Student Pages
Recommendations from students
- Real News Network (from Scott W and Heather S) … I appreciate the fact that they can admit that they will be biased to some extent, but that they will be held accountable for their bias, “We all have interests. We recognize that bias will affect the elements in a story we choose to highlight, the facts we consider important and the sources we decide to trust. To be human is to have bias. The answer is transparency; The Real News will create forums for questioning, debating and criticizing our work.” When I click on an article I want to read, there is a short bio about the journalist and a quick history on their journaling interests. There are no corporate ties or government connections. It seems as unbiased as it can get, considering personal bias that will always have some sort of influence on the reporting.
- BBC (from Simone B) … they state that they are “committed to being open and transparent.” The BBC website also discusses where its funding comes from. They write that “the principal source of funding was grants…from donors”. There are multiple major donors that include the Department for International Development, the EU, and the US State Department. If BBC’s focus truly is to be “open and transparent” and they are capable to carry out this promise, then this website is worth including in our course page.
- C-SPAN (Taylor S) …The mission of C-SPAN seems clear to the point that they want to create unbiased unfiltered news medium, as per their mission statement. The video clips straight from the source are as close as an individual can get without being at the proceeding itself. The news that they provide is governmental: The U.S. House of Reps, the U.S. Senate, and other forums about public policy. This news medium is not as popular as other options because it is not trendy and it is more boring to the viewer. Actual policy and unbiased perspectives are more boring to the common viewer as opposed to an individual doing the thinking for them. The visual is less appealing as well.
- Al-jazeera (Alex C) … they definitely have some different views and you can select different countries to see the news articles that are more regionally relevant. I just couldn’t find out enough about how they make their money. Their corporate profile and code of ethics seem pretty straightforward. They are a company in Quatar, and seem like they’ve received a lot of awards, but I also don’t know enough about them to recommend them as a “go to” for information in this class.
- Frontline (Allison C) … The stories are relevant and seem to go much deeper than a typical news story. Since OPB is a not for profit station that is publicly funded I trust the information much more. The website was a nice surprise. Of course it offers the links to their broadcasts, but they also have links to information related to subject in written form. This website is probably not where you want to get your daily news, but when you want to see more angles of a story it is a good alternative.
- Raw Story (Brian D) … This “independent” news organization has been in journalism for 10 years now. According to its bio : “Raw Story is a progressive news site that focuses on stories often ignored in the mainstream media. While giving coverage to the big stories of the day, we also bring our readers’ attention to policy, politics, legal and human rights stories that get ignored in an infotainment culture driven solely by pageviews. Founded in 2004, Raw Story reaches 9 million unique readers per month and serves more than 30 million page views. “
- Democracy Now (Colter T) … Democracy Now! is an independent and nonprofit news syndicate that is funded solely by viewer contributions. They do not work with advertisers and receive no government funding. This prevents much of the bias that is seen in the corporate owned news and creates an atmosphere that is more conducive to something that is vital to freedom; freedom of the press.
- New Republic (Debra S) … I feel that this is a good example of a news source that includes factual, opinion, and opposing view writing. These are important to me in framing a topic that I am trying to learn more about. It may be considered a “liberal” news source. But I am a serious “bleeding-heart liberal”, and I read on sites that offer the commentary I desire; these viewpoints are rational and understandable to me. Fox News or Breitbart would be like poison to my sensibilities. It is important that the sources I read online offer some opposing views, and I think I get that on this site.
- Alternet (Gabriel O) … news is reported in what I read as an unbiased format, but because I do not watch ANY news on television or read newspapers, I am under the asumption that it is unbiased. There is a degree of Junk Food News (alot of articles on sex, which seems to one reporters forte’), some of it is health-based but some is pure junk. The news site would be a lot better off if it backed off some of this reporting. I think that section on the economy gives realistic views of what is happening and how corporations activities effect others.
- Huffington Post (Jackie H-P) … It is the only entirely digital news media source to win a Pulitzer Prize. AOL did purchase it and is still the owner but each of the founding individuals continue to be involved from CEO, editor in chief, and editors. It is presented in eight languages. The things reported on from politics to women’s issues to entertainment seems the sky is the limit especially with what sprang up this last weekend. There are also may local additions from New York to Honolulu.
