We have chosen the politics section of the Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/.
This blog talks about the political issues facing the nation. The people who post on this blog are professors or journalists or government officials. It is updated very frequently. It gets it's information from a variety of sources and numerous people comment on it. It appears to have little or no advertising. We are focusing on the political part of the Huffington Post, not the rest, so please stick to the political section.
Sooo, does anybody have a comment that they want to share with everybody? Look for arguments and disagreements within an article, what different writers have in common regarding political standing, etc, and start analyzing :)
ReplyDeleteWell we seem to be lacking some responses from the class so here are a few questions to think about:
ReplyDelete1. Do you find this blog effective in getting across its point?
2. Does the writing, context, set up, etc. make it seem like this blog is a credible source for information?
3. What are some of the physical appearances of the blog that help to make it seem like a useful blog to navigate?
4. Do the readers seem to generally agree or disagree with the topics being discussed?
Hope these questions help!
Further questions could be asked as well:
ReplyDelete-Does the language of the blog appear to be offensive? and if so, to whom?.. why?
-Do the pictures in the way they appear, have correlation with the way the article may talk about the depicted person or object?
-Is there persuasion of political standings?
There seems to be a trend in political blogs, that is, their layouts are somewhat simplistic. This blog is quite effective/on point in finding relevant topics, and seems to lean toward a more liberal audience. Its' set up does make it feel like a credible source, as well as the blog's use of pictures to draw the audience in. If you notice, the pictures are filled with emotion that certainly spikes the interest of a reader. The bold headings stand out at first glance, and by implementing a color change in the heading, it seems to imply that a specific post might be of high interest (for example "Controversies could derail Miller's campaign" was in bold red, it gives off the feeling that this specific article is of a higher importance in the on the blog)
ReplyDeleteHey, I think I'll be the first person to respond to this blog. Cool! IN regards to the questions Jordan had suggested I find this blog to be successful in terms of getting it's point across with the Bold Title Font as well as the bold subtitles and red highlights. The blog as a whole generally hits on controversial issues within the political community as oppose to slandering one side of the political spectrum compared to the other. Perhaps this suggests the at blog's ideal audience is anyone interested in politics which is at least a majority of the population, also suggesting that this blog is going to connect a plethora of various kinds of people with differentiating opinions on the subjects being posted. Those details project that the overall purpose of the blog is not only to display controversial stories with captivating headlines but to also create controversy within the blog between comments. By doing so perhaps the blog can monitor who their blog is attracting, more liberals or conservatives. After acknowledging their larger audience they can then decide which stories they would like to post next? Perhaps one that goes with the majority or the minority depending on the response the blog seeks.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see people are posting some new comments, feel free to refer back to previously suggested questions or post new questions you may want others to answer!
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the points that Coco Puffs stated. I found that the blog's layout was extremely simplistic and dry. But, they do a good job to grab the readers attention by bolding our nations problems and debating controversial topics. As I read some of the posts on the blog, I noticed that there was a tad bit of skewness in some of the articles but nothing to harsh, but enough for further debate and ideas on each matter....
ReplyDeleteThe use of BOLD lettering captures attention and the titles are attention grabbing. I found it interesting that titles about candidates spending large amounts of money were right next to titles containing the words "partial to large breasts". It seems like this blog does not have a set idea in regards to what they present when it comes to politics, it is whatever seems most interesting and scandalous. Also, most of the articles have pictures next to them, and these pictures are generally of people. By using just the faces of people it becomes more personalized, and focused on one person at a time, which makes it easier to go through.
ReplyDeleteThe blog doesn't appear to have much of a one-sided approach which makes it more enjoyable to read and without a clear stated bias comes off as credible.
I also found it interesting that towards the bottom of the page there is a comedy section. This shows that the authors of the blog enjoy humor in politics and attempt to appeal to all people who are interested in politics, be it CNN or The Daily Show.
Honestly, I'm not big on politics and so I don't know a whole lot about it. This being said, my initial response after browsing through different pages, articles, and comments is that I am a little overwhelmed with the mass amounts of political and ideological opinions that fill this blog. A big theme that I do notice is how there is a leaning toward the Democratic party as the articles on this blog seem to emphasize the strong points of the Democrats and the weakers points of the Republican party. The comments on a lot of the articles are very diverse in terms of academic responses versus judgemental nonsensical phrases. I think this shows the scope of the audience that is looking at and responding to this blog. This may then potentially affect the type of articles which are posted to this political page in order to please a broad range of people that are united in their Democratic leaning.
