Posted by GrokSurf on March 9, 2010
There’s a possibility that both the San Carlos Area Council and Del Cerro Action Council will soon be implementing a dynamic presence on the web, but in the meanwhile, the Mission Times Courier recently published these updates:
San Carlos Area Council news report for February
Del Cerro Action Council news report for February
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: Del Cerro Action Council, Navajo Community, San Carlos Area Council | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on February 8, 2010
…and so does the OB Rag.
If you’re not a big fan of online news media, you probably haven’t heard that our own Voice of San Diego just turned five years old. In an age where we read about the dinosaurs of the old media dying daily, our home town of San Diego hosts one of the bright shining lights of what many consider the future of news reportage.
What the Voice has successfully achieved over its first five years is a reputation for doggedly digging the public record for actual facts combined with skillfully executed interviews that give its reporting a sense of depth and credibility not often found in today’s world of repackaged links, sound bites and (not-so) hidden agendas…
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: Voice of San Diego | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on February 2, 2010
Newspapers are loath to make reference to their competitors, lest their readers flee their own pages, but for the record this development might be of interest to readers who occasionally pick up a print edition.
Last fall the LA Times changed its layout by moving its California news section into the main “A” news section which became considerably thicker as a result; today the California news moved back out into a new LATEXTRA section. According to the blurb on their front page, the new section will contain not only California stories but also “the latest possible reporting from throughout the nation and world” and “showcases our 24-hour newsroom.” I can’t see a big difference overall though; I think they may have decided the main news section with the embedded California section was just getting too thick and wanted to break them back into more easily-handled sections.
Meanwhile, the SD Union-Tribune devoted a full-page ad to its thinning paper the other day to proclaim how much effort they are putting into publishing better-quality news. Since an earlier piece I wrote about the U-T last fall, I’ve seen little change although there has been a slight trend towards putting more local reporting on the front page and an insertion of a new “Bright and Early” column on the front page to highlight inside stories, weather, and a random tidbit or quote. [Update Feb 4: today the U-T announced a revamp of their " Night&Day" entertainment guide. I don't see any change in the printed version but online looks jazzed up with slideshow headlines and full-color animated advertising]
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune | 1 Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on January 19, 2010
Two local news editors of publications I follow recently exchanged tweets that touched on the issue of competition for stories. One editor took the position that stories aren’t owned; rather each publication tells part of the bigger picture. The other editor responded, does that mean you’ll tell me what [reporter's name] is working on right now?
This got me thinking how that competitive tension can affect the reader. Certainly all news publications seek to be first with important stories and to stand out as having the best coverage. But sometimes that impulse leads to the suppression of information the reader could use. It may be they’ll hide the fact they’re working on a certain story so they can get a scoop, or perhaps they won’t reveal sources for which they invested considerable effort. They may feel that monopolizing information will help secure more readers willing to pay subscription fees or make donations. This tension probably helps energize news reporting to some degree, but too often it’s at the expense of the reader.
For me, one of the more frustrating things about what appears in news reports is the seeming policy against citing sources or acknowledging competitors or linking to related stories (a notable local exception, Voice of San Diego links to “competing” news stories as in this example).
Stories without links to sources or other related information force readers to take everything at face value.
Here’s an example from KPBS, “Judge’s Ruling Could Limit San Diego’s Water Supply.” Just enough information to tease an uncomfortable feeling in the reader, but nothing of real substance, no mention of the Quantification Settlement Agreement behind the issue or explanation of its purpose in allocating water among western states, even misspelling the judge’s name (it’s Roland). Or this story about an “allegedly savage drug gang boss” (allegedly savage?) with no citations for assertions made.
SignOnSanDiego ran a story that briefly described a bust of what seemed to be an major identity theft operation in San Diego but omitted details, names of defendents, and case information. The story’s writer did not respond to my email query for those details. Unexpectedly I found a television news report that provided a much more informative report. Here’s another article that’s typical…it discusses a new report from the city’s pension system without linking to the report (VoSD does) — instead it makes links for “San Diego,” “Donna Frye,” “Jerry Sanders,” “the Great Depression,” and “Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Useless links, too, because they only lead to a list of articles containing those names/terms! Links to “earthquakes,” “wind,” or “prisoners” would have been as helpful. It sort of gives new meaning to the technical term “symbolic link.”
They gave you a story, what more could you want?
I can excuse the absence of links to sources and additional information in print publications but not the withholding of important data in the online edition. Online I expect lots of links to sources. On that front I once wrote to the U-T to complain that they ran as their own a story that VoSD broke a week earlier and got a response that “we do news, not investigative reporting!” Blogs and blog-like news sources, especially technical ones, have been much better in this regard, but at least some local news outfits extend attribution to online journalism and are alert to other ways to improve the online reader’s experience. That’s a good thing.
Related posts:
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Posted by GrokSurf on January 18, 2010
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: San Diego Union-Tribune | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on December 7, 2009
As part of their recent website redesigns, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Voice of San Diego implemented a new system for naming URLs for their stories. My experience is that U-T’s site has problems redirecting users trying to access legacy URLs. The Voice also has a minor issue with that, as well as difficulty with its calendar.
