See the power of elements

Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/03/2916814.htm

Topic:
Tornado smashes NSW north coast

Author:
ABC News


This story briefly reported that a tornado hit the north coast of New South Wales at Lennox Head, and the rest part is based on various quotes and images. Statistics and details were provided by policeman and emergency unit. Some witnesses talked about their experiences in the horror weather.

Seven pictures, one video clip and a map were also provided, which described the big tornado. In disaster news, the best way to describe is to let the images speak. These images had more visual impact on readers when it showed a house was smashed to pieces, just “like a bomb”.


(Picture form ABC news)

Metal, wood, water, fire and earth are the five basic elements in ancient Chinese philosophy. They compose everything, and destroy everything. They cause most natural disasters, except tornado.

In terms of online news, what is the most important element to attract readers? The answers are two: more images and readers themselves.

What makes readers so important? The interactivity of online news.

I really appreciate the “contribute” function of ABC News, which encourages readers to upload their own media, including images, video and audio. There is a hyperlink following this story: “Did you see what happened? Send us your photographs/video”.

The Internet era is upon us, the online news times is coming and the traditional top-down relationship between writers and viewers begins to fracture. Not just journalists, but everyone can be a contributor to online news, namely, readers have been a part of online news.

This story is a good example, some quotes and images from readers make this story.

Interested in tornado? Click here to watch a video from Channel Ten news, made by big media institution. You may see some interesting differences between these two clips.

Big hole in blog about"sinkhole"

Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterfoster/100042823/are-there-any-reasonable-explanations-for-spectacular-sinkholes-in-china/

Topic:
Are there any reasonable explanations for spectacular sinkholes in China?

Author: Peter Foster


This story introduced a strange phenomenon that some sinkholes suddenly appeared across China. With some nice pictures (no reference), Mr. Foster described this big disaster and the media reaction in China. He also analyzed the discussion related to 2012, which presented different opinions among the public.

These strange sinkholes are quite newsworthy and people want to know what happened in China and the reason why this happened. It is exactly an interesting story published to discuss these sinkholes.

The problem is the picture below.


Eye-catching picture, isn’t it? Such a big hole among mountains.

Mr.Foster described this picture as “On April 27, several sinkholes appeared one after another in Yinbin City.”

That is a big mistake.

It is not “sinkhole” at all and it has been there for thousands of years, not just appeared “On April 27”.The big hole in this picture is another impressive geological phenomenon called “Karst Tiankeng”.

You may notice that Peter Foster” was formerly the Daily Telegraph's South Asia Correspondent based New Delhi from 2004-2008”. Having four years journalism experience, people still make mistakes when writing in blog.

Currently, blogging may be considered as an alternative to traditional journalism for its increasing popularity. More and more citizens participate actively in the process of collecting, reporting, and analyzing news. But the credibility and accuracy of blogging still needs to be examined. Although blogging may have less political bias, one limitation of blogging news is the personal bias, including excessive prejudices and misunderstandings. Differing from traditional media, which contain investigative journalism, most bloggers simply present partial fact based on personal experiences, due to lack of time and resources.

I am a blogger, too. Don’t trust me before you Google the information in my blog. If you find any mistakes in my blog before 2012, just let me know---I don’t want the new creatures on the earth laughing at me.

Want to know more about these big holes? Click this(from YouTube):

Prepare for your 2012

( Picture form ABC News Photo Illustration)

Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5301284&page=3

Topic:
Will the World End in 2012?

Author: Christine Brouwer


At first, I feel regret that the editor of ABC news had a bad taste when choosing this irrelevant picture to present with this article. It is a simple collection of disaster photos and has nothing to do with the story.


A 51-year old man Patrick Geryl highly believes the doomsday theory and presumes that the whole world would end in 2012. So he thinks he doesn’t need jobs or money anymore. This is the first story in this news article. The second story is about Dennis McClung, a fantastic business man, who runs an online survival supply store called “2012suppies”. The third story is about one customer of Mr.McClung, and so on.

It seems like this news article only focus on individual stories. If so, what are the news values? Why these people matters? Although it is unusual, there is not significance related to public interest. In fact, the news story aims to report a specific group, the people who highly believe the catastrophe will come soon and change their choices for this concern. Neither Geryl nor Mcclung is the only one. By writing about several typical people, this news article provides a big picture of people’s funk and worry about 2012.

This is one of the news writing skill, from specific to general. Starting the news with a story of a person is easier to attract readers’ attention, because this kind of stories is usually vivid and easy to follow. It contains “human interest”. The public not only care what happened in the world, but also what are the other people thinking and doing. If this story writes generally about people’s reaction to the doomsday theory, it may probably be boring and dry. This writing skill is widely used by feature story and reports about social trend.


If you also firmly believe that 2012 doomsday will come, you may want to pick up a survival package from Mr.McClung ‘online survival supply store.
Here is the link: http://www.2012supplies.com/

Your everyday life and 2012 doomsday

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html

Topic:
Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012

Author:
Dennis Overbye

When everyone is talking about 2012, worrying that 2012 will be the end of human, we do need some opinion from authorities and experts. Based on this background, Mr.Overbye summarized the relevant information from NASA and CERN, interviewed some scientists, and explain the possible disasters which have been presented in the movie 2012.

