Where else can you find articles on Net crimes, Angelina Jolie’s sexual past, and nuclear power as a Pandora’s Box? Only on DigitalJournal.com, which showed its journalistic stripes once again last week, with breaking news and powerful opinion.
Digital Journal — We’re back up and running after a stressful weekend, but we’ve still got your TopFinds, Week in Review for last week: April 15-22. The podcast will return this Friday with this week’s edition of TopFinds.
So let’s get right to what puts the “digital” in Digital Journal. Sci-tech news kept us updated on Facebook’s rising popularity, courtesy of cgull, who pointed out how the social-networking site hauls in 30 billion page views per month. There’s nothing like giving people the power to “poke” each other in order to gain market share.
Web surfers received a much-needed wake-up call with malan‘s piece on the top Internet crimes of 2006. When losses were pegged at $198 million per year in the article, think of how many Nigerian scam artists were working overtime just to bilk you out of a day’s paycheque. Speaking of the Net, saran81kid91 penned a thought-provoking piece on online anonymity, explaining the possible privacy concerns over various login proposals. The article sparked a wide-ranging discussion, providing a glimpse into which members stood where on the privacy debate. Newbie TMFnews asked an intriguing question: “Would you like to discuss George Bush on this forum if you knew that he can find out who you are?”
Last week, our members were on the prowl for international news that was both relevant and quirky. On the relevant side, permafrog educated us on the food crisis afflicting Central Africa. Kudos to perma for alerting us to an issue that is sadly under-reported in mainstream media. And Planet Janet kept us in the loop of British royalty gossip with her post on Prince William’s split with Kate Middleton. To be honest, I wouldn’t have known about any royal romances and break-ups if it weren’t for Janet’s thorough posts on all things British.
As a further sign of climate change impacting the world, Arctic hunters are falling through ice, kaleigh2u discovered. They can’t even build igloos because snow is hard to find. The Inuit might have hundreds of words for “snow” but they’ll need to come up with a word for “global warming”…Queue Michael J. Wagner‘s response backed by Carpenter S. Newton 🙂
And from the department of Stupid But True, a Saudi man dressed up as a robed woman to peep on ladies in a washroom, but failed to conceal his hairy hands, according to gohomelaker. He was arrested by police, which made Khee Mao comment: “I thought the Internet was built with the sole intention of saving men the trouble of these kinds of shenanigans.”
Turning to health news, Digital Journal readers were treated to a wide range of helpful articles: rob13 reported on cows capable of producing insulin in their milk, giving hope to diabetes sufferers worldwide (and making farmers think “ka-ching!”); kml prompted mothers worldwide to smile in satisfaction with the article Washing Our Hands Can Help to Prevent 200 Different Diseases; and guys should know what to buy their ladies with kurtrat‘s post on chocolate causing a more intense brain buzz than kissing. Now, what about kissing while eating chocolate (insert tasteless porno moan)?
When it comes to politics, we enjoyed another diverse selection. Museinspiredart brought us news on John Edward’s $400 haircut, which makes my $20 snip feel like extreme penny-pinching. Reporting on G7 politics, squidny informed us about the dangers of nuclear power, which is being considered by the world’s leading financial ministers. I wonder what Mr. Burns would say about all this?
Earning a spot in TopFinds once again, Michael J. Wagner brought an important DJ article to the attention of the active user base on Digg.com: Presidential candidate Ron Paul claims the U.S. is going bankrupt. Quickly tallying more than 21,000 views, the post compelled Digg users to join Digital Journal if only to add their two cents to the discussion — and likely, earn only two cents.
In Canadian politics, cruiseroo reported on an interesting story about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s personal stylist. She later updated us, on comment #16, with news that Canadian taxpayers are funding this professional primper. Let’s hope Canadians aren’t also paying for any politician’s dog-sitter.
Now for something completely different: Celeb news let us know what the world is talking about, whether we care or not. GotTheScoop gave us a saucy peek into Angelina Jolie’s childhood, which included intense make-out sessions in kindergarten. Lucky four-year-olds. Turning to video posts, cgull treated us to a new Will Ferrell short where the Blades of Glory star deals with a baby landlord prone to swearing. It was hilarious and definitely worth viewing.
HockeyGirl deserves a mention for being on top of her celeb updates (like the Janet Jackson lawsuit story), but also showing a penchant for hard news with posts on the Pulitzer, pet food recalls and the death of a star (and not the Hollywood kind). And Hockey should be proud to know that her post on Sanjaya’s sister has accumulated more than 20,000 views and climbing. Who knew a pop star’s sister could make headlines? Oh yeah, Janet Jackson. I forgot.
Finally, sex. Got your attention? Well, so did these articles on sex-related issues: On a serious note, Amaranth penned a heart-wrenching piece on sexual abuse, eliciting similar tales from brave DJ members. Cgull couldn’t have said it better: “You are a great inspiration.”
On the lighter side of sex, wolfman2001 posted an article on the top male and female fantasies, the most prevalent fantasy being cheating on your partner. Hmm, did we really need survey results to inform us of that?
As we do every week, Digital Journal presents last week’s TopFind Awards to the deserving writers who worked hard to give us the goods.
Can you guess who reported on good news in Darfur, gun control and the political future of Law & Order star Fred Thompson? It was the winner of our New DJ User of the Week Award, Lady Justice. A member since April 16, she’s impressed us with her ability to write with sound journalistic skills that could earn her a spot in the journalism program at Columbia University. But don’t even think about it, Lady, because DJ would lose a great journalist if you became too busy with pub nights and article assignments.
When it comes to the TopJournalism Award, there’s no more deserving recipient than the writer who broke the Virginia Tech school shooting story, Brandigal. Updating us regularly, and posting five complete stories on the subject through the week, Brandigal proved her worth to this site once again. Her contributions also highlighted the growing community on DJ — an extensive comment thread kept readers informed on the number of victims, who the shooter was, and other details. Wolfman2001 once asked us “What would happen on DJ if another 9/11 struck?” This week, we learned how cooperative our community has become in breaking hard news. When members helped Brandi, we realized DJ could handle another world crisis, delivering the news with tact, veracity and context. This TopJournalism award should be shared by everyone who worked their tails off to keep readers as up-to-date as possible.
Finally, a chuckle-heavy congratulations goes to museinspiredart for winning the newest honour introduced in TopFinds, the TopCreative Award. Nothing last week came close to dropping the funny like muse’s blind-date show for boss Hogg. Muse spent countless hours working with DJ Editor Chris Hogg making sure the stage directions coordinated with the text, and Chris and the three lovely DJ ladies also volunteered their time to help muse. You can’t go wrong with a piece that mentions tons of DJ members in one post, linking to their profiles too. Well done, muse, we look forward to more humour seeping into your articles. Just don’t get Chris too involved, he’s busy running a website, y’know. And for all you conspiracy theorists out there — yes, I’m biased in giving muse this award. Chris might kill me if I don’t give him credit for mentioning this 🙂
And so wraps up another busy week at DigitalJournal.com, filled with stories you can’t help but think about, filled with writers who inspire others to reach the pinnacles of citizen journalism.
Happy finding, DigitalJournalists!
