Reflection Outline

Collaborative work vs. individual work

coming up with topic – may not always like it when working in a group, would not have decided on scholarly article

We all tried to do our own thing as much as possible but talked to eachother on matters of importance

Burden of work wasn’t all on one person, had other people to review your work

Hard when people not do their work or not do it in accordance with others, what do you say to them?

Some times hard to get in touch with each other, but technology helped greatly – we were able to e-mail research to each other

Technology

strengths – everyone work on it at once from anywhere, use gchat to talk while working on it, see who else is working on it, revision history

weaknesses – gets slow, things get deleted and lost, hard to maneuver (keeps refreshing self)

Guidance from instructor

Needed more guidance on MLA, what isn’t consistent, what needs to be covered better – a lot of us haven’t written research papers in a while

instructor = project manager, project needs a project manager to organize things whether it is the instructor or not – writers vs. editors

For the sake of a single poem

…Ah, poems amount to so little when you write them too early in your life. You ought to wait and gather sense and sweetness for a whole lifetime, and a long one if possible, and then, at the very end, you might perhaps be able to write ten good lines. For poems are not, as people think, simply emotions (one has emotions early enough) — they are experiences. For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and Things, you must understand animals, must feel how birds fly, and know the gesture which small flowers make when they open in the morning. You must be able to think back to streets in unknown neighborhoods, to unexpected encounters, and to partings you had long seen coming; to days of childhood whose mystery is still unexplained, to parents whom you had to hurt when they brought in a joy and you didn’t pick it up (it was a joy meant for somebody else –); to childhood illnesses that began so strangely with so many profound and difficult transformations, to days in quiet, restrained rooms and to mornings by the sea, to the sea itself,  to seas, to nights of travel that rushed along high overhead and went flying with all the stars, — and it is still not enough to be able to think of all that. You must have memories of many nights of love, each one different from all the others, memories of women screaming in labor, and of light, pale, sleeping girls who have just given birth and are closing again. But you must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and the scattered noises. And it is not yet enough to have memories. You must be able to forget them when they are many, and you must have the immense patience to wait until they return. For the memories themselves are not important. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves — only then can it happen that in some very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Remediation Project – Facebook Journalism

For my remediation project, I chose to transform an article I had written for The Red & Black entitled Parking Services praised for customer aid into a Facebook news feed.

I chose to transform this article into a Facebook news feed for the following reasons:

1. It gives the reader more insight into the people and events of the article.

2. It describes the article from multiple perspectives.

3. It shows that things  are interconnected and happen simultaneously.

4.  It provides readers with a sense of community.

5. It allows for the news to be more personalized and appeal to its a viewers in a better way.

6.  It helps news outlets receive and develop story ideas and is, arguably, where the future of news is headed.

SPCM1100 Visual Aids

Found on AudioDizer Blog

Found on PBS.org

Graphic by The Washington Post

Rhetorical Analysis – NYTimes.com

Rhetorical Analysis of The New York Times Web site

Outline:

The Problem – The current state of news media, both print and online

The Importance – Why we should care about the present and future of news media

The Model – The NYTimes.com as the best vehicle to pioneer change in the news industry and what it’s doing wrong

The Solution – What can be done to fix the model and, therefore, solve the problem

The Problem

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the current state of media and big news corporations, here is a quick review to get you up to date:

“Decline of US Newspapers Accelerating” TechCrunch

“Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than previously thought, with total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006, the biggest drop in revenue since 1950, the year they started tracking annual revenue.

Online provides some solace for the dead-tree business, with internet ad revenue growing 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006, but a rate significantly lower than the 31.4% growth the year before, and not even close to replacing the losses from print. Online revenue now represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenues.”

“Newspaper Circulation Continues to Decline Rapidly” New York Times

“The long decline in newspaper circulation over the years continues to accelerate, with sales in the spring and summer falling almost 5 percent from the previous year, figures released on Monday show, deepening the financial strain on the industry.”

“Tribune Co. Could be Flirting with Bankruptcy” New York Times

“New York Times, Tribune Company, NBC Announce Problems Monday” Huffington Post

“Three major media companies all revealed grim news Monday.”

“Times Co. Is in Talks to Sell Part of Building” New York Times

“The Times Company has been seeking various ways to raise money to pay down its debt. One of its two $400 million revolving credit lines will expire in May, but the company has said that it will not seek to renew the full amount.”

“Times Co. to Issue Debt” New York Times

“The New York Times Company is planning to raise $250 million by issuing notes and debentures to pay off debt. According to the offering notice, which was issued on Friday, the notes and debentures will be used to repay $162.3 million in debt related to newspaper acquisitions in 1985 and $50 million to pay off debt issued by Affiliated Publications Inc., the parent company of The Boston Globe.”

