Official blog of Clark's Blogging for Journalists class, Mass Communication department

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Find 10 in 20 and evaluate one

Blog assignment--Introductory post

Find ten in twenty

Take 20 minutes. Go to
 blogoklahoma.com and to
http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/
http://www.blogher.com/network
http://www.bloggersblog.com/blogalistlinks/


1. Find ten blogs of interest to you. Copy links to your blog.

2. Choose one of the blogs you discovered today, or another one you prefer.
Write a two paragraph evaluation of the blog, addressing the following ideas:
  1. What are its strengths?
  2. What ideas about blogging and your blog do you get from it?
  3. What are its weaknesses and how could be improved?
Be sure to include the link to the blog, and include at least one visual image, plus labels at the end of your post.

List by end of class today. Comment by 5 p.m. Wed. Sept. 4.

15 comments:

  1. http://technorati.com/blogs/www.tmz.com

    I really liked this particular blog because I thought one of strengths was that everything was well organized with the writing and visuals. One can also take ideas from the blog bringing real life situations into the mix such as showing real hardships that many people go through.
    One of the main weaknesses of this blog is that it mainly focuses on celebrity drama which some people may not like. I would have liked to see more real world news mixed in than just late breaking celebrity news.Look at link below for images.

    http://ll-media.tmz.com/2013/08/30/0830-amanda-bynes-getty-3.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One of the blogs I found interesting was Jezebel.com. This blog is mainly about entertainment and media news. It is updated quite often and has many different types of posts. Pictures, videos, and even music updates. I find this to be one of the blogs strengths because it reaches different audiences in different forms of media.

    Also Jezebel is a strictly for women website, well that is what it says is the header that it is for women. I believe this limits their followers and viewers. Men can be interested in entertainment and celeb lifestyle as well. This could be one weakness of the blog. Another weakness would have to be organization. It was a little complicated to find the stories you wanted to see, maybe they need to ad a categories function. From this blog i got ideas about posting different mediums to my blog such as video and music.

    http://jezebel.com/john-mayer-proposes-katy-perry-roars-sorry-nooooo-1243941339

    ReplyDelete
  4. The blog that I feel most connected to would be 'So, How Was Your Day?'(sohowwasyourday.com) It's a blog started by the owner of a design studio who asks professionals around the nation the titular question. The concept is fairly simple and the execution is absolutely addicting.
    I like how the subjects of each post are the one's who write the answers to the basic questions of what they ate that day, and what they did that day. It creates a more intimate read for the person perusing this blog. Certain ideas that catch my attention regarding this blog is the relaxed, even informal approach that every post has. It never becomes a jarring read, rather every post is so different from the last that you can't help but want to scroll to the next subject and see how their life differs from the previous. The only weakness I could say that this blog has is that it can be seen as a bit pretentious seeing as how the subjects posted are only those who appear to have comfortably over-achieving lifestyles. There could be an improvement in the way the blog owner asks those from all different careers and not those who are actors, publishers, or entrepreneurs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.blogher.com/member/quietislandwritings

    I chose this blog because I think the layout of the page is very easy to navigate. I think one of the strengths is that it gives a preview of each post. I like this idea for my own blog because after reading the first few sentences a person knows if they find it interesting and wants to continue reading. I also liked that a picture was included with each post.
    One of the weaknesses I found is that every post is set up the same way. There's a little writing, a picture and then some more writing. I think changing it up every once in a while would help so it's not so repetitive.
    http://www.blogher.com/its-time-let-go

    ReplyDelete
  6. The on that stuck out to me the most would have to be the American Thinker. This blog has educating posts enabling people to learn about past, present, and future events more in depth. Although most blogs have only one journalists, American Thinker is different in the case that there are many journalists contributing to the blog. Each journalists has a variety of American based subjects ranging from the issue with Syria to the legalization of gay marriage. I plan on following this blog for the remainder of my blogging years!
    Overall the blog has a great variety of posts that could attract many readers. I read a couple of posts concerning the democrat mindset on America. The blog post was accurate and had very strong points that I would have never noticed if I didn't read this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I recommend all of my readers that are interested in reading blogs to take the time to view http://deadspin.com. Deadspin is a blog with several writers who's goal is to inform their readers with sports news without access, favor, or discretion. Deadspin has numerous strengths to its' website, but I'm impressed with its' detailed investigative journalism. One of their recent pieces that was written by Timothy Burke was over Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel's family history. The article goes into great detail on how his family achieved their wealth in Texas over the past century. The article discusses his families involvement in the oil field and cock fighting. You can tell by reading it how much research and work Burke put into the article.



    Deadspin inspired me to become a better journalist when it comes to the research portion of an article. I want my readers to know that I spent the time to make each post as informative as possible. Readers can tell just how much time a journalist spent on their topic by how informative it is. At the end of each post I want each reader to know that I did my best to be able to give them the information they need. The only issue I had with Deadspin is some of their post were meant for comedy. There was an article about Carrie Underwood's husband getting bit by a chipmunk while he was trying to get the chipmunk away from her. These type of post are humorous, but some of them can be pointless post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://bit.ly/14VoFJC

    Spill.hollywood.com is a great site to check out if you want to see good movie reviews that are sometimes funny but always informative. The link above has all the info!

    ReplyDelete
  9. http://productsultimate.blogspot.com/2013/09/blogs-that-interest-me.html

    poisonddt.com was my favorite blog. The link above has the info for it along with the nine other links.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am wrote about blog 8 Burrito Blog http://www.burritoblog.com/ this post is the same on my blog and blog 8 is posted as well as blogs 1-10 that I found. What interested me about this blog was the burrito itself and I wanted to have one. Now to the assingment some strengths from this blog would be topics concerning burritos with images, videos and a text written. This would include restaurants, articles, jokes, and etc. How it is lined up easy and organized with each post and how the pictures are neat along with the text beside, below, and above are some ideas about blogging that I got from this for my blog.

    One weakness I found is the list of restaurant at the top and to the right page seems to be too much information at one time when one sees it for the first time. How could I improve? I would have to play around with blogger in order to get ideas on how to change at this time. Other than that the blog is well layout.

    ReplyDelete
  11. mnmlist.com

    mnmlist is a blog about what it means to be a minimalist. This sounds very simple, but Leo talks about taking a minimalistic approach to different areas of your life in very practical terms, while still maintaining the theory and idealism behind the idea. This is a strength for mnmlist.com as it is a VERY niche blog. It appeals to a very specific audience, and brings them content that they are interested in. It reinvigorates me to want to create great content, and in-depth content for readers, and not to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

    One of its major weaknesses is that Leo does not allow comments on the blog, and instead prefers to communicate by Twitter. If there are comments that cause him to want to change the blog, or alter some of the content, he does that at a later point in time. This leads to a potential breakdown in communication between the author and the readers. It also takes away from the readers ability to discuss ideas with each other. This can lead to some very interesting discussions sometimes, including directions the author may not have thought about.

    ReplyDelete