what they have said about it.