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying that the person behind this blog (Adrianna Huffington) is a more liberal voice on political talk shows and a frequent guest on Bill Maher's show where I know she isn't shy about saying what her political viewpoints are. That said, you dont even need to know the woman behind this blog to see it has a liberal slant to it. Just scrolling down and reading the titles of the articles, I did not find one that seemed to be of a conservative or republican viewpoint whatsoever. However, I really dont look at this as a blog at all. In reality, this is set up more as a news site in that it employs the same basic layout and format of a CNN or Fox News with the multiple tabs up top where one can navigate to stories and articles based on Politics, Entertainment, Sports, Etc. It does come off as a patriotic color scheme with the white background and red and blue lettering for the main titles and articles. Another interesting facet of this website is the list on news sites and sources at the bottom of the homepage. This can be seen that the Huffington Blog is fair and unbiased when deciding to show that it's stories and writeups are taken from all online news websites and not just the ones that agree with the overall viewpoints of this one in particular. Although, I highly doubt they take much away from the more conservative periodicals, FOX News especially.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a very timely blog to share given that the election was so recent. The website strikes me as a typical opinionated political site full of mediocre pictures of politicians accompanied by controversial articles. It would be difficult for me to visit a site like this when trying to come up with an opinion because all the information is a bit dispersed. I would prefer it if it would present a topic and then explain the different point of views in a more organized manner. As far as political blogs, it's not the worst that I've seen, but I would never use it to gain knowledge or help me to make my political decisions.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this is a very well organized and maintained blog. There is a certain sense of professionalism when viewing it. Another thing that struck me was that it seemed to be a very liberal slanted blog, but despite that, it still did a good job of representing stories that bashed both sides, not just one party. A very good tactic to keep readers who may be skeptical about the blog when first viewing it.
ReplyDeletethis blog is a great source of political news. Having seen this a week after the eletions, this would be a site I would frequent if I were really interested in getting the up to the minute info on politics. I did have some trouble with it though, it seemed to be more one sided than a balance between GOP and dem. there weren't many articles about the Republicans taking power, but rather about the dems losing power. And after reading through some of the comments it became clear that this blog is more for Democrats enjoyment. An article basically stating that Obama has lost all power in the white house, and basically has no chance of winnnig the next election was followed by comments of people saying they still support him although they realize he doesnt have much left in him. The article right next to it, however was about Bush drinking in his early career. The story shared was from when before he was 40, the article itself states that Bush has been sober since he was 40 and never had a drop of alcohol when he was in the white house, and yet nearly every comment was saying that Bush was the worst president ever, and was drunk during his entire presidency. These comments were extremely rude and some vulgar, not anything similiar to those found about the comments written about Obama.
ReplyDeleteAt first glace, this blog seems very professional and well-put. The contributors on this blog are well known throughout the journalistic world. It is updated multiple times daily, and therefore, always up to date. The only problem is that the blog is not exactly objective. Almost all of the posts slant towards the left. But this is much different than the first blog that was posted on this Borders Blog (the one about immigration). Although this blog does lean towards the left, it does not go out and bash on every republican or right-wing idea and story. Instead, it constructively criticizes many issues brought up by republicans. Almost all of the comments posted on this website support the left-wing articles published. I can see virtually no right-wing influence on this website.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog! I do not know much about politics in United States but I am still attracted by this blog. It offers various up to date information about new announcement and policies that is easy to read. There also have a lot of pictures and videos that help people to explore a further view of those passages. It provided various information to let readers think rather than support someone obviously.
ReplyDeleteThis blog has a reputation of being a democractic blog. However, like Scott said, after reading a few posts, it still criticizes the policies of some leftists as well as the tea party. This supports an open-minded, discussion based blog. Perhaps this is why democrats would come read this blog, since they enjoy the liberty of not being conservative about their opinions. Otherwise I, too, believe that this blog supplies relevant, up to date information about politics, despite the focus being much more on democratic issues. Being a good supplier of of news is also indicated by the blog's amount of frequent visitors and commentors.
ReplyDeleteI just go and check several news on these blogs, i really like to know that there exists wikileaks about how the truth should be published to the people. And it is really shocking that how different it would look like from different respective, like how we think about the recent korean fairs. Maybe many things would be different from different sides, they are both true, only determined by which side you are on.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm really surprised how US people usually self questioning about their ability. Is US really a paper tiger? As a foreigner, I would say, it is more depend on what US will do rather than what is happening to the US now.
ReplyDelete