“Web Traffic to Top 10 Online Newspapers Grows 16 Percent Year-Over-Year in December, According to Nielsen Online” MSNBC

“Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, today reported a 16 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper Web sites, growing from 34.6 million unique visitors in December 2007 to 40.1 million in December 2008.

NYTimes.com was the number one online newspaper destination in December 2008, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 11.4 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectivel.”

“NYT Web Traffic Up, Ad Revune Down” AdWeek

“Thus it seems apparent that as the economic recession deepens, traffic growth will not be enough to offset ad declines. NYT executives attributed November’s declines to a modest overall display ad market and weakness in recruitment and real estate advertising.”

“NYTimes.com Needs 7x More Traffic to Survive” Silicon Alley Insider

“‘Based on our research, the conversation [with advertisers] gets interesting at 200 million page views plus a month, but much more so around 800 million,’ ContentNext’s Lauren Rich Fine writes in a report.”

In short, print media is down and web traffic is up – but not enough to save the news industry. More page views lead to more ad revenues, and, right now, none of the major news corporations including the Times Co. which is leading the industry in Web site hits, is generating enough traffic to survive.

The Importance

After having all this information thrown at you about the cloudy future of print media and the slow start-up of online news revenues, the next questions are “Why should I care?” and “What does this mean to me?”

The answer is simple.

Traditional media and established news companies offer something that blogging and new media can’t and that is – credibility, ethics and just damn good reporting.

In an editorial published online at the Milwauke Journal Sentinel entitled “Journalism that matters: It’s more vital than ever,” the author explains why – in his opinion – journalism done right is needed now more than ever.

“We’re talking about the continuing need, in this evolving media landscape, for journalism done well to serve the higher purpose of a functioning democracy.

We speak here not of those nuggets of juicy gossip that the tabloids pass off as reporting – truth or verification not required for publication. And journalism needs to be broader than the blog criticism or analysis likely sparked by something someone read first in a newspaper or its online edition.“

“We are talking about the continuation of good, public-service journalism. And we wonder, if newspapers cease to do this, will the market decide that giving readers what they want is more profitable than fulfilling the public obligation in a democracy of giving them also what they need?

Newspapers are not immune to the technological and economic advances affecting and overtaking whole industries. Fundamental change is occurring all around us and would be occurring no matter what newspapers had done in the past to remake themselves.

Yet newspapers, here and elsewhere, still offer the broadest array of solid, vetted news and information and, with Internet operations, reach more people.“

The article also lists nine guidelines for journalism I have listed below. The have been taken from the book “The Elements of Journalism – What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel and are taught in many journalism classes throughout the United States including the ones right here at the University we all know and love.

“Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.

Its first loyalty is to the governed, not the governors.

Its essence is a discipline of verification of facts.

It practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.

It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.

It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.

Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.”

So, again, why should we care about the current state of print media and the future changes made by major news corporations? Simply put in the last words of the article: Good public service reporting needs to survive. Democracy demands it.

The Model

In order for newspapers and media to perform its proper function in democracy, it must survive these hard times, and, in order to do so, their Web sites must change accordingly. What better news company is there to pioneer this change than the Times Co. which has been around since 1851 and is third in circulation behind only USA Today and The Wall Street Journal according to an entry found on wikipedia?

The Times Co. must be at the forefront of this change in order to prevent their company from falling into bankruptcy and save investigative journalism from degenerating into opinions and hearsay.

In order to do so, in a time where internet is power and progress, we must first analyze the Web site of the New York Times and its many aspects.

First, I will begin with the colors utilized in the Web site of the Times.

Black and White – These two colors suggest tradition and sophistication and very closely resemble the print version of The New York Times. This helps to establish the brand image of The New York Times which, to me, is authority and credibility in news. Can you see the difference color makes in the two pictures of a sunflower I have included below?

vs.             

The color picture of the sunflower is very bright, happy, and friendly while the black and white picture is more elegant and classic and requires the viewer to pay more attention to details.

The large use of white space also makes the site easier to read and attempts to draw the viewers attention to what is important – the content.

Blue hyperlinks – The choice to make the hyperlinks blue is smart because it notifies viewers that certain words and phrases contain links to other information and articles without distracting them. It organizes information for the viewers by letting them know when other information is available and when it is not. Many hyperlinks on other pages are also blue, so the reader expects them to be that color when looking at other Web sites and doesn’t get caught up in a technicality when looking at The New York Times online. Blue is also a very calm and peaceful color and doesn’t startle viewers or place any sense of urgency on them to click the hyperlinks if they do not want to.

