It was an informative week of on-the-scene coverage of the Minneapolis bridge collapse and profiles of presidential hopefuls. And to keep it light, Citizen Journalists also reported on Amazon.com selling veggies and a company that rent dogs.
Digital Journal — It’s not enough to simply scan the headlines of the week. As demonstrated by Digital Journal writers in the past seven days, both breaking news and critical issues were analyzed with all the insight of New Yorker editorials. If you missed posts on the religious views of masturbation or why the Wall Street Journal takeover was “abysmal,” then read TopFinds to catch up on all the noteworthy stories.
Technology & Internet
The week began with a thoughtful piece that should impact anyone writing for Digital Journal: Michael Krahn praised online journalism, as opposed to trying to get published in newspapers. The piece reinforced what many Citizen Journalists already regard as a worthwhile pastime to not only strengthen their writing skills but to also expose their articles to a wide audience.
Other intriguing articles included MDee profiling a Zippo Camera Lighter (which doesn’t light cigarettes, though); museinspiredart introduced us to Amazon.com’s pilot program selling fresh food (for the ultimate mouse potato); Wanderlaugh wondered about the logic behind joke-detection software for robots (“So anyone else here hates being deprogrammed?”); and Ringwraith reported on open access to wireless spectrum (it’s more interesting that it sounds, trust me).
Business
The Wikipedia founder isn’t satisfied with just the fame of his user-powered encyclopedia. As malan told us, Jimmy Wales is going after Google by introducing an open-source search format. It could be a fruitless project, as malan wrote:
Does anyone really stand a chance of taking down the search giant?
Another writer busy posting biz stories was jaguar, who penned a must-read piece on Comcast double-billing 200,000 Detroit residents. Even if you don’t live in Michigan, it’s important to know how companies can screw you over when you least expect it. Thanks for the heads-up warning, jag.
She was also dipping her feet into some quirky stories, such as the post on a company that lets you rent a dog part-time. Sounds weird, right? permafrog understood the main problem when he commented:
Dogs get attached to their owners. The rental dog will have many ‘owners’ and may become confused and feet unwanted.
Politics
You know the bi-partisan name-calling is reaching a fevered pitch when News Corp’s takeover of the Wall Street Journal gets involved in politics. A perfect example was how Democratic candidate John Edwards bashed other candidates taking money from News Corp execs, as Left-Handed Elephant reported. Edwards opposes media consolidation, a point made apparent by his refusal to accept the $675 US that Fox big-wigs donated to his campaign. Now that’s cajones.
Major kudos goes to Picasso for exhaustively covering the passing of the U.S. “sin tax” that will rake in $300 billion US from taxpayers in the next 10 years. Under-reported in most mainstream media outlets, this news opens the debate about universal health-care and tax-and-spend policies. Let the debating begin, um, I mean continue.
What other political stories won our attention this week? Wanderlaugh wrote about the possibility of 28 nuclear reactors sprouting in the U.S. if the Senate passes an energy bill. And ericswyatt reported on Hillary Clinton using a media report on her plunging neckline as a rallying cry to get more money from her supporters. There’s no denying it — fashion sense will likely have as much an impact on the electorate as political common sense. What does that say about our society, I wonder?
Religion
Masturbation. Often a giggle-worthy topic, the act of self-love was profiled in an educational post by momentsintime on where religions stand on this issue. After examining each religion’s views on masturbation (a sin to Catholics, fine by Jews), moments asked:
Do you follow your belief system or cross the line when no one is looking?
lensman67 tactfully avoided the question (as most commenters did) and instead quipped:
Maybe [the Catholic Church] would be more understanding if it weren’t known as ‘flogging the Bishop.’
A fine news story came from Got The Scoop, who informed us about an outspoken polygamist leaving prison Aug. 7. Tom Green had five wives and 32 children in 2002, GTS wrote, making child-support payments a nightmare for the polygamist. The story also had some intriguing supplemental info on Utah’s policy on polygamy, which should be a revelation to those of us living far from the Mormon state.
And finally in religion, Michael Krahn introduced us to William Lobdell, a Christian who covered the religion beat for the L.A. Times. He was later disillusioned about his dedication to the faith after reporting on several stories displaying the avarice and greed behind church leaders. As powerful as the article was, also enlightening was hearing Lobdell speak on his experiences in an NPR interview. Thanks for the link, Michael.
