Amazon Kindle: Will it make your Christmas list?

During my sweep of the LA Times website, a small advertisement caught my eye. It read ‘LA Times Now on Kindle’. In order to appease my curiosity about this rather festive-sounding device, I decided to conduct a little research into this nifty gadget.

Following in the footsteps of the Sony Reader, which condenses approximately 160 digital books into a device  ‘smaller than a typical paperback‘, the Amazon Kindle allows the user to download  ‘over 245,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs.’

The Los Angeles Times: An Analysis of Interactivity in US Online News Sites.

Oxford English Dictionary defines the term interactivity as “allowing a two-way flow of information between it and a user, responding to the user’s input.” Interactivity in traditional print journalism was quite constrained, with the letters to the editor page or a simple audience poll being their primary outlets. As news media evolved, interactivity became a greater issue. In radio for instance, programmes such as Adrian Kennedy’s Phoneshow on FM104, depend greatly on public input. With the explosion of the Internet into daily life, traditional news companies recognised the need to create digital duplicates of their publications in order to keep their online audience satisfied. This move sparked an increase in interactivity. The introduction of features, such as forums, comment boxes and hyperlinks both internal and external, have allowed readers to interact and engage with information on unimaginable levels.

For this reason, I have chosen to examine the news site of the Los Angeles Times with regard to interactivity in the hopes of determining how important public input is to this US newspaper.

Children of the Digital Revolution: Do They Need Another Hero?

It was the Canadian Communications theorist, Marshall Mc Luhan, who proclaimed “It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” Indeed, with the birth of a new medium of communication, old rules are discarded and new ones generated.

For example, news writing for print publications relies heavily on the inverted pyramid structure, placing the most important information in the opening few paragraphs. On the other hand, radio writing depends greatly on a chatty, conversational tone as well as the simplification of complex details, statistics and jargon. Sure enough, the birth of the Internet created a plethora of new rules.

In a previous post, entitled “The Internet: Are We Being Foolish with our Lives?“, we discussed the negative effects that the Internet has on our concentration and our ability to retain information for prolonged periods of time. The piece deduced that if society didn’t alter their intense relationship with the World Wide Web, the physical, mental and psychological consequences would be unalterable.

Byline or Flatline: Are we Witnessing the Death of Newspapers?

I believe it was the American political satirist, Jon Stewart who jokingly mused on his popular show “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” about the imminent future of global print media. In a segment, entitled “Clusterf#@k to the Poor House“, Stewart asked his audience ” What’s black and white and completely over? Give up? It’s newspapers!”

Although it is true that traditional print media has successfully safeguarded itself against past competition, with the likes of radio and television expelled to the proverbial shade, experts and journalists alike believe that the Internet is proving a worthy adversary in the quest for custom.

Online British Broadsheets: An analysis of The Times Online.

During last week’s lecture, we discussed the concept of online news websites. In recent years, many popular print newspapers, such as the Irish Independent, or Britain’s Guardian have made their digital mark by creating an online news site to satisfy their wired audiences.

In order to fully understand this latest innovation, our class formed groups and examined a differnet facet of online news. My group examined the area of ‘Online British Broadsheets.’ We each chose a news site to analyse. Personally, I chose The Times Online. When our individual analysis was over, we brought our information together under the umbrella heading ‘Online British Broadsheets‘, thus a body of work was created.

Blog Digest: No Chewing Required!

Whilst perusing the Irish Independent’s website, I came across this novel article, entitled “Blog Digest.” Written by SiliconRepublic.com‘s Journalist of the Year, Marie Boran, this latest installment provides its readers with a cross section of Ireland’s finest business blogs.

As Boran explains in her introductory paragraph,

“Being an internet-savvy businessperson doesn’t just mean visibility for your product or service – it also means engaging with customers and potentialcustomers in a way that grows trust for you and your brand.”

The Internet: Are we being foolish with our lives?

Ah, the simple life. A happier time. A less  stressful time. Yet it is an almost mythical time to the youth of today, thanks in large part to the birth of the Digital Age.

The Internet is undoubtedly the backbone of modern society. It provides an outlet for modern society to feed on mammoth amounts of information. It provides a platform for society to communicate with each other on a global scale, through the wonders of the Internet and video conferencing. It takes the hassle out of everyday chores, such as grocery shopping by allowing the consumer to shop from the comfort of their own home.

However, in a recent Times article published in July 2008, journalist Bryan Appleyard grapples with the idea that these oceans of information we are currently navigating is slowly killing our concentration.

Entitled “Stoooopid… why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks”, this article examines the ‘harassment of man by self-inflicted technology.’ Appleyard explains that although it seems that marvels such as the Internet has benefited society in unfathomable ways, society is in fact forfeiting their ability to concentrate in the process.

Week 2 Exercise: Uploading a video to my Blog.

The example of video that I have chosen to post to my blog is the latest ‘Marmite-esque‘ installment from Glass and a Half Productions, aptly entitled “Freaky Eyebrows.” Enjoy! 🙂

Week 2 Exercise: Posting Audio to my Blog.

As part of last week’s lecture on the basic features that wordpress.com extends to its users, I have chosen to upload ‘Little Bird’ by Annie Lennox to illustrate these features. Enjoy! 🙂

Practise on uploading pictures and hyperlinking.

Here is a picture….

This screen grab is courtesy of The BBC UK News Page.