I really like the author use a little humor to relate this science news to everyday life. If the end of human isn’t in 2012, we still need to “keep up those mortgage payments”. What a “bad” news!

But this article seems a little lack of logic order or sense. The story keeps jumping from what the experts says to the background then to the Mayans, which make it a little confusing. The better structure may follow this order: news lead, background (including Mayans legend), NASA and CERN opinion, and expert opinion.

In terms of the design and structure of this website, the section “related Searches “gives the links to NASA and CERN. Moreover, a lot of keywords such as “climate change”, ”sun”, ”earth” are linked to the relevant New York Times websites. All these links are very helpful and convenient for readers.

This is Hyperlink, the magic of online news.

For example，the article mentioned that “announcements by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in the form of several Web site postings and a video posted on YouTube”, I clicked the “video posted on YouTube”, then I got this video(although it seems like not in YouTube but VIMEO).

The Truth about 2012 from NASA Lunar Science Institute on Vimeo.

Want to know more? Click here to read some interesting opinions and reactions about 2012:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5301284&page=3

Do you know earthquake happeds everyday?

Source:

http://earthquakes-today.info/2010/09/2012-disaster-scenarios-what-are-the-terrible-events-we-must-prepare-to-survive/

Topic:
2012 Disaster Scenarios? What Are The Terrible Events We Must Prepare To Survive?

Author:
Earth




This blogger who named Earth gives the readers a vision of nine most possible terrible events which may bring the Doomsday.

In this article, unlike serious but boring hard news, the author doesn’t use official statistics and quotes to illustrate and convince the readers. Instead, he/she just uses the humour and less-formal tongue to show nine possible cataclysmic events that may result in the end of human. But by doing so, I can still notice the professional geography knowledge of the blogger behind this interesting piece. Looking through his/her blog, I find the whole blog generally focus on the environmental issues and especially on the geography phenomenon like earthquakes.

Since the blog was born as a popular tool to show personal experiences and opinions. While the blogosphere has been developed, there has been increased specialization. Many bloggers start to use blogs to show their professional knowledge and provide useful information to the public, just like this blogger Earth. Today, when we Google some questions, we may probably find the answers from some blogs instead of traditional websites.

When reading this blog I am not just interest in the articles. The blogger also shares a very interesting website plug-in script with the readers, the USGS earthquake monitor. Using this plug-in script we can easily get to know the most recent terrible earthquake globally, and we can easily get its code and put it on our own blog.

If you care about the global earthquake as well, you can get the USGS earthquake monitor here and put it on your blog.

Book is still book

The Mayan Doomsday Prediction

Source:

http://www.2012thetruth.com/2012DoomsdayPrediction.php

Topic:
2012 Doomsday Prediction

Author:
Jim Stein

In Bible it is said that the human beings will end in some day – the Doomsday. The predictions for this special day have emerged in many kinds of civilizations or religions. Recently, the prediction that the world will end at 21 December 2012 according to the Mayans has been quite hot. Many people in the world have their doubts about this prediction, for example, will this prediction finally come true? Or how the world will end when this day come?

In the first part of this article, the author uses evidences to demonstrate that there will be no gravitational force or radiation to be expected from the end of the world. But the author has given three possible scenarios for this special day. The first one is at that day the planet will move away from the galactic planet systems. Second, the earth will end due to an unknown planet called Nibiru. The last possible theory is the Earth's magnetic poles will shift.

Since the 2000, the Mayan’s prediction of Doomsday has been reported in magazines and websites. Articles about the prediction and the end of the world in all aspects are around the Internet. At the same time, there are also many books about this Doomsday have been published. Unlike most of the online articles, these books are very comprehensive. Book is a good source when a journalist wants to introduce some experts’ voice. I believe, even people have relied on Internet, where they can get easy answer by search engine, most of these articles cannot give readers professional vision and a systemic understanding.

It seems that Jim Stein happened to coincide with me on this point. He introduces many books in his article and provides more books links. I believe Jim attaches importance to books to give readers a wider story.

Your everyday life and 2012 doomsday

Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/its-the-end-of-the-world-but-not-as-we-know-it-20091203-k8pg.html

Topic:
It's the end of the world but not as we know it.

Author:
Andrew Frost


This article is a movie review about the movie “2012 Doomsday”. At the beginning of the article, the author uses concise language to summarize the whole movie. Then he observes a popularity of doomsday movie and gives many examples, such as “knowing”. He also finds out that another kind of movie is unusual hot, that is vampire and zombie movie. Moreover, he provides an analysis about this popularity. The reason is people are worrying about the future of the world, but they try to believe that they can survive or maybe they can transfer to another kind of living creature, which will never die.

This movie review is the best one I have ever seen, comparing with other articles about the movie “2012 Doomsday”, because of its in-depth analysis. The author Andrew Frost is a professional art critic. He not only focuses on the popularity of the movie, but also points out the reason behind this popularity. As a movie critic, He points out the problem sharply, “The problem with our collective imagination is that the end of the world isn't something that we'll get to watch from a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned cinema. It's something that we'd be a part of.”