Health
One of the most popular health-related movies this year was Michael Moore’s Sicko, but not everyone interviewed for the documentary was happy with their on-air treatment. As ericswyatt reported, Sally Pipes declared “Mr. Moore’s preferred heath-care system is something I wouldn’t wish on him.” No, she di’nt!
Other worthwhile health stories included: a U.K. doctor claiming obese people are simply greedy, as museinspiredart wrote; caffeine and exercise combined can reduce the risk of skin cancer, permafrog discovered (break out the cancer sticks and step machine!); scientists created the world’s first schizophrenic mice to better understand the illness, cgull found; and unusualsuspect reported groundbreaking news on an Ohio law that would allow the father of a fetus to decide on whether the woman gets an abortion or not.
Sports
Sometimes, the sports world is too busy to understand. But helping us figure out the important pro sports issues of the day is SportsAndTheCity, who wrote some Deep Thoughts on several recent headlines, such as the Toronto Blue Jays’ doldrums, the giant ego of Barry Bonds and David Beckham’s increasing wussiness.
SportsAndTheCity also contributed a well-written obituary on former NFL coach Bill Walsh. Filled with career stats and quotes from the NFL commissioner, the post was a lovely homage to a legend every sports fan will surely remember.
And finally, pbrite got in the sports-reporting game with some excellent NBA coverage of the blockbuster Kevin Garnett trade. He even complemented the post with an entertaining montage of Garnett highlights, which should be forwarded to Boston Celtics fans so they know what kind of all-star they’ll be enjoying when the season begins.
TopFinds Awards
Once again, Digital Journal honours the rookie Citizen Journalist who displayed a wide writing range and a knack for bookending posts with informed opinion. Winning the TopFinds New User of the Week Award is TheRationalAnarchist — whether it was describing military support for presidential candidate Ron Paul or penning a detailed music review, TRA deserves credit for diving into the site without any hesitation. We look forward to more of your thought-provoking contributions, TRA!
Being part of a user-powered site like Digital Journal means Citizen Journalists can report on news that occurs in their own backyard. Demonstrating that initiative is the winner of the TopJournalism Award, GotTheScoop. Covering the Minneapolis bridge collapse like a daily news stringer, GTS reported on the disaster that affected her hometown. Posting a follow-up on the bridge’s structural faults, GTS showed impressive ambition and hard-news writing skills, while also staying vigilant with the many comments flooding the bottom of her stories. Most importantly, the Digital Journal community is relieved that you’re OK, GTS, because it would be very difficult to have the site continue without your contributions and sassy moxy.
Since July 31, one Citizen Journalist has committed her writing time to profiling presidential candidates objectively and succinctly. Taking home the trophy of this week’s TopSeries Award is Amaranth for her Presidential Candidate Reviews. First writing about Democratic hopeful Joe Biden, she later explained the policies behind Republican Tom Tancredo’s platform (complete with a video), finally ending the week with a rare profile of Independent Steve Adams. A congratulatory comment from givemetruth summed up all that Am has done with these posts:
Thanks for…highlighting someone other than the ‘top tier’ candidates who already get a boat-load of publicity.
It’s not often that a business story is written with the kind of flair and humour that makes it stand apart from the rest of takeover news flooding our eyeballs. We are all familiar with the Dow Jones buyout from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, but only one article this week (and one writer, actually) made the issue more entertaining than a Law & Order season special. We gladly give the inaugural TopBusiness Award to Wanderlaugh for his piece titled Corporate 101: Murdoch Wins the Wall Street Journal. Outlining what Wander despised about the lack of opposition to the bid, while also peppering the post with cheeky comments, the article showcased a “wicked tongue” (as Boss Hogg wrote). When any Citizen Journalist can make a somewhat dreary story so refreshing, it definitely deserves your attention — and another read.
Note: The Digital Journal duo, Chris and Dave, are back at it again with another entertaining and informative video about a Web show celebrating its 100th episode. Click here to find out some breaking news about CommandN, a Toronto-based vidcast starring Amber MacArthur, new media specialist extraordinaire.
