State of the Union Coverage

This week in Citizens and Media we were assigned to blog about our experience with the State of the Union address; but two thirds of us were not allowed to watch it.

I was among the third who had to restrict my information about the State of the Union to three blog sites: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, and Michelle Malkin.

I read Talking Points Memo's post first. Their coverage was straight forward, and extremely newsy (which is the norm for this site as far as I've experienced). Their first post about the SOTU was more of a summary than an analysis. It provided some key points and quotes (which were often mentioned in the other two blogs, but either praised or criticized). The text of the address and a video of the full speech were available as well.

One thing that I did find a bit sensationalist on TPM, was the coverage of Alito's reaction to Obama's criticism of the Supreme Court. At first there was just a straight piece with a video clip, and then opinion pieces, like this editor's blog, were posted. I really liked that particular post, because it did what I think many blogs strive to do-- look at the viewpoints found in traditional newsources and provide additional commentary. However, I did feel like TPM was trying to generate more hype about the incident than it deserved.

The next blog that I went to was Michelle Malkin. I checked these sites a few hours after the SOTU address, and at that point the only thing posted on her website was her live blog of her quippy commentary. It was nearly impossible for me to take her seriously. It didn't start out all that bad, except for her comment about "Obama's Swagga Recovery Speech," which was entirely distasteful. There was some genuine analysis at the beginning in the first post. However, that's where it stopped.

Malkin began mocking the President's speech, and it became more like "look at how funny I can be" than "let me dig into what he's actually saying." The only time (other than the first post) that she really made a worthwhile comment was when she pointed out that Obama was portraying himself as an outsider to Washington, when, let's face it, he isn't. But these very few insights were overshadowed by Malkin's disrespectful tone and "look at me!" approach to the speech. I did not feel any more informed after reading her feed.

The following morning there were a few more analysis posts by Malkin, and she provided a link to the full text of the speech. While this made her site a little more credible, there was still an extremely bitter taste in my mouth from the night before.

Daily Kos perhaps had the most coverage, although for me it was also the most difficult to wade through. As a reader I appreciated the variety of articles, opinions, live feeds and individual responses to the speech, and got a better sense of what wasn't said. The variety of opinion and the number of contributors made the site seem more like an open forum, which I liked-- there wasn't just one writer ranting the whole time.

In reading these three blogs I felt incredibly informed about the speech, and when we had a class discussion about our experiences, found that perhaps the group of us that had strictly read the blogs was the most informed. However, it was impossibly difficult for me not to watch the speech live. I would have rather had the opinion to watch the speech, form my own opinion, and then gone to the blogs and read their live feeds and response posts. While the blogs did give me a broad based idea of what was and was not said, I felt like I was missing something-- maybe I just needed to hear the applause in between each sentence.

NC Blogs

This week we were asked to examine two blogs that were popularly followed by North Carolina voters during the 2008 presidential election, BlueNC, a left-leaning site and Civitasreview, a site a little more on the right. The posts on each site seem fairly well supported, as they both provide links to the news stories they cite and to the news stories' primary source documents. Some BlueNC posts also include videos (like this) from YouTube or other file sharing sites, while a few Civitasreview postings feature charts and graphs.

But BlueNC's approach is a little overwhelming and seems to rely on the assumption that more sources equal more credibility (often ignoring the reliability of the sources). The text boxes that highlight quotes are an eyesore rather than eye-catching. I much prefered the overall design of Civitasreview-- it was cleaner, and much easier to follow.

It is extremely important to pay attention to the slant of political blogs when perusing the blogosphere. For example, many of the postings I read on BlueNC seemed like attacks rather than interpretations, calls-to-arms rather than analyses. Civitasreview is definitely less shrill, but still it was obvious that the blogger was trying to sway me with each story. I understand that the point of a blog is to voice an alternate opinion, but does it have to dupe readers into believing something?

Neither blog made me feel more informed about North Carolina politics. In both cases it seemed that the bloggers assumed that their readers know what is going on (even though they provide links, they were written in more like memory cues). Both blogs also seemed to be targeting groups that would already agree with their politics. They seem to be in the business of consolidation ("here's a story, this is what you should think") rather than investigation ("here's a story, is this really all that's there?").

In the era of blogs, everyone can be a "journalist." But it's also important to remember that everyone has an opinion. News stories and editorials are not the same thing.

A Brief Introduction

My name is Emily Ellis and I'm a freshman in UNC Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I grew up in Bahama (pronounced Buh-hay-muh), North Carolina, on a small horse farm. Growing up, my parents rarely allowed me to watch the evening news because of the graphic images and the war and horror stories often covered. We never got the paper, but as long as I can remember we had the internet. My dad always checked the news online in the morning before taking me to school. I didn't really start following the news until middle school, when I was required to do weekly reports on current events in two categories (political and science and technology) and to engage in "Lightning Round" discussions where we were given two minutes to give a rundown of one major news item. I checked online websites like Yahoo! and CNN, and also followed the web pages for local news sources like the News and Observer and WRAL. I also read Muse Magazine religiously, and occasionally read articles in the Wall Street Journal. I became even more engaged in following the news when I joined my high school's World Quest team (an academic quiz bowl equivalent that focused on national and international current events and issues). I changed my homepage to BBC's international news page, and began to click through headlines religiously. I also listened to NPR on the 45 minute drive home from high school once I had my own car. Now I have three separate RSS feeds on my browser toolbar, and frequently watch CNN. I also read the Daily Tar Heel, my campus newspaper, to get news about local events. I also get daily emails from Slate Magazine with its top ten news stories of the day. Last semester I also was required to take out a subscription to the NYT for a political science class, which has since run out, and this semester I am required to read the Wall Street Journal for an economics course.

My community in general gets news from a wide variety of sources. I think for the most part people follow the local TV stations for local news, and stick to larger stations like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News for national and international coverage. Many people also tune into NPR, but some of the music stations also give hourly news run downs, so I'm sure some people get their news that way (Mix 101.5 even covers WRAL's evening broadcast). Students do read the Daily Tar Heel, but one of the more unconventional news sources is Stall Stories, monthly fliers posted in the bathroom stalls. While some of them feature funny stories, they also list important dates throughout the month and sometimes have community announcements.

Bahama is only 15 minutes north of Durham, so most of its residents have internet (only dsl or satellite) and television (typically satellite). However, a lot of news about people who live in Bahama (gossip, you could say) is passed around by members of the community, or through the "grapevine." In fact, some of the biggest news in general travels this way. For example, when coyotes were rereleased in Bahama to help control the deer population, my family heard from a neighbor, who heard from another neighbor, who heard from another neighbor who had been fined for trying to kill the animals.

The biggest place for social gatherings in Bahama is probably the Ruritan club, which hosts semi-annual pancake breakfasts and brunswick stew dinners (they advertise via repurposed yard sale signs down the side of the road). The town also has an annual Christmas parade, which is announced typically through fliers, signs and word of mouth, although coverage has grown over the past few years. The town has one main road, which is home to the town's only gas station. On the gas station wall there is a bulletin board with community announcements, for-sale fliers and advertisements. Often the bulletin board boasts numerous fliers offering free or discounted kittens and puppies.

So news sources aren't limited where I'm from, but many people seem to find it easier to just call or chat to get their exceedingly local news. Not a lot happens in Bahama, but when something does, it's bound to be spread around.