- CBC–Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Jackie H) … CBC News is the largest news broadcaster in Canada with local, regional and national broadcasts and stations. As it is with other public and private journalistic undertakings, credibility is in the eyes of the general population as seen as the corporation’s most valuable asset. Part of their funding to the ccorporation is received from the Federal Government to support its program activities; it is constantly under public scrutiny to justify expenditures in various areas. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is Canada’s largest cultural institution. Owned by all Canadians, it is the only cultural institution and the only broadcaster offering services to all Canadians in English and in French across Canada.
- Vice.com (Miranda W-Z) … If you look at the site, you will see it does cover things like fashion and music, (ie junk food news,) but if you stay in the news section, you’re going to see news articles that you won’t find in American broadcasting.For example, I read an article highlighting where the Koch brothers are spending their money….(in some pretty crappy places) but the normal media outlets paint the Koch brothers as selfless givers.
- ThinkProgress.org (Randy McB) … This site provides value since it gives a clear progressive look at the news. No matter whether a person is a liberal, conservative or somewhere in between, they will better understand what is taking place by taking information from diverse positions. There are ads from liberal groups that support this site. With that in mind it is fair to assume that the site will not attack liberal causes.
- Global Research (Refik O) … Global Research is an independent, non-profit news organization located in Montreal, Canada. Their focus is to bring light and clarity on world issues. Unlike for-profit news corporations you won’t find any junk news here. Also, if you’re looking for a different point of view than your everyday mainstream media this is the place to visit. During the Iraq War, they provided sources from independent reporters in the Middle East. You can guess that they were not concerned with being considered “Anti-American” by presenting a different perspective. Along with the Iraq War they covered the US-NATO-Israel preparations to wage a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Iran, issues in Libya and Syria, the Arab Protest movement, ongoing crisis in Ukraine, militarization of the African continent, and the development of police state in North America and Western Europe.
- Stars and Stripes (Bob H) … Stars and Stripes is not just a military newsletter or positive PR journal (The military has plenty of those in magazine format). Starts and Stripes is editorially independent from the DoD and they often runs stories that are not necessarily positive towards military leadership, the DoD, or Washington politicians.
(Summer ’13)
Der Spiegel (international)
First, I enjoy reading news about the US from foreign sources — it sometimes gives a fresh, new perspective. Second, it is independent of media conglomerates and therefore less bias although, the online version does pull from wire services for some of its news. The news reported is a bit more limited than what one might find in the New York Times or LA Times. Der Spiegel magazine and Spiegel online operate as entirely separate entities.
Der Spiegel is a German owned news source known for its “investigative journalism” according to Wikepedia ;). It is also employee owned with over 1 million subscribers.
Jerusha Reed
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
The Huffington Post is an online news source and blog that launched in 2005 in response to conservative blogs such as The Drudge Report. It was founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Jonah Peretti, and Andrew Breitbart. Although it initially functioned mostly as a blog that allowed a platform for many columnists, it became an alternative news source for many. In 2011 AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million and kept Arianna on board as editor-in-chief. I have installed an adblocking program on my computer for Firefox so had to check out the website with a different browser to see what type of advertising they had. It’s not too overwhelming. Usually one ad from a different publication (more than likely also owned by AOL) and then a short list of sponsored links. I appreciate this website as a news source because it is so varied, and it does almost seem to function as a blog open to new reporters. Although there are a lot of articles dedicated to entertainment there is a whole section titled “voices” with subsections of women voices, Latino voices, black voices, gay voices, etc. There are whole sections dedicated to health, divorce, politics, education, and small business – all things that real people deal with daily. To me it represents what the Internet can do to make the news less homogeneous. There are many different people that contribute to the website as writers, photographers, bloggers, columnists, and now, with video, news anchors. For the most part it is a collection of news stories from other news sources such as CNN, AP, Getty, etc. It works as another filter in a sense to provide a certain audience with the stories they want to read about but are lost in the massive amount of information thrust our way today. The bias of the website is pretty obvious – it caters to “liberal” minded people and provides more than enough mindless entertainment junk food news. That being said there is not much about the weather posted on a regular basis =)
Mary Lewis
This site is one for following what is going on outside of the personal bubble, to gain more of an understanding on an international front. What I like about this site is that while articles are not just facts on a page they also provide insight in to the situations. What is also important is that if an article is not accurate or if there is a difference of opinion then the international readership is not afraid to go after the article in the comments section. What I learned about this site is that is based in the UK, it is expanding rapidly, the funding comes from donated time from writers and yearly ‘subscriptions’ (which include a weekly email of summarized news) of readers. There is not a marketing presence on the site, unless you count social networking promotion, and it is refreshing to see world news covered thoroughly rather than just glazed over for Lindsey Lohan.