A movie is just a movie. The reason why media pay attention to movie is not just for entertainment. If we look at different kinks of movie and figure out in a particular period which kind of movie is most popular, we are not just talking about the movie, but the social trend. The type of social trend is developed by a particular cultural and historic reason. Movie is like a mirror, which shows what people are thinking and doing.

Interview gives readers the direct story

Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103790515

Topic:
Grieving Chinese Family Quells Memories to Heal

Author:
Melissa Block

The terrible earthquake happened in the Sichuan province of China in 2008 shocked the world. As an international journalist, Melissa Block has reported this disaster at that time. This article is one of her follow-up articles.

In the earthquake, a young couple lost their two-year old son and their parents.Melissa Block has interviewed Wang Dan, the couple’s brother. This article reports how their family goes through the next year. The whole article is based on interview, including seven questions and answers. Melissa Block firstly asks Wang about what the couple did in last year. Then, the author emphasizes the emotion of the couple after the loss of their closest relatives.

When comparing with Melissa Block’s other articles, which reports the unfortunate family last year, she no longer writes the story from her point of view. Instead, she uses interview to let the person who is involved into this disaster to talk his own story. Without her own description and judgment, her just let the victims talk so the readers can touch their feelings directly.

As a journalist, the way to tell the story is very important. This report is a good example. The journalist chooses the best way to describe this sad family’s story by giving the vision of one of the involvers. It is like photography. A good photo is a photo can talk by itself. A good journalist aims to tell the readers all the facts. Although Melissa Block doesn’t have many words in this article, we can see her wisdom by how she chooses and organizes the questions. Interview gives readers the direct story .

Logical stuecture is stil important

(picture from Salemnews)

Source:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july112010/doomsday-methane-ta.php

Topic:
Doomsday: How BP Gulf Disaster May Have Triggered a 'World-Killing' Event

Author:
Terrence Aym

21 December 2012, the Doomsday in Mayan’s calendar is coming soon. Terrence Aym describes a picture of how the world will end for readers ---- the massive eruption of explosive methane gas.

At first, the author tells us two massive historical disasters caused by methane gas eruption under the ocean, which is the same disaster that may be brewing near the Gulf of Mexico. Secondly, the author introduces a theory from Northwestern University's Gregory Ryskin. According to this theory, the oceans periodically produce massive eruptions of explosive methane gas and agreed by many geologists that this eruption will certainly be catastrophic which may bring the doomsday of the whole world.

In this article, the Gulf Coast will be the Ground Zero of the global disaster. Fortunately, this federal government has already taken measures to keep resident away and lower the harm. But the influences of the disaster may result in massive death on the water and the poisoned air, water and land.

I have to admit that the writer presents his point in a very logical way. He first uses the history to illustrate the image of the disaster may come and then expound the theory. After that, the rest of the news uses the quotes and facts as evidences to move forward his point. Basically, this whole article is an example of good, traditional online news. It has good logical structure and uses many hyperlinks for every professors, evidences and sources. With these links, the readers can have a systematic view of the methane gas eruption.

In my opinion, today, the readers are easily attracted by the pointless fancy stuffs so may miss the true point the writer want to demonstrate. The good effective online news should be like this article, logical structure and sufficient links for all the useful sources that can not only present the author’s point but also convenient for its readers to broaden their horizons.

Well-designed disaster calendar

Source:
http://feww.wordpress.com/2010-disasters/


Topic:
2010 Disaster Calendar


Author:
FEWW


For human beings, 2010 may be a year full of different kinds of terrible disasters. In his blog, FEWW make a detailed Disaster Calendar. He collected almost all kinds of disasters all over the world and arranged them by date.


The first part of this article is ‘What’s a disaster?’ In this part, the author shows not only the official definition of disaster from the UNISDR, but also the ‘FEWW definition’. Comparing with the official definition, the author uses more simple words to re-define the disaster and give readers a fresh look upon disaster.


The most interesting part of the article is the schedule of the disaster events by months. When clicking the hyperlinks for each month, the readers can see a list of disasters followed by brief description happened in that month. I have to admire the patience of the author.This article is so detailed that I believe it may cover all the terrible events this year.


The comprehensive content is not the only thing that interests me. Moreover, the whole arrangement of this blog is interesting. At first, the slogan of this blog is humorous.




Called Google as the Internet Mafia is very effective slogan to attract the readers to keep eyes on his blog.



No just the slogan, at the left side, the author continues this Google joke.

Observing this website, there is some interesting stuff around. Like in the left side, there is a calendar to show every day environmental issues. And in the right side, readers can input their email address to follow the recent update. Plus the plenty links to the related environmental issues, so the readers can follow an issue from diverse angles.
Detailed content, humorous style plus useful design, it is reasonable that this website can get so many comments.

Online and mobile media

If the press media can be called " sunset",
then online media may be "sunshine",
and mobile media can be "sunrise".

It is quite worth to discuss the news style of online and mobile journalism.