News is an important part of our
lives. It’s what’s makes us informed as a whole and also a part of what we base
our decisions and knowledge off of. It’s very important to have an informed
public as a whole because it leads to a well balanced and healthy democracy.
When I think of “news”, I tend to
think of online TV news channels like CNN that display current events in all
areas (science, politics, technology etc) and also informing us of what’s
happening around the world. However the definition of the word “news” has
expanded beyond traditional news outlets. Online news media also plays a very
important role in the public’s news consumption and so I will be analyzing two
popular online news sites: Google News and The Dallas Morning News.
Google
For google, I like how everything
is shown on one page. The weather is on the side while top stories are shown in
the middle and there are categories like “sports” or “health” if you want to
look at news of a specific category. It also shows the local news depending on
your location. Another thing I like is that it is customizable. There are
options at the top to choose weather you want a “compact” view so it squeezes
everything in or a “modern” view where it’s spaced differently. There’s also
another button to choose different “editions” of news. It’s preset to the “U.S.
edition” but you are able to change it to a different country, like India for
example, to see news that is more relevant to that country. There are some
things that were off putting however.
For instance, I didn’t like the
aesthetic of the Google news site. I find it too bland in appearance. Another
thing I didn’t like was that because the headlines and categories weren’t bold
or didn’t stand out too much, it felt like there was too much information on
one page. The lack of pictures also made the page seem very “wordy”. It would
be better if the spacing and layout was different so that it doesn’t feel like
the reader is overwhelmed with a lot of information on one page. On the other
hand, Dallas Morning News’s website did much better in this aspect.
The Dallas Morning News
For the Dallas Morning News, I
really like the aesthetic of the website. It is pleasing too look at because
the headlines are bold and stand out and there are lots of pictures to break
up the content so that it doesn’t seem filled with words. I also like how the
website is laid out because there is plenty of space between each section and so it
dosen’t seem congested. Another thing the website did well is that there are links at
the bottom to follow their social media accounts, like Twitter or Instagram, so that people can follow the news outside of the website. There are a few cons to the website though.
Compared to Google News, The Dallas
Morning News isn’t customizable. You can see the world news and you can see the news pertaining to the US and also the local news but you can’t
see the news that pertains to another country specifically. Also, compared to
Google News, it has less sources. Google News “gathered” news from different
sources like CNN, NBC and Washington Post and so the news is more varied and
comes from a website that specializes in that type of news. For example, some
of the technology articles came from websites like CNET or Engadget.
When I weigh out the pros and cons
of each website, I find that I like Google News better. Although it’s layout
and aesthetic could use help, it still considers the viewer by offering
customization and varied news articles from different sources as well as news
that is specific to other places around the world. Overall, Google News offers
a better news experience to the reader and is a better choice to help create a
better informed citizenry.
A new blog post on my blog comparing Google News and The Dallas Morning News..
— Nishita Patel (@bluegem12) February 20, 2016
Check it out!https://t.co/O4sr192fn1
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