Google Takes Over News, Again

Google News created a new way for readers to easily find the top stories. They’ve created a “Standout” tag which is set in the header of the story in order to flag down the reader.  Also, in working with the competition, there is also a peer-to-element which will send the reader to competitions best stories.

Instructions on Standout

First journalists will identify critical stories and then the stories will then have the Standout tag fixed on the header. Finally, Google News adds a “Feature” label to the story, thus attracting more readers.

In order to prevent companies from labeling every story as important, Google reserves the power to deem what is important. 

Goggle reported that most people go to them for news and as such they claimed to have over one billion clicks every month. 

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/google-news-gets-social/

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Journalists denied access to Twitter page

Last February, Texas Governor Rick Perry made a few headlines in an effort to avoid them. Specifically, Perry was found to have blocked a number of Texan media members from accessing his Twitter account (you can read the original article here). DallasNews.com's Tom Benning reported being denied following access after trying to subscribe to @GovernorPerry. At least two other journalists, Bud Kennedy and Scott Braddock, were singled out by Perry and blocked.

Surprisingly, even after Perry was called out on his behavior, Poynter.org reported on Monday that Perry still blocks reporters from viewing his account. Why would this be news? Now that Perry is running for GOP nomination, journalists are even more curious to know why members of the press are not allowed to subscribe to his account.

But no worries, correspondents: nine minutes after Steve Myers reported on Poynter, Yahel Carmon created @PerryUnblocked by putting the RSS feed for @GovernorPerry into Yahoo Pipes, and flowing that in to Twitterfeed.

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Dropping G's

Last weekend, AP reporter Mark Smith, was looked down upon for one of the hugest errors a journalist can do. Dropping letters at the end of a word. In this case, Smith had dropped the G's in President Barack Obama's speech towards African American voters.

As an example, Smith wrote quoting President Obama "Shake it off. Stop Complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. "

Many African Americans felt that this report was racist, including an African American author Karen Hunter.

Smith claims that he usually uses AP Stylebook, which does say not to use slang or dialect. Smith argues that President Obama was making an emphasis on dropping the G's, so that was why he wrote it as such.

"I believe I was respecting his intent in this. Certainly disrespect was the last thing I intended." States Smith to Mediaite.

Its very important for young journalist to not jump on Smith's band-wagon. Play it safe and always resort to the AP Stylebook when there is any doubt of whether or not you should write in a certain way.

Works Cited: www.poynter.org
Picture Cited: Creative Commons

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