ONLINE SCAVENGER HUNT

Star-Telegram: local news that has a couple small pictures. their site is mainly blue and black with lots of headlines to click on for the full story. Ads in the right 1/3 and a strip across the bottom.

LA-Times: Tons of colorful pictures. their site includes local weather and traffic on the front with ad's scattered throughout the side columns.

New York Times:looks most like a newspaper. lots of blue and black text with a lot of links. with small colorful pictures laced throughout the page.

They are similar in that they all have text and links and pictures and ad's.

LA Times is the only one without a video on the front page

Star telegram is very short.

New york times is long and has small text. it has the most options of links to chose from

LA times is longest because it has large text everywhere and by far the most pictures.

I like the way New York times site is set up because it's easiest to navigate. but i am more interest in the articles in the LA times.

No ad's caught my eye or relate to people in my demographics.

LA times has ad's for facebook and iphone which catches my eye because i use both of those. and a HUGE twilight ad right at the top of the page advertising the new eclipse movie. very effective placement.

NYT has a couple ads for wine clubs and a trip to turkey at the bottom (not large or effective) but continental airlines has two ads on either side of the main title reading "NEW YORK TIMES". effective ad location and by having 2 of the same ad's frame the title was a smart idea because it catches your attention.

Headlines

CNN: Kagan facing hearing fight, high ct striking down chicago hand-gun ban, smaller ones being about honoring Prince, the bisexual male, the new city car, jason marz, prince harry falling off his horse, mcnuggests and the gays.

BBC: Israeli plane barred from turkey is the main headline with smaller ones being about gun rights, women freezing eggs for "mr. right", Netherlands fire, tropical storm fears, and prince harry at a baseball game

Al Jazeera :iran postpones nuclear talk,Violence scars Burundi election and New Kyrgyz constitution approved are the main headlines with smaller ones being about Afghan approval for five ministers, scores trapped in china landslide, Noriega goes on trial in Paris, Many dead in Pakistan lorry blast, and Jordan's drug addiction crisis

CNN and BBC had much more in common with eachother than they did with the Al Jazeera website.

NPR vs. KISS FM

The difference between the NPR and KISS FM websites are pretty similar as far as layout goes. There are the icon size pictures, the lists and the headlines with plenty of color. But as far as content, NPR's homepage is about world news mainly. with news, arts&life, music and programs tabs to chose from. KISS FM has "in the news", "recent updates" and "photos" sections talking about celebrity gossip and what artists are teaming up. There is also KISS MUSIC and iheartradio sections. Mainly music orientated with celebrities (mostly in the music industry) on KISS vs. stocks, current events world wide and local - including sports, laws and books.

Ann Heisenfelt/Getty Images

Spill's $20B Man Will Feel Others' Pain, Follow Law

The above picture and caption is the first thing i saw on the NPR website while below (lady gaga in concert) is what caught my eye on the top of 106.1's website

I don't really know much about the fairness doctrine but I think the government should let the people decide more. Government shouldn't be able to regulate everything People vote by tuning in and out of stations (and with their money), which is the way it should be. While i believe it's okay in some circumstances for government to sensor radio, people should chose what we want to hear.

NEWS WARS

I don't think people don't care or are uninterested with news. But rather we are sort of unconsciously overwhelmed with it. We see advertisements literally anywhere we go. Newspapers, magazines, commercials, even in shows they are advertising Macbooks and sprite and stuff. I personally am kind of uninterested in global news because it doesn't personally effect me. I sort of live in my own little bubble in southlake and just don't really want to worry about all the bad/ sad/ unrelated to me news. The most news I am avidly interested in is celebrity news and fashion news. I wasn't old enough to vote so political news won't interest me until i can actually vote. War, we shouldn't have our troops out anywhere right now so i don't want to read about them dieing. While other people are very interested in politics and international news, i'm not sure they are even getting 100% accurate news when they read a newspaper or listen to fox news. One of the other students mentioned how "news should strictly be about informing, not persuading and there should be less advertising in news." I if anything just want news that directly effects me, but for now im happy reading my sketchy gossip tabloids and seeing all the new fashions the stars and designers are bringing to us for the season.

The article was talking about how less people tuned into the presidential debate this past time but they still got heard of what happened in other places (radio, recorded clips, and the internet). and people how people can always get "news" whenever they'd like with todays techonolgy. especially with things like murdochs 24-hour tv news

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Are you uninterested in the news, or just getting it in less conventional places? I am uninterested in the news that is on channel 8 or something like that. political news, international news. i don't care much, im fine just living my happy little life without worrying about what the asians are doing.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of news you get today?while it can be overwhelming , i can limit the amount or news i get. i can listen to my ipod instead of the radio. i can watch VOD or TiVo so i can fast forward threw commercials and news clips.

