Compare & Contrast

The top story on FOXNews.com today was about the current election and the primary finish; Clinton won Indiana by just two percent and Obama won North Carolina by 14 points. Other stories that got prominent placement on FOXNews.com were a number of stories, some are in bold and some are just regular fonted links. Thus it's hard to tell which is more prominent. Going in order from the top to bottom, the next following story is about Myanmar and the Cyclone disaster that killed more than 22,000 in the U.N. The following story after the cyclone disaster was about Al Qaeda and an identified Iraq leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who is really Hamid Dawoud al-ZawiIraq. I believe this website is one of the more fair and balanced sites of the news web links. The sites primary audience is the general public looking for top news stories on the web.

The second news site I went to was Yahoo! News. I went to this site because I frequently see the top stories when I'm checking my Yahoo! mail. The top story on this web site was about the election and primary again; on Barack Obama winning North Carolina and Clinton winning Indiana. Right next to the link to this story was about seven related links to the elections and primary. To the right of these links was a side link and picture about Britney Spears and her status with visitation rights with her children. Stories under these two stories were following links about the Myanmar cyclone disaster. I would say that this website has a little more of an entertainment value rather than newsworthy value. Although they have some prominent news links about the elections and natural disasters going on, they also have side links about certain celebrities. Although some links may come first on this site, the fact that there are pictures provided with certain links, such as the Britney Spears story, made me want to click on those rather than read the stories. This sites primary audience is mainly Yahoo! Mail customers. I believe this site is a little less fair and balanced with the Murrow standards. I only read the stories on this site because they pop up when I'm checking my mail or else I wouldn't normally go to it to check current news.

The third website I reviewed was CNN.com. I reviewed this website because under google search it was the first link to pop up; it had the most hits for the search "news". The first prominent story on this site again was about the election and Clinton versus Obama. The following links after this story were more about the the election and related news. After the election links there was a section for "Popular News" and then following a section for "Latest News". Under "Popular News" there was a story about an American Idol. Under "Latest News" there were a few stories, the first being about how six fraternities were suspended for drugs. Although this site is more newsworthy than the Yahoo! Mail website, I believe it isn't as Newsworthy or fair as FOXNews.com. This site groups news into different sections; first by newsworthiness, then by popularity and finally then by the latest news. This sites primary audience again is the general public.

Which site would you read? Why? Out of the three sites I have listed, I normally read the less newsworthy site, Yahoo! News. However, I only read this site when checking my mail. If I am actually looking for current news I usually just look under google and which ever news site has the most hits, today that was CNN.com. Out of the three sites, I rarely ever go to FOXNews.com although it is the most newsworthy. I believe I don't go to this site as much as the others only because I look for quick, easy news. I am somewhat interested in what's going on, however I don't ever go out of my way to click on links specifically for news, only if they are provided on a site that I am already on to do another task, such as checking my mail.