BuzzMachine

* Jeff Jarvis, Image courtesy of http://www.buzzmachine.com/

 In ‘The Internet as a right‘ Jeff Jarvis argues that the Internet should be a right for every citizen, just like how in developed nations we expect to have water, electricity and in some, phone services and television access.

Jarvis raises many points to demonstrate how the Internet as a right can benefit nations.

My favourite aspect of this blog is the interactivity Jarvis encourages with his audience by asking them to leave their comments.

This enables a broad spectrum of opinions are voiced and therefore, creates enhanced knowledge amongst viewers.

Throughout this unit, I have been bewildered not only by the emergence of blogs and how popular they have become in our society, but mostly by how they have changed the content of news.

Blogs create a space for opinions to be heard and discussion to take place on events and issues that in a newspaper or on the evening news, audiences might never have been exposed to.

Jarvis’ ‘The Internet as a right’ is the perfect example of an interesting debate that, in my opinion, would not be considered newsworthy enough be to broadcast on the news or published in a newspaper and this demonstartes how blogs can enhance our knowledge and create opinions on a wide spectrum of ideas.  

Innovations in Newspapers

* Juan Antonio Giner, Image courtesy of http://www.innovationsinnewspapers.com/index.php/about/

‘Innovations in Newspapers‘ by author Juan Antonio Giner, is an extremely political blog, with vast majority of attention being on the US Presidential Campaign.

Although I do not consider myself to be politically minded, I found this blog fascinating.

Juan Antonio Giner follows blog conventions by writing in single sentence paragraphs and presenting news more as conversation, not as a lecture, with the laid back writing approach.

The most fascinating aspect of this blog, in my opinion, is that the author is able to tell a story through a vast array of images used and there is little need for words.

In, ‘Getting nasty, but good for obama‘, the only words published by the author are,

“More and more nasty signs against Obama.

Republicans are doing a lot for Obama with these signs.

And they don’t know to stop this crazy trend.

Democrats must be very happy to have such a stupid enemy”.

By using such strong, visual images, even the limited words published did not need to be.

I also think it is ironic that the publisher of this blog and founder of the media consulting company Innovation International, Juan Antonio Giner, has an archive that dates back to June 2005.

That is definitely very innovative. 

UK Journalism

One of my favourites from the industry blogs worth monitoring, was the UK journalism site.

When I first viewed the site, I was overwhelmed by the vast array of options this site provides the audience, from breaking news and news feeds, the journalist’s and editor’s blog, to the ability to search for jobs and the amount of advertising on the home page.

The editor’s section contains blogs hand picked by the editor, John Thompson and they provide discussion on the latest news, particularly stories related to journalism.

One of the blogs I found most interesting was ‘SEC investigates fake jobs data‘.

One of my most significant concerns about citizen journalism is the verification of the material.

How are news organisations and then the audiences supposed to know what they are consuming is true, factual reporting?

‘SEC investigates fake jobs data’ discusses how an unsubstantiated report of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, suffering a heart attack and how it effectively sent Apple stock prices plummeting after the report’s publication.

This blog effectively demonstrates the importance of verifying information from citizen reporter’s before distributing the content.

I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the UK journalism site, for it was informative and interactive.

Hopefully Australian media will take note and follow the path of the innovative British!