What sort of news do you think people are getting today?people are getting all sorts of news. like i mentioned above they are getting international, political, local and some news that doesnt even deserve to be considered news.

Is it what people need to cope in a cope in a complex world, or just a lot of blather between the ads? its a lot of blather between ads. news is just depressing and brings people down. we are better without hearing some of the stuff and seeing some of the pictures/videos.

How would you change the way news is today? add more uplifting news and celebrity news. thought i know its not important to know who got engaged or who's having a baby or what a celebrity did for their birthday party, it is at least uplifting and fun to hear about and see pictures of beautiful brides rather than seeing video clips of deceased american soldiers in iraq. or how about finding stories about local good-do-er's. kids that are volunteering or making a positive impact.

adam and eve or adam and steve

Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont are the states in the America that allow same sex marriage. ( plus the district of columbia). Though very few places allow gays to be married and have equal rights, that doesn't keep them from trying to demand equal rights. Associated Press put out an article entitles "Millions of gays demand rights during Brazil march". It was Sao Paulo's 14th annual gay pride parade in South America's largest city. There was 'a river of gays, lesbians and cross dressers' dancing and singing down the streets of Sao Paulo. Every year for the last decade and a half almost they have been doing this event. Some of the gays dress up in elaborate outfits and makeup while others just walk down the roads in every day attire. This annual parade is said to be 'the world's biggest gay pride parade, totaling about 3.2 million participants and the people in it want to have a gay candidate in this years presidential election in Brazil. Not everyone is happy about the absolutely massive crowd of gays, cross dressers and lesbians taking over every year. Protesters have posted things such as "Give 'em their own country and wall the damn thing in north,south,east,and west!!" along with many other hateful or opposing statements. We in America already have 6 states that have caved and are allowing gays to marry even though it's considered biblically unethical. I don't personally have a problem with the gays but I am going to listen to the Bible on this one and say it shouldn't be legal for them to be married. I've always been taught "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" . I know that's a bold statement and like I said, I don't mind people being gay but whatever. It is what it is.

AP – A reveller poses for a photo during the annual Gay Pride Parade at the Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, …

Whale Sharks

Whale Sharks are said to save lives apparently. That may be an over-exaggeration but I will agree that Whale Sharks are helping people, especially in Donsol, Philippines where the Whale Sharks are from. Dave Duran (camera man and diver) went to go study these fairly unknown sharks. Whale Sharks are closely monitored in Donsol: " 6 tourists per boat, 1 boat per whale shark, and no more than 30 boats in the water at a time". The article said that in some places the Whale Shark fins sell for $800! Their meat is rare and expensive. Eco-tourism has changed everyone's life in Donsol. Alan, who lives in Donsol and shows the Whale Sharks said he used to have to "drive a tricycle taxi, work construction and playing guitar at bars to make ends meet. Now he makes six times what he used to." He, along with many of the other people from Donsol that show tourists the sharks now have enough money to send their children to University when they never thoguht that would be possible. Dave's videos caused the Philippine government to issue 'a ban on fishing whale sharks.' So I guess this video helped save animals lives and changed the residents of Donsols lives.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/04/eco.whale.shark/index.html?hpt=C2

In similar news, the oil spill obviously devastated the land but also the water and the animals. Pictures of the oiled birds that were captured in Grande Isle, Louisiana have been all over the news. As of yesterday, the International Bird Rescue Research Center has captured 177 live birds and is cleaning and feeding them. Some of the birds haven't eaten in days and are in critical condition. They too are trying to raise awareness like Dave did for the Whale Sharks to help save animals. The International Bird Rescue Research Center has a facebook group so animal lovers can follow the updated progress and help by donating. I think they are both great causes and that reaching people through facebook is a very smart move because young people especially check facebook a million times more than they would read about the birds in a newspaper.

porn star died by samurai sword

Police said Stephen Clancy Hill, a porn star, attacked three of his fellow porn stars with a samurai sword at a house that was being used to film porno's on tuesday. The sword was a prop for the porno..... interesting in itself.....

