I used it to find a blog about chickens!
In your critique, please tell us:
what you like and dislike about the blog;
how often it is updated (avoid "dead" blogs);
whether the Comments indicate anyone is reading it;
what media elements beyond text it uses.
Post your critique here as a Comment.
The other bit of homework is to read Chapter 5 in Journalism 2.0.
12 comments:
So I was hearing a lot about Perezhilton.com. I was seeing a lot about him TV and I was always curious but I never really looked into the subject because it didn’t really interest me, but now that we have to look at blogs, I decided to check it out. The site is well made; you can look at blogs from a certain date from drop down options, his face is on every page, he has pictures that he draws on to illustrate his point and you can comment on what he writes. I know that he’s made a pretty penny off of what he is doing and he even has a lot of advertisements on his page, but as I read on I find that none of this stuff should be categorized in the “need to know” section (or so I believe). From Diddy throwing a sweet 16 party for his son (They aren’t asking for presents but for donations towards the Haiti fund) to that guy from Two and a Half Men saying that his wife hired a hitman on him… so while most of this stuff is entertaining and can give you a laugh when you’re having a bad day, I think I could go on with my life without knowing this information (Even thought that is very nice of Diddy.)
If anything, I would go on this site just to see the pictures and what he writes on them because I have to admit, they are pretty funny. I think I would give him an A for appearances.
It looks to me like he updates it every day, if not several times a day and each and every one of the blogs have several comments about what they think… some of them can get nasty.
http://perezhilton.com/2010-01-22-kermit-the-frog-threatens-to-bomb-a-school
Lindsay McCarthy
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2010/01/kalish_ready_to.html
I like this blog because it's very informative. It's amazing how Peter Abraham, a member of the Boston Globe staff, can have so much information on Kalish.
There are no comments on this blog yet, though small blogs like these take awhile before they take off.
Aside from the text, this blog contains a picture of Kalish, a "Reader's Comment" section, and options to email it to a friend. There are other Web services that are available through this blog as well.
-Phil Alexander
http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&blog=Meteomadness&pgurl=/mtweb/content/Meteomadness/archives/2010/01/pattern_going_back_to_winter_so_get_ready.asp
I visit a blog titled "meteo madness" by accuweather.com meteorologist Henry Margusity on a daily basis. From a weather buff's perspective, his blog is very interesting. He takes a behind the scenes approach to his blog forecasts. He uses actual forecasting models to show his readers the upcoming weather pattern. Henry likes examine and hype up storm prospects in the long term. The downside to this approach is that the general public sometimes gets angry with him because his blog forecasts are not accurate. Depending on how long it has been since his last update, he will have anywhere from 25-150 comments on a single post.
Henry's blog is a hybrid with a vlog, as he usually includes a video along with the text. I've listed some pros and cons of his blog below:
Pros:
-He updates once or twice daily, less frequently on weekends.
-Videos make it similar to watching a weather forecast on TV
-He allows comments after the response is run through a filter.
Cons:
-He sometimes only posts videos which is a problem for those with slow internet connections and people who work in a quiet environment (library, office, etc.)
-The comment filter results in a lag between the time comments are submitted and the time they show up.
-Oftentimes the filter is ineffective at catching inappropriate comments.
~Nick Russo
This blog is run by a man named Matt. In 2008 Matt and Liz were expecting their first child, a baby girl, but Liz had been having a lot of scary high-risk complications. In March of 2008 his wife Liz gave birth to their daughter Madeline. 24 hours after giving birth her doctors finally gave her the OK to hold her daughter for the first time Liz stood up from her hospital bed, and then collapsed due to a pulmonary embolism.
The blog is all about Matt and Maddy's life, about his struggles to raise his daughter alone. I like it because it's about something honest and tangible not just a crap media blog about someone famous. This blog has a pretty good following, I found it one day when I was channel surfing and I stumbled upon Oprah.
