In this essay, I am going to compare three journalism websites, include an Australian website Crikey(http://www.crikey.com.au/), a website which launch last year October THE Daily Beast (http://www.thedailybeast.com/) and a website which launched in early time Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com/) The choice of these three websites is according to same nature of their ploy, aggregating news information from the World media. They also have similar mission, to bring reader interesting and newsworthy information. To reach their mission, the three websites are using different website layout, editing technique and article selection for reader to access the website conveniently and efficiently. This essay is going to start form the background and culture development of this type of journalism. Their mission affects their layout design of the website for reach to their target audience. Base on these observations to evaluate the websites.
The Drudge Report, an internet web site created by Matt Drudge, began in 1996, and was delivered by e-mail and by America Online before finding its primary home at http://www.drudgereport.com/ . In the original, The Drudge Report began as a supplement to his $10/year email newspaper. The website initially focuses on the gossip of Hollywood and Washington Star. After 1998, a banner headline usually anchored the page, focusing on the top news of the moment. The biggest scoop was it reported that Newsweek magazine held a story alleging President Bill Clinton had affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in 1998.
Drudge operates in a new medium with different rules, where anyone with motivation and a website can become a disseminator of news. Some point of the lack of editorial oversight or any ethical cannon of fairness to suggest that Drudge is a threat to journalistic standard. (Vaughn, 2007)Articles about blogging seem to have appeared in all major newspaper, and all current affair magazines, during 2002-3. Half of them say that blogging is the perfect democratic internet application, giving everyone a platform to express their views, and giving non-mainstream voices an opportunity to contribute to media culture. The other half are by journalists furious that unqualified amateurs are being treated as legitimate commentators on current affairs this. They feel, should be left to professional hacks (Gauntlett, 2004) Traditional journalists thought that journal should be report with resources, opinion with expertise, fairness without personal objective opinion. Internet journal and blogging is warning the fundamental trust of journalism. The debate is meaningless, in internet is big enough, with unlimited capacity to hold both professional journal and gossip type journal, as Hattendorf state that the press has been accused of being biased for so long that they have finally said, “Bias? You want to see bias? OH, we will show you bias!” I think they just don’t even attempt to show balance anymore. Leave that to FOX News. (Hattendorf, 2007) Professional and good reputational internet journalism, which most of them are owned by printed newspaper publishers still are the major primary source for the world journalism. Crikey, THE Daily Beast and Drudge Report aggregate the news from external websites of mainstream media outlets.
Drudge is a pioneer in online journalism and political blogging, his website now has many mimics and rivals. The Daily Beast is one of them, but is the latest one, which launch Octuber 6, 2008. It is positioned somewhere in the middle of the Drudge Report and the HuffingtonPost, both in terms of content and political placement. But like Drudge it also acts as an aggregator, linking to stories of the day as chosen by its small team of editors under its motto "Read this, skip that." (Pilkington, 2008) The Drudge Report, which the liberal columnist Joe Conason labeled the “favorite webpage of the credulous right wing.” Yet even those who deplored Drudge’s politics found guilty pleasure in reading his mix of Hollywood and Washington gossip. (Ritchie, 2005)However, now a day The Drudge Report no longer the single choice of this type of website. Audience may choose the web site on their Political view.
The Daily Beast aims to provide interesting and hottest topic for conversation information to their audience which is efficient to read after the smart edit of the website. Crikey’s aim is very traditional, to bring reader the inside word on what’s going on, to act as a vital check and balance on the activities of government, the political system and the judiciary. If Crikey publishes such information, its status is identified. Crikey aims for full transparency in what it publishes and to be fair and open in its journalism. The Drudge Report doesn’t claim any aims in its website. By my observation, The Drudge Report is trying to aggregate the hottest and funny news with selecting external webpage which is readability, allow reader to pick up influential news efficiently.
Let’s start to have a look on Drudge’s webpage design, which website attracts 600 million visitors a month. The Webpage of The Drudge Report is simply one page, white background and black word. A big banner headline and image on top central of the webpage, focusing on the top news of the moment. Roll down is a list around 40 incomplete headlines, only 3 -6 news have their image with them. Check on the headline, the hypertext will link to the external websites of mainstream media outlets. It occasionally includes stories written by Drudge — usually two or three paragraphs in length. They generally concern a story about to be published in a major magazine or newspaper. The website is encourage to linking internally, if reader want to go back the front page of the website, reader have to undo the page to go back. The Daily Beast and Crikey have simular impress when I first seen their webpage outlook. Both of them are colourful, complex, multimedia and also blogging. They have a column on the top to categorize their information and news. On the top right side is their headlines and focus topic in their journalism. Indeed, look detail on the both websites they are totally different in their layout. In Crikey, there are 3 part in the front page, the top part is Australia local and international news, the second part is interesting and funny knowledge column, the third part is separate into 6 sections which is according to the top column; latest stories, politics, media, business, environment and life. All sections have a list of relevant headlines. The layout of Crikey follows the traditional newspaper format to sort out their categories.
Compare the three websites, Crikey’s format and ploy is the one closest to traditional target of print newspaper, so that is the format easiest to carry on in the first sight and reader know where to find information they need. That format would attract Adult and senior obstinate reader which hold the traditional reading format tight. . Crikey’s category Break Media Wrap, cutting newspaper form every morning, is a great idea to match their senior and adult reader, but I think Crikey should more explicit this category in the front page.
The categories on top column in The Daily Beast are all in strange words, such as Cheat Sheet, Big Fat Story and Buzz Board. Check on Cheat Sheet, it is summaries of the all hot topic; Check on Big Fat Story, it is a relation map or mind map to explain the complicate recent issue in a visual way; Buzz Board showing the personal opinion comment by the journalist, singer, designer, talking about the life style, cultural industry and music; like twitter. I think The Daily Beast is the most success on editing their website, example see at Chest Sheet, billed as “must reads from all over” and Big Fat Story. The Chest Sheet offers a selection of articles from online news outlet on popular stories. The Cheat Sheet includes brief summaries of the articles, and a link to read the full text of the article on the website of its provider. The Big Fat Story is more like a magazine, revealing the whole story from their news aggregation in other website, and present the story by visual map. From the front page design that is not hard to estimate The Daily Beast would be more attractive to teen and young, as reader comment on the news and blogging lively and actively in webpage. The Daily Beast is the most engaging audience to the news in the website within the three of them.
Drudge Report obeys one rule: Simplicity. Drudge Report does not do any editing on the news, the opinion and aspect is reveal in its selection of articles and the headline. The target audience would be simular between Drudge Report and The Daily Beast as both of them make the audience able to talk about the hot topic in current issue.
More than half of the news information in these three websites is linking to other websites. The three websites are using same kind of primary source form online news outlet; the different is the presentation skill and technique of editing by their editor. The Daily Beast holds a unique feature on the Cheat Sheet and Big Fat Story. Drudge Report and The Daily Beast both is useful tool to select information form information overload internet. The filler of Crikey is not tight as the other two, but in other side, it provides a more fairness information, let the reader to build up their own opinion, instead of guiding the view to the reader. (words count: 1570)
Bibliography
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