Second, we must look at the style, type and use of font on the company’s online pages.

Serif type- Serif fonts are generally pretty easy to read and have more of a traditional and classic connotation. The New York Times online uses serif fonts. I believe it works for the site and the company because – like the black and white colors it utilizes – it suggests authority, and in this day and age, the online culture prefers that information be more easily and quickly digestible than ever before. I have included an example below of serif and sans serif type. Which one is easier to read to you or does it matter?

Sans serif (Arial)

Serif (Georgia)

Sans serif looks very plain and simple while serif looks a little more complicated and includes an extra line at the end of each character stroke.

Clutter – The colors black and white used in the design simplify the look of the Web site; however, the cramped sentences and wordy lists complicate the design and confuse viewers. It makes the design look cramped and doesn’t encourage viewers to keep reading. In the online world of today, people want information faster and shorter, and the long lead-ins don’t help.

_______________________

What looks less

cluttered? Type like

this that is pushed on

top of each other?

(75 characters)

_______________________

Or type like this that spans the whole width of the line and isn’t boxed in by other stories and pictures? (105 characters)

_______________________

Next, we must analyze the placement and purpose of ads used on the Web site.

Placement – All ads on the Web site seem to be placed either in the header of the site, right below it, or in a column on the far right. I believe that most ads should be put on the far right of the page because we read from left to right and the thing we should see first is the news. After all, a journalist’s first loyalty is to the people and it’s first obligation is to the truth. The problem, however,  is that many ads are put at the very top of the page right next to the title of the publication. While this ensures advertisers that their ads will be seen, it distracts viewers from the main purpose and overall feeling of the site. Viewers no longer feel like The New York Times is a close and trusted friend but rather a corrupt corporation fending for themselves and succumbing to capitalism. Ads should be kept on the sides or the bottom of the page so that viewers can focus on what is truly important – the news.

Content – Most of the ads featured on the site are national companies and brands and don’t cater to many specific demographics. Oftentimes, they are just pictures, and other times they may flash or show other kinds of animation. Overall, though, they don’t engage the viewer, and they don’t even seem to show any kind of understanding of their viewers. Ads need to be more localized and cater to the interests of different people. I believe the best way to do this will be to encourage all viewers to create their own personal online account with the company and then set their preferences and locations of interest for the site, but I will discuss this later in “The Solution.” Also, advertisers should create more ads using multimedia, such as video or interactive technologies. Advertisers must find a way to give people messages about their products in a way that viewers want it.

Finally, we should look at the photo and art placement and decide whether or not the pictures are useful to the information the site presents to its viewers.

Supplement – Almost all of the photos and artwork on the Web site supplement the news story that goes with it. It offers a better picture of the subject of the article and changes every day with the changing news. I believe that the photos on the Web site should always supplement the content of the day’s paper and should be removed if they fail to do so effectively.

Attract – The photos and art also serve to attract the attention of viewers to a certain spot on the page. Most of the time, there is one big picture in the center of the page to draw the viewer’s attention to the subject of the main story.  This aspect is relatively similar to the print version of The New York Times which also usually features a picture in the center of the front page. My problem, however, is that after I see the picture, I am lost. I have no where to go from there. I see no line of sight directing me throughout the page. There should be movement throughout the page in order to guide the viewer, with one picture leading, pointing to, or complementing another picture or major news story. The advertisement I have presented below demonstrates this point, with the images of fruit falling down the page until they finally get to the ultimate message of the ad – the product.

The New York Times should have a big picture in the center of the Web site that supplements the major news story of the day and then, in correspondence with the relative importance of the other daily articles, have other pictures that get smaller in size as they run down the page. This means that the biggest news story have the biggest picture, the next biggest story (yet still not as important as the first one) have the next biggest (a little bit smaller) picture, and so on. This will guide the viewer’s eye so that they won’t get lost on the Web site after looking at the main photo and will know which article to go to next after they are finished looking at the first one.

Overall, web viewers want more information faster. They don’t want to have to go hunting for their news; they want people to tell them what it is. In order for The New York Times to make reading the paper easier and more enjoyable, the company needs to streamline their look and make it easier to use to the average person. They need to better organize their information,  cut back on the sentences on the front page, and make their ads more entertaining and useful.

The Solution

The current state of print media is in shambles, and the Web site of The New York Times isn’t helping, so what exactly should news companies including the Times Co. do now?

Easy.

They should:

1.) begin to personalize their Web site to cater to the needs and interests of their viewers.