In all seriousness, you can follow their entire story from the devastation to losing his wife and the mother of his child to the every day stuff of trying to do right by his daughter. He's an amazing writer, simplistic, sarcastic, very funny and even poetic at times. The layout of his blog is very simple and user friendly. He posts TONS of pictures. (READ: 29,255) He says he isn't a photographer, but I'd disagree. They aren't just typical dad photos, he's got undeniable talent. He has videos, he also updates frequently. At the very least once a week. As far as what I don't like about the blog, I really can't think of anything.
http://www.mattlogelin.com/archives/2009/10/14/sometimes/
http://www.mattlogelin.com/archives/2009/10/06/please-please-please-let-me-sleep/
-Noel Berthiaume
I really enjoyed the blog "The Caucus" on nytimes.com. I am a total political junkie, so I liked the fact that it contains updates on virtually everything currently happenig in national politics. The blog is updated very often (most recently at 8:10 this morning), so it keeeps up with rapidly-changing news cycles. The blog contains multimedia features (such as audio and video of President Obama's latest weekly address and of Martha Coakley talking about her loss in Massachusetts' senate race) as well as links to Twitter and to other stories. The Caucus is mostly straight journalism (not much commentary or opinions), but for those like me who prefer their news unbiased, the Caucus is a great place to get a quick-but-informative look at what your government is currently up to.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/
This is the "Gadget Lab" blog from "wired" magazines website. In this blog you can read about electronics and new and interesting devices. I really liked this blog because it seemed like it showed off a lot of new technological ideas, yet the newest post is about something that the company Apple created in the 1980's.
This blog seems to be continuously updated, with the newest update coming on January 22nd, 2010. there are a great deal of comments on each of the posts, meaning the blog is fairly popular. the entire blog also seems well done and that a lot of time is put into making is user friendly and nice to look at.
-Steve Perry
The Blog I chose was
http://themovieblog.com/
This is a blog that comments on current films and posts information about upcoming films, including a podcast, trailers, and movie posters. The site also allows people to comment on films and the posts as well.
The reviews of the movies are very entertaining and informative. The only thing I could think of that could be added to the site would be links to the official websites of the movies that are being reviewed.
The Blog has new posts every day as more movie information is received. People also comment on many of these posts.
Nick Irwin-Testa
http://www.seriouseats.com/
I like this blog because it has fun and interesting articles and interviews all about food.
My favorite part about it is that their are recipes on the site that are very out of the ordinary. You can comment on the recipes and people give suggestions on how to change/better the recipes.
I do not like how disorganized this site is. While it has tabs/sections to make you think its organized it is very scatter brained.
Its updated a couple times a day and recieves anywhere between 4-19 comments per post.
It has pictures,videos,slideshows.
http://coalitionoftheswilling.net/
I found this site from a link from another blog. This guy talks about everything and anything. He has posts about cooking, politics, and many other random things. He updates his posts very often -- almost too often for anyone who had anything else to do besides blog-tracking to keep up. He seems to post about five or six times a day. Some of his posts are quick and to the point, while others ramble on for paragraphs. He conveniently has link to phrases that are interesting his writing. He includes plenty of pictures and animations, and lots of quotes from other people that he either argues against or supports. He receives anywhere from five to twent comment on each post he puts up. Overall, it was a pretty interesting blog.
I found a blog called GamersBlogs, which is all about video games and gamers and such. They talk about a bunch of different things, such as the latest gaming news, and opinions that the fellow readers have. It is always up to date, as even right now all of the stories on the front page are from January 26th.
The only problem is that they have so many stories or blogs each day that even ones that were put there yesterday are pushed away from the front page, making it less likely for others to read. Therefore, not a lot of the stories have comments or have been read as much. But I am assuming it's fairly popular considering how often it is updated.
But they have a lot of stuff, and some of the news stories they blog about are not always available on other video game news sites, so it's sometimes more informative than even the huge Gaming sites such as IGN.
http://www.gamersblogs.com/index.php?id=2
http://powerlineblog.com/
This blog seems to be very informative and is also updated on a daily basis. The powerline blog is mostly a political blog, but the four creators occasionally post topics to inform the readers about there hobbies or personal life.
This blog is very easy to read, and contains multiple links to get the reader more information if they so choose. They also include videos occasionally which is a nice break from reading multiple articles
The only real issue i see with the blog is that they don't allow readers to comment on the posts. Being a political site this could spark some interesting debates.
Overall this was a very good blog maintained by four very intelligent people. I would give it a 7/10 simply for the lack of being able to comment.
http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=69538
I found a site called XXLmag.com it's a website that specializes in Hip Hop Music. If features different webpages including interviews, new songs by featured artist and a several blogs written on a daily basis. All of the webpages however feature a comment box for fans and "haters" (as they call it on that site) to share compliments, comments and concerns.
My only complaint is that the site features the same artist constantly instead of every Hip Hop artist with new music. I understand it might be impossible but some of the time a lot of the music isn't worth being places on the site. (Fans and Haters would agree as shown in the comment boxes).
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