Online news

Class activity

Visit 3 online news site:
a) news blog
b) an online-only news site
c) online counterpart of a print newspaper

Explore each of these sites and reflect

1.   What constitutes good and bad practice in online news

2.   To what extent are online news readers allowed to comment on the news? Which site would you commend to other and why
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Below is the 3 online news site that has been explored       

  

a.    Google News Blog

b.    Malaysiakini

c.    The Star Online

There are many good practices in online news. For example, instant breaking news updates in online news makes us always aware of what is happening in the world. Apart from that, we are also able to search the old news in an online news site by searching the key words or specific dates. This is what the printed newspaper cannot do. Furthermore, online news is convenient to users that are not able to receive the printed version. For instance, if I worked at United States, I still able to access the news of Sin Chew Daily by accessing to its online news site. However, we think the best practice is reader is able to interact with journalist in online news. The comment from the readers can always be the feedback to the journalist or perhaps the organization to make improvement.        

Another concern is the bad practice in online news. Sometimes, the news we are reading in online news site is not the kind of report in printed news paper due to unauthorized sources. There is some information we read is just put on by anyone without careful fact-checking.  So, we may get the accurate news. Since anyone who like to report news can become a ‘citizen journalist’, some of the news is not been reported in a rational way due to personal vale and different ethical standards. Besides, some people will post offensive or disruptive comments in online news. Hence, it may influence others people’s view to the news.     

In our opinion, the freedom to speak out the opinion in online news site is much more than printed newspaper. People are allowed to comment anonymously. It is not strictly as letters to the editor.  However, the internet “trolls” and the phenomenon of nasty anonymous is getting worse in nowadays since people are free to comment anonymous. In order to solve the problem, some of the news sites are start to require reader to register their name before they leave any comment. For instance Huffington Post decides to ban anonymous comment by require readers to identify themselves by name in 2013.

From the 3 sites, we are more likely to commend Malaysiakini to others since it is an online news sites which reported into four languages. ( English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil). Other than that, Malaysiakini offers alternative news to public and reflect views of Malaysian since it is one of the few independent media organizations in Malaysia and do not linked to any political party. In other hand,   Malaysiakini was recognized as one of the country’s favourite brand at the inaugural Putra Brand Awards 2010. So, it is an online news that provides quality report.