The Web site of The New York Times allows viewers to sign up for an account with their company. However, their site doesn’t really allow members to choose many of the ways their news is given to them. As a matter of fact, the only things a member can change after they have signed in with the site is their account information, their newspaper subscription,  and their daily headlines e-mail. A member can also create alerts for certain information, browse the archives, and get premium crossword puzzles. Wow, with all those features, The New York Times must surely value my investment in their company.

What I’m proposing is that when new members first sign up, the site ask them what kind of news they individually want to read and then deliver that news to their members on the home page of their Web site once they log in. For example: If my dad were to sign up, he would request that the Finance pages of the paper be his home page on The New York Times. If I were to sign up, I might request that the Entertainment pages of the paper would by my home page.

If The New York Times adopted this strategy, they could narrow down the subjects and amount of the news stories shown on their home page so that they only display the ones that are of utmost importance to each viewer. All other information should be available to the viewer by simply clicking on the appropriate link in the left sidebar.  In this way, clutter and extraneous information on the home page will be kept to a minimum.

2.) create more blogs and allow more space for viewers to comment on articles and issues and communicate with others

The Web site of The New York Times provides some blogs. Most of them, however, are written by their own reporters, photographers, or staff. While I completely support people that are educated in journalism writing the news, I believe that the Times Co. should allow readers to also write some of their own blogs and communicate more with others – not just with other viewers but also with other writers, editors, and researchers. If The New York Times begins to foster a community of readers, writers, and intellectuals, more people will keep coming back to the site time after time to talk to others and discuss their feelings. This will also give viewers a better perspective of what the people who write and deliver the news do and how they feel about certain issues. In order to survive, news corporations need to be more transparent and make their readers feel like the company is a close and trusted friend. Blogs, especially those that viewers can personalize, and viewer feedback will invoke that feeling in the minds of readers and will allow the Web site of The New York Times to thrive.

3.) provide more local ads to viewers and in more unique and innovative ways

When viewers sign up for the first time, the site should require new members to list their place of current residence or cities of interest so that when members log onto their site, The New York Times could give them the ads they want for the places that they care about the most. The site could also ask new members a whole host of potential questions that could help advertisers target a specific demographic that will be the most responsive to the advertising for their product.

The New York Times should even allow its only viewers to post want ads on the site and sell their own things, such as sites like Craig’s List or Ebay which already do something of the sort.

This new method can help the creators of The New York Times Web site streamline their look and give viewers exactly what they want without all the clutter.

News corporations should also encourage more creative advertising. In the realm of the internet, where people can just as easily go from one site to the next as they can stop reading, it is paramount for advertisers to capture their viewer’s attention. If a viewer does not like something or is not interested in the content, he or she can just ex out of the page and move on to the next site. Advertisers must keep the public’s interest by incorporating more advanced media into their ads through videos and interactive technologies.

What would you rather look at?

or

While they’re both kind of entertaining, I would rather look at the video any day.

If all this is implemented, more viewers will be drawn to the online version of the New York Times because the site will be able to give viewers what they want -  and what they need – by making it easier to read and catering more closely to the people’s needs and interests, and – once more people visit the Web site – advertisers will follow.

Mark Glaser, a freelance journalist who has written for the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other publications, wrote “Your Guide to Alternative Business Models” on pbs.org in order to help news organizations and Web sites enter the digital age. This site includes some of the things that I have just mentioned as well as a variety of other possible solutions.  Sounds like just the thing the Times Co. needs.

Proposal – NYTimes.com

I have decided to review nytimes.com, the online version of The New York Times newspaper. I plan to look at various aspects of the site’s design, such as font and color, art and photos, clutter and ease of use, as well as ad placement. I would also like to focus a little bit on the site’s interactivity with its viewers and efforts towards personalization. I feel as though in this day and age, news outlets that can effectively communicate with the masses are of utmost importance. Also, I plan to briefly explore how news sites can draw more viewers to their pages and, therefore, revolutionize the way news is presented to the people in this hard economic time when many news outlets, including The New York Times, are going out of business. My general conclusion upon a brief analysis is that the overall design and content of nytimes.com is effective but that it is cluttered, fairly difficult to navigate, and not very personable. The site’s use of white space and photos make the site appealing, but the tiny type, millions of links, and overabundance of words (even though it is an online newspaper) hinder the viewers ability to clearly navigate the site and fully utilize its features. Sites and organizations like nytimes.com and The New York Times need to think critically about how their viewers, or readers, receive information so that they can provide the best plan to keep people reading their paper and, therefore, save news organizations from going down the tubes. I plan to explore these areas on my own personal blog, binowski.wordpress.com, and include links and graphics where applicable to demonstrate my points.