Nicole Perdue
Project Censored was really shocking to me when I discovered it in the Week 3 thread because it is short and to the point, and much more honest than most other sites. The writers are not afraid to talk about “the elephant in the room”, important topics and they are not afraid of what it will do to their image or what the public will think or losing profit (at least from what I have noticed). It seems to be a progressive and liberal source told from the perspective of the minority, the news that is important but is never talked about it gets filtered out because it disagrees with corporate agenda, selling the war, etc.
Star Pratt
I found this site which was founded to to counter the agenda based reporting of the news by the mainstream media. The stories are written and contributed by professors, historians, lawyers, activists, and other people living in society and communities across the country.
The writers of the stories obviously can express their opinions but they are not motivated by any corporate concerns. It appears that the site is funded by donations. I certainly found the link, “real news” to be an interesting read. Here there is a section about the power of labels. There is also a section of must watch documentaries. The videos are supposed to be about things they won’t show you on mainstream TV.
Rebecca Mock
Irish Times was established in 1859. It is owned by The Irish Times Trust that was set up solely for the purpose of keeping its independence from political, commercial, religious and sectional control.
When you visit the website a headline informs you that by using their website you consent to their cookies. There several stories with imagery to pull the consumer in as well as stories about celebrities and politicians.
I was hoping that by finding a paper that stated it wasn’t run by politics, religion or commercialism that I might get some real news. I think I was wrong.
Anyways take a look at it and see if you agree or not with me.
This is a Catholic based news source that usually covers topics that the mainstream media does not cover or mention, but that are important to people all over the world. The print news stories are located at http://www.ewtnnews.com/ The value of this source is to see news reports that are not beholden to the US government or corporate advertisers.
Many of the topics covered are regarding attacks on Christian communities around the world such as in Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan anywhere else they occur. These are stories that the mainstream media does not usually cover in their reporting, mainly because the US government is silent on the issues to their international relationships.
Ownership is EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network), which is funded by donations from viewers. Started by Mother Angelica.
Robin Root
www.ewtn.com/tv/live/worldover.asp
Named after Mary Harris “Mother” Jones (activist labor organizer), Mother Jones is a non-profit news organization that produces a bi-monthly magazine and a web site. The Foundation for National Progress is the group that supports Mother Jones, as well as another three programs that seek to create, educate and expand independent journalism. Although a non-profit, Mother Jones does use advertising dollars to fund their journalism. Their ad policy is available on their website. They state that these advertising funds account for 1/3 of their income.
Known as a “left-leaning” organization, Mother Jones focuses on political, social justice, and investigative reporting, but insists that they will investigate and write about whatever needs to be brought to light, no matter what political persuasion. For instance, this story on the union between Hollywood and politics focuses on the super-PACs for the democrats. It’s an interesting read for the course, especially after watching Wag the Dog.
The web site is busy with ads, as well as brief nods to the news of the day, but one can access many of the articles from the print magazine. The latest issue also had a piece on mental illness in the U.S., focusing on journalist Mac McClelland’s schizophrenic cousin. This is the type of news I like to read – well researched and in-depth, rather than just the quick sound bites that we have grown accustom to.
Ruth Dailey
It tends to be left-leaning, as many non-mainstream news sites seem to be, but is not too ideologically rigid. It is called an “online magazine” and has a mix of longer, investigative pieces and shorter more current stories. They often put an alternative spin on issues and look at them from unpopular viewpoints. Many of their articles have interesting titles like Take the Online Sexual Harassment Course That Would Have Saved Bob Filner! and Yes, Virginia, You’re a Haven for “Crime Guns”. Several of its former writers have reached national prominence as columnists like Princeton Economics Professor Paul Krugman, who now writes for the New York Times, and Fareed Zakaria who has a show on CNN. The site is partly owned by the Washington Post and is supported by ad revenue.