Apparently Hill attacked one costar with the prop and the 2 other men intervened and got attacked too. One of the men actually died via samurai sword. tragic and odd. anyways the controversial part of the story is that it's still unclear how Hill died. The police finally caught up with Hill, 4 days after Hill killed his fellow porn star, when he was standing on the edge of a cliff for 8 hours. The police that may or may not have been the reason for Hills death says he used "less than deadly force" in attempt to take Hill into custody for the murder of his co-worker. Was it the polices stun gun what made Hill topple off the cliff? Was he dead before he fell just from the stun gun being used on him? Did Hill jump hoping to escape? Was it suicide? The whole death is kinda sketchy. I don't know if it was good judgement on the cops part to stun gun somebody standing on the edge of a cliff. Though a stun gun is considered to be "less than deadly force", does it make it deadly if the person being stunned is standing on the edge of a cliff and could easily fall? If the cop simply walked up to Hill after trying to negotiate for 8 hours and Hill threatened to jump, at least the cop would be out of the limelight. Hill's death would simply have been considered suicide. Or the opposite, the cops could have just sat and waited for him to get hungry or have to use the restroom and got him then. I don't know if the cop was in the right or wrong, it's very controversial and raises a lot of question as to when and how officers should use force.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/06/porn-actor-sought-in-slaying-dies-after-falling-off-cliff/?hpt=T2

oil spill. obama or something else to blame

Obama's crises with the current oil spew in the gulf has been compared in largeness to Bush's Katrina disaster. We have all heard about the oil spill for weeks now and we finally seem to be making progress but i don't understand why its taking to long to clean this mess up. If we have technology that can clone animals and have computers that we can use to call people and listen to music that fit in our back pocket, why is this such a problem for our president.

The President of the United States should be able to take care of an oil spill. With all the resources and technology we have it is ridiculous that this oil spew is causing such an uncontrollable disaster. Is Obama really exhausting all possible options to fix this or are there things we don't know about that he could be doing? Is Obama the one to blame for this situation? pipes and rigs dont just explode like that on their own. was someone or something else to blame? On 102.1 in the morning talk radio there were callers who have been working on oil rigs for decades and he seems to believe that it is unrealistic to believe a pipe would just explode like that. Personal opinion, I agree with the caller.

second life

So after we discussed second life in class I was still having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea. So I went to the second life website and tried to learn a little more independently. It seems that their motto is "A place to connect, a place to shop, a place to work, a place to love, a place to explore. Where you can be different, you can be yourself, you can change your look, free you mind and love your life." So let me break that down real fast. Connect: okay i understand that, people connect online via facebook/twitter/email even. I can get that. Shop: Shopping online is one of my favorite hobbies but when I order something online I expect in the mail 4 days later, with second life the blouse or dress you "bought" never comes. Work: no, i think its absolutely outrageous that companies, major companies, like GNC or Microsoft are actually holding real meetings in this cyber world rather than in person in a conference room the way its been done for hundreds of years. love: finding love online has become a wildly popular phenomenon in the past decade. Match.com and eharmony are websites that set up the initial connection with someone you wouldn't otherwise meet. But the hole point of those websites are to have two people actually date and go to dinner and have real conversation and a real human relationship. secondlife doesn't do that. it's all a fake cyber world relationship. And the whole "be different and yourself" part is seriously contradicting. The "residents" are different than they are in reality. Thats why they change their appearance and 'lives' on the game because they are not satisfied with themselves. They don't want to be themselves on the game because in reality, they probably aren't completely satisfied with themself.

I hope this is just a fad and the world doesn't become consumed with this secondlife.

sink hole in guatemala

I read an article about a tropical storm in Guatemala that caused a massive sink hole and killed many. So far fire fighters in central america have found 146 dead bodies from the flooding and buildings collapsing. "We had to walk with our equipment through the mountains, rescue people and then walk back again," said firefighter Rony Veliz. "It's been very hard." "We just have shovels and picks. We don't have any machinery to dig," said firefighter Mario Cruz. Maybe if the United States or any other country is willing to help out, we could have air lifted people out via helicopter and saved some of those lives that were lost. One of the fire fighters mentioned that the only tools they have are shovels and picks which i can't imagine is very productive. If other countries dont want to send volunteers, they might be able and willing to send aid. This isn't the first sink hole in Guatemala caused by flooding and just by looking at pictures I can tell that america is much wealthier than Guatemala as a whole and we should be helping the less fortunate and needy if we have resources that they dont.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/huge+guatemala+sinkhole+appears+after+tropical+storm+agatha+batters+central+america/3665832