katrina

In the midst of all that surrounds Hurricane Katrina and its impact, it is interesting to see how the media as a whole is handling the situation. After perusing some national, local, and blogger sites today, it seems as though there are a few main aftermath topics that the media has decided to run with. These include: race/economic status, looting, federal aid, health issues, and oil prices. While each media outlet seems to touch on all of these topics in one way or another, they do so in very different ways.

I have been looking specifically at online news outlets, both those linked to traditional news outlets and those not. Sites such as CNN.com and Washingtonpost.com use what seem to be more traditional coverage, if such an idea exists on the internet. The sites offer mostly everything that can be found on CNN or in the Washington Post, with certain online bonuses like links to other stories, videos, and satellite images. At this point, I prefer sites linked to traditional news outlets to blogger sites. The bigger news outlet sites seem to have more access to video and pictures, thus making the news more interactive. And maybe, in some cases, the online editors of certain sites have a keener eye for layout.

I was not impressed by the layout of the Drudge Report and Google news. They have a lot of links, but not a lot of text, which is jarring to the eye. The Drudge Report featured one picture, and countless links. Google news had more pictures, but still not a lot of text to sum up the stories on the site. As a news consumer, I am looking to be wooed by more pictures and text. I guess I'm looking for a site that resembles the front page of a traditional newspaper.