For local news in my hometown, I always turn to KTVZ, Bend's NBC affliate news station because their website is not only user-friendly, but they also do a great job when it comes to converging media.
For each of the stories featured on KTVZ's broadcasts, users can view the story in both broadcast and article form. This feature is very beneficial in that it caters to both the consumer that would rather read the news and those who prefer to watch/listen to it. Users can also rate and comment all stories on the website. This system is also very beneficial as it allows the consumer to be involved with the news and have their voice heard.
The website also features news highlights from around Oregon and the Pacific Northwest in addition to links to the latest nationwide and global news featured on CNN.
KTVZ's website contains many stories that are relevant to their consumer and also allow the consumer to interact with each other and news.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Rolla Daily News = Convergence?
My hometown news source is The Rolla Daily News (therolladailynews.com), and questioning the convergenceness of the site made me realize how it really isn't very advanced. The purpose was to be a local paper, to give information on things that just matter to our town and county, not to be super hi-tech. People can comment on the articles, but cannot upload photos or anything like that if they are a member. While there are many staff written articles, the majority of the website is consumed by links to articles from bigger news sources, and that is where the broader topics are available - subjects under sports, lifestyle, entertainment, etc... The main newspaper itself is primarily just the written articles and advertisements, nothing too fancy. There are some pictures that go along with the articles, but they are few and far between, poorly placed... I cant find any audio or videos on the site, unless you want to count the moving advertisements, but there are multiple links to sites that contain both. So, I wouldn't say the Rolla Daily News is very convergence friendly... But it has a start with at least giving access to sources that do have audio, video, and more pictures.
stltoday.com
Since we had to do a local news source for this blog I decides to do stltoday.com. This website is the site for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, however the site seems like an entity all it's own. The main focus of the site, as you might guess, is to keep you informed with everything that's happening in St. Louis, as well as the world. I found that the site wasn't trying to be a newspaper, but just a great source of information. If you so desire though, you can get articles from the St. Louis Post Dispatch through the site. The site also features several pictures, audio clips, and videos, which help to broaden the spectrum of news. The site even lets users upload their own pictures and media to the site. This gives the user complete control of what type of media they want their news delivered to them. I think that this website is a perfect example of how a news site can use all aspects of journalism.
Chicago Sun-Times Incorporates Convergence... How?
The most obvious way the Chicago Sun-Times incorporates convergence is by offering both print copies and subscriptions in addition to having all of their news online as well. On this website, they feature articles complete with pictures and links to similar or related stories. Sections also come with their own recent photo galleries that give stories in pictures... after all, a picture is worth a thousand words! The main page also provides links to labeled videos on relative topics and search engines for various things, including how to find parking in Chicago; that can be difficult. Across the page, things are broken up by subject, for example there are headings such as Religion, and Transportation. Along the left side of the page you can find blogs, columns by author, as well as the Classifieds. Everything that can be found in the newspaper, as well as additional pictures and video, are available on the site. There is also a constantly updated weather box, which is not something that can be put in the newspaper, as the weather changes throughout the day, and the paper only comes out once. This is one of the benefits of having a website for a newspaper: you are able to incorporate up-to-date information or breaking news, that may not have been featured in that day's paper, which lives up to the newspaper's goal of keeping its audience informed.
Albuquerque Tribune!
Although they stopped publishing The Albuquerque Tribune in February, their website is still up to give a little glimpse of the past. In 1933, The Albuquerque Journal, the morning newspaper, and the Albuquerque Tribune, the afternoon one, were the first newspapers to sign a joint operating agreement, even though the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 wasn't around until, well, 1970. This joint operating agreement meant that the ABQ Journal and the ABQ Tribune would use the same building and the same printing press but still remain completely separate in terms of circulation and content. The JOA has since disbanded because Albuquerque, like many other cities it's size, did not have enough demand to support two newspapers.
On the main page of the Albuquerque Tribune's website, they have video, photos, stories, polls and links to a podcast. When the Trib was still being published, they had an option to subscribe to the print and/or the online edition. Along the top of the page they have the sections News, Sports, Weather, Living, Entertainment, Business, Opinions, Multimedia and Webified. The Webified section is where they have links to blogs, podcasts, multimedia slideshows and polls. Webified seems to be the most convergence-like part of the ABQ Trib's website.