Legacy URLs are the original URLs for older stories that appeared on the previous website. Without a redirect from the legacy link to the new URL, the result is a “404 Page Not Found” error message.
“Page Not Found” is bad for the user and bad for a website. The frustrated user may not be inclined to do extra digging to find the article; instead, (s)he may abandon the search and go elsewhere.
I checked some of my old blog posts that cited articles in the Union-Tribune, and many of them led to a 404 error. When I reported the problem to the U-T, they told me I should change the “www” to “legacy” on the bad links.
The U-T said they are working to get redirects operational. I think those links shouldn’t have broken in the first place. Not ensuring functional automatic redirects before implementing a new website suggests haste in getting the new product out. As of today, I’m still getting those 404 errors.
The Voice of San Diego for the most part seems to have redirection working though I did encounter a dead link the other day. They indicated to me they are still working on the issue. For a while their calendar wasn’t working. Although it’s up now, it contains very little information and calendar navigation is messy and difficult to use. They’re not alone in that though–I think event calendars just inherently defy good design and perhaps website owners don’t think they’re worth the trouble. One thing is sure–calendar widgets on the cheap aren’t going to get you very much.
The U-T also has problems with their search function. For a few days after the new site rolled out, my search for “Sanders budget” turned up no hits at all for 2009 and almost all searches failed to sort results by date correctly. The date sorting problem seems to be fixed now, but the search utility still does a poor job of locating documents. Today, the “Sanders budget” search on U-T’s site listed only 6 documents for all of 2009. The same search on Google gets 91 documents–for the last month alone (site-specific searching is available on Google as an advanced option). It makes me reluctant to use U-T’s search at all.
The Voice of San Diego redesign is still morphing. Sunday morning’s home page devoted a huge chunk of space at the top to a marquee slideshow, a technique I consider superfluous. By afternoon the slideshow was near the bottom of the page, visible only after scrolling down.
 Sunday morning version |
 Sunday afternoon version |
The Union-Tribune allocates a generous amount of screentop real estate to advertising, some animated, also an unwelcome distraction in the way it competes with the news.
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A major change in Voice of San Diego’s site was to enable comments on all individual articles, but unlike the U-T, anonymous comments are not permitted. While the U-T requires commenters to sign in through Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID, it’s still easy to maintain anonymity. On Voice of San Diego you can use a pseudonym for your comment display name but your profile page will show your real name. The reaction I’ve seen to the policy against anonymous comments has been supportive because having to reveal one’s identity encourages responsible discourse.
Overall I’d say the changes to both websites represent an incremental improvement in appearance and functionality but there’s still lots of room for improvement. As for their journalism and editorial direction, I guess my opinion leaks out between the lines on some of my other blog posts from time to time!
Posted in Internet, Newspapers | Tagged: Legacy URLs, San Diego Untion-Tribune, Voice of San Diego | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on November 24, 2009
The U-T has a “Just Fix it” column you can contact if there is “a problem government hasn’t taken care of despite your complaints.” The column’s writer selects cases and follows up by contacting the appropriate agency and resolving communication issues or other impediments to the solution. Good PR for the U-T although the scope of service is by necessity limited by space and time.
I wonder why the U-T or another news organization (or the city, for that matter) doesn’t take advantage of one of the online services that let people easily request 311-type government services, facilitating the process of getting requests routed to the appropriate agency and tracking them for follow-through.
Such services allow people to report problems from their mobile devices in addition to their computers and even to include photos in their reports. People can see what else is being reported in their areas and add their “vote” to issues already submitted that they are also concerned about.
Take a look at some of these offerings.
http://www.seeclickfix.com/
A neighborhood reporting system that has been established for some time
http://www.zeemaps.com/
Another reporting system
http://geotrac.demo.topplabs.org/query
Another reporting system
http://www.fixmystreet.com/
An example from Great Britain
http://open311.org/
A website meant to facilitate an international effort to build open interoperable systems that allow citizens to more directly interact with their cities.
On the live SeeClickFix map you can hover a spot to view details
Having such a system for San Diego could lead to better service, reach new constituents, and facilitate interagency collaboration. Wouldn’t something like this be a handy resource for our community?
Posted in Government, Internet, Newspapers, Technology | Tagged: 311 services | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on November 12, 2009
The website design of online news services may not be a big deal if you keep up with news via feeds from specific sites or from aggregation services, which I do, but I also like to visit particular news sites. One thing that bothers me about some news sites, though, is their layout. I wish they wouldn’t find it necessary to use glitzy, gimmicky designs. If I want show and sparkle, I’ll visit an entertainment site.