Seth Lougee
News.com.au (news from Australia)
I found this Australian news site quite entertaining. It’s basically laid out much the same that many of our local news sites are, with advertisements and junk news for those who want it. However, I thought the World and Top news stories had an interesting format, unlike our ‘story’ type layout for news articles, I noticed that many of these are more like bullet point statements. There isn’t a lot of personal opinion in many of these stories (at least not the ones I read).
Tiffany Clark
I chose this website because my grandmother subscribes to their magazine and I enjoy reading it. The articles in the magazine are often brief but informative and they usually at least make an effort to present both sides of a story if it is a controversial issue. They also have a section called how they see us that features a few short articles written in other countries discussing issues either in the U.S. or issues that the U.S. is involved in in other countries.
At first I found the website to be a disappointment while the magazine has some junk news, the ratio of junk news to real news is pretty good. Looking at the homepage of the website it seems like this ratio has changed to about half of each. However after looking around I still found some articles that I thought were really good and relevant. I think that the magazine is better than the website since the website does not have some of what I think are the best features, but I still thing that theweek.com can be a useful website for this class.
As far as ownership I looked down at the bottom and it says it is owned by Felix Dennis. I Googled him and found his website; he is described as a poet and a philanthropist. He owns the publishing company that owns The Week and I found out that it is also published in Australia and the U.K. I think the website makes its money from the publishing of the magazine and the digital downloads of the magazine. I believe they also get revenue from advertisers since they have ads in the magazine and there are also a few ads on the website as well.
Caitlin Ferrell
I chose the Associated Press, for two reasons, it is a not-for-profit and a cooperative. The AP has been around for a long time, dating back to 1846, covering everything from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, to the death of the Pope John Paul I. The AP is owned by 1,400 daily newspapers that are AP members, these member elect a board of directors that directs the cooperative. The current board includes a variety of CEOs and publishers, with people from the Washington Post and the New York Times. This makes me a little leery, but the board was ethnically diverse, which usually leans towards cultural diversity, which I appreciate. The AP prides itself for keeping up with technology and its website was weak but the mobile app on my ipad was great. There was lots about values and integrity, with direct quotes such as: “The people of the AP are part of the fabric of freedom,” “Honest messengers, mostly anonymous and far from the limelight.”
Echo DeMasters
One of my go-to sites is the Drudge Report. This site compiles news stories and headlines from many different sources to be read in one place. The problem with this site is only news articles that the owner, Matt Drudge, sees fit will go into his report. The website provides links to stories from other news agencies. Because of this, you can choose to view the other articles from the various sources. Internet ads can be seen as you scroll through the different links suggesting that much of the funding is provided by advertisers. The Drudge Report is based mainly on political news, but also contains links to “Junk Food News” in the form of “infotainment”. I usually check the drudge report once a day to see what the various news agencies are reporting on (politically).
The format of the Drudge Report is based on the links Mr. Drudge and his team creates. There will be a group of headlines such as this example:
- QAEDA RISING…
- STATE DEPT ISSUES WORLDWIDE TRAVEL ALERT…
- U.S. EMBASSIES ACROSS MIDDLE EAST TO SHUT DOWN SUNDAY…
- Officials: Chatter among al Qaeda operatives in Yemen led to warnings…
- Rep: Threat ‘very specific’…
- INTERPOL Issues Warning Over Prison Breaks…
Each of the different links will take you to a different news source. Many headline groupings will be different news sources on the same subject.
The Drudge Report, being politically based, is critical of the government and tagged as being conservative in nature. According to Wikipedia, the Drudge Report will sometimes post political stories that other news agencies suppress.
Coleton Smith
I guess it’s not a secret that I am a political progressive, and I really enjoy the articles on ThinkProgress.org. I began monitoring their site a few years ago after hearing about them on the Air America Radio network. There content is almost 100% political and obviously bent to the left and, technically, is a blog. In the about section of the website they state “Think Progress is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The Center for American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization. They have one a number of awards including “Best Liberal Blog” of 2007; they were an official honoree at the 2009 and 2012 Webby Awards, and were named best blog of the year by the Sidney Hillman Foundation. The blog is supported by by readers donations to the Center of American Progress. There stories are well written and entertaining to read, and though their content is progressive based, they are not affiliated with any political party, or religious organization.
Howard Mekemson