The Omaha World-Herald and Convergence.
These two things should probably not be used together in the same sentence. The World-Herald's website makes it very clear that all of this newfangled technology is well and good, but that you should really just go buy a hard copy. There are even links to the subscription page displayed rather prominently at the bottom of the home page. The site, while visually well designed, is virtually indistinguishable from a daily copy of the paper scanned into digital form. The two concessions to the possibilities offered by the online format are a rotating list of video clips on the main page, none of which are truly detailed enough to be called anything but hooks for the written story, and a simple weather forecast in the upper right of the main page. While the World-Herald is a daily newspaper, and as such is truly targeted only at those old enough to be making house and utility payments, the lack of visionary thinking and waste of technological potential on their website is somewhat surprising.
KQED: Convergence in the Silicon Valley
The theme in the Silicon Valley is bringing pieces of technology together to create something better. The people do it in their business and they expect it in their news media and KQED, the local public broadcasting affiliate, has (almost) risen to the challenge.
KQED's radio and television outlets are a lot like they were when I first started listening and watching as a little kid in the Central Valley. But check out KQED on the web, and a lot of the trends of convergence journalism jump right out.
Radio and television being the main parts of KQED's reporting, both of those elements are emphasized on the station's Web site. Two whole columns are set aside below a (somewhat disappointingly) standard print header story for radio stories with audio links, and a video story is also featured. Rounding out the home page is one feature I look for in any radio station Web site bragging about new age technology: a link to listen to radio station live, preferably that listeners can take on an iPod--news wherever you choose.
The station then has a good strategy of giving a page to each it TV and radio arms, with main stories available in full and clips of other stories they're pitching for the day's viewers, complete with a guide to what's on each station (because KQED covers a wide swath of the Golden State).
The only real downside to KQED's pitch for convergence is in the very media we're working in right now--blogs! Sure, a few individual program hosts maintain running journals of what's on their show and there is an Elections '08 discussion board. But there's no running feed of stories that are happening now, no opinions on the myriad of issues simmering in the nation (Hell, even the state has enough happening for at least a couple of blogs!).
And its this last point that makes me say they almost rose to the convergence challenge. KQED has the features. But without the blogs, or really kind of up-to-the-minute news, KQED looks like a "slow" network in a really "fast" news time. It takes KQED a couple of days to get on a hot regional or national story because they have to get it recorded and scripted and edited. All this time kind of defeats all their technological achievements. People want the news to look good, but today they also want it fast.
KQED's radio and television outlets are a lot like they were when I first started listening and watching as a little kid in the Central Valley. But check out KQED on the web, and a lot of the trends of convergence journalism jump right out.
Radio and television being the main parts of KQED's reporting, both of those elements are emphasized on the station's Web site. Two whole columns are set aside below a (somewhat disappointingly) standard print header story for radio stories with audio links, and a video story is also featured. Rounding out the home page is one feature I look for in any radio station Web site bragging about new age technology: a link to listen to radio station live, preferably that listeners can take on an iPod--news wherever you choose.
The station then has a good strategy of giving a page to each it TV and radio arms, with main stories available in full and clips of other stories they're pitching for the day's viewers, complete with a guide to what's on each station (because KQED covers a wide swath of the Golden State).
The only real downside to KQED's pitch for convergence is in the very media we're working in right now--blogs! Sure, a few individual program hosts maintain running journals of what's on their show and there is an Elections '08 discussion board. But there's no running feed of stories that are happening now, no opinions on the myriad of issues simmering in the nation (Hell, even the state has enough happening for at least a couple of blogs!).
And its this last point that makes me say they almost rose to the convergence challenge. KQED has the features. But without the blogs, or really kind of up-to-the-minute news, KQED looks like a "slow" network in a really "fast" news time. It takes KQED a couple of days to get on a hot regional or national story because they have to get it recorded and scripted and edited. All this time kind of defeats all their technological achievements. People want the news to look good, but today they also want it fast.
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