Speaking of entertainment sites, I can’t decide if the Huffington Post is news or entertainment. It opens with a large sensational headline/picture combo. Scrolling down you find a cluttered razzle-dazzle three-column layout (in theory nothing wrong with 3 columns–my blog uses three as well. Anyway, I’m just a hometown blogger using a standard WordPress theme). Left-hand column headlines for featured blog posts get varied colors; until recently, the right-hand column jumped up or down a line every ten seconds! (click images for larger size). |
The comment links below each story periodically flash yellow (shown in the second shot); I’ve seen the entire page background flash yellow momentarily from time to time. Lots of pictures and video, pictures and video. The chaotic hopscotch multicolor design makes the site not only unappealing for finding news, it makes me want to leave as soon as possible. |
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Locally, SignOnSandiego (which just rolled out a major site redesign intended to “rock the town” according to an earlier U-T tweet) doesn’t look very newsy when you first reach the page. It presents a selected main story accompanied by a few additional headlines, followed by a popular (and superfluous) technique of embedding a large picture/headline slideshow looping 4 or 5 stories every 8 seconds. The navigation bar at the top has rollover pulldowns to various topics, a technique which provides reasonable coverage. Still, to me the overall layout and commercial focus feels like a billboard. I hope they phase out the recurring nagging popup window asking for feedback. |
As an aside, SignOn’s search function is seriously broken; a search for “Sanders budget” pulls up nothing for 2009. A search for “San Diego budget” pulls up listings, but the entries listed show incorrect publication dates unless you click through to the article. When I did the search today (Nov 12), the first page of results included 14 entries all dated Nov 12 but a click through to the articles reveals a wide variety of actual publication dates (the Nov 12 date on the search screen entries appears to come from the date you did the search. Other entries show no date at all. |
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: San Diego Union-Tribune, Huffington Post, SignOnSanDiego, New York Times, Drudge Report, LA Times, McClatchy, Techmeme, Think Progress | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on November 5, 2009
I’m a little wary now about the North County Times.
On Tuesday, after the workshop held by the California Department of Water Resources which wrapped up at 1pm, I took the trolley home, wrote down some highlights, and posted them here at about 4:45pm.
After posting, I decided to check if any reports from local media had appeared. Nothing so far…except one, from the North County Times. I took a look at it and as far as it went, it certainly appeared consistent with what I heard. What caught my eye was the timestamp on the post: 12:20pm, forty minutes before the workshop had concluded.
Well, that was enough to make me pause. Normally, I like to make links to local media reports on topics I’m writing about but I did not do so this time. My reason was that it would have to be a progress report and not an account of the entire event, unless it was actually published later and something is screwy with their server’s time. I even tweeted about the curious timestamp.
Well, today I checked back and the original story is gone; in its place is a new story (and I’m pretty sure a different headline, but I didn’t think to make a copy for comparison) with a new timestamp of 8:20pm. And further, in the first paragraph, an error was introduced: the workshop is now said to have occurred on Monday! This time I grabbed a screenshot.
So, I’m still not going to link to it. But it sure brings home to me an issue that has been widely discussed already, that being the (quiet or not) revision of online news stories. While that’s a topic well-covered already elsewhere, I will say here that I believe when changes to stories must be made, they should either be done via a separate new story (with links between the two stories) or else it should be explicitly clear in the revised story where the changes were made. I don’t think it’s enough just to generically write “updated” at the bottom of the story.
Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: North County Times | Leave a Comment »
Posted by GrokSurf on October 30, 2009
The Mission Times Courier is a monthly (11 times per year) community newspaper that is delivered to 22,500 homes in eastern San Diego neighborhoods including San Carlos. It’s a nice paper to peruse for local happenings, but it does run into trouble when it chooses to run stories that are time-sensitive.
The small lot is on the extreme right
The October 23 issue now appearing in driveways has a front-page article headlined “Councilmember Blasts Mayor over Winter Homeless Shelter Location” and the first line quotes a press release by Councilmember Marti Emerald that says “the location chosen by the Mayor’s office is absolutely inappropriate for a winter homeless shelter.”
The location is a small lot next door to the San Carlos Branch Public Library at the corner of Jackson and Golfcrest Drives. The small lot previously held a gas station and was designated for a future (distant!) expansion of the library, but is presently used for private parking by nearby apartment/condo residents.
No further details are provided in the paper. Marti Emerald’s website has only the press release.
The problem with the paper’s story is that the San Diego City Council decided on October 13 to place the emergency winter shelter in East Village, east of the Gaslamp Quarter.
Considering the Courier’s wide distribution, headline, and story many local residents could believe that San Carlos was chosen (unless they’ve been following the issue all along) especially since the San Carlos angle on the homeless shelter story wasn’t brought out in local news stories anyway (please correct me if I’m wrong about that). Online, the Courier’s website has no mention of this development either, other than an obscure note saying “Our thanks to everyone who wrote to Mayor Sanders about not using the parking lot at Jackson and Golfcrest for a homeless shelter. It was not a good selection.”
Community print newspapers with infrequent circulation should definitely steer away from breaking news items.
Posted in Land use, Newspapers, Politics | Tagged: Homeless shelter, Mission Times Courier, San Carlos Branch Public Library | Leave a Comment »
