Digital Journal — This week, if news junkies wanted to fill their heads with stories both entertaining and mentally nourishing, DigitalJournal.com would be the ideal one-stop site. Writers were busy following up on the breaking news making headlines across the world, while also digging for buried stories few media outlets covered.
Starting with lighter news, citizen journos brought a diverse selection of articles to Netizens: a woman wants to have the biggest breasts in Europe, patxxoo reported, and it looks like the bra size of 42H isn’t large enough for this boob (I know, too easy); a UK bomb squad broke into laughter after discovering a threatening package actually contained a dildo, Planet Janet found; and BeeHive described her reaction to watching the 80th National Spelling Bee, where “country of origin” has never sounded so cute breathlessly whispered by nerdy 10-year-old kids.
Always light on the brain, celeb news got some love this week. momentsintime followed up the Rosie saga with a post on the outspoken B-lister getting into blogging. And in a rare sports story, gohomelaker reported on L.A. Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant requesting a trade from the troubled franchise.
Special kudos to Bocephalus for a well-written piece on Paris Hilton’s cellmate. The text was bursting with colour and a strong voice, two elements separating DJ articles from the boilerpate mainstream wire news we often read elsewhere. Keep up the tongue-in-cheek posts, Bo!
Always on top of Brit news, Planet Janet brought attention to the controversy surrounding Channel 4 airing a documentary showing graphic images of Prince Di’s crash scene. The tone of the article was almost despondent, as Janet commented on the titillation the British network aims to stir with their programming. Good mix of informed opinion and facts, Janet.
Turning to health news, a consumer alert gave us the inside scoop about a recall on eye contacts solution thanks to, well, GotTheScoop. Who wants eye infection to go along with clear vision?
Speaking of clarity, but this time of the mental kind, momentsintime wrote about hospital staff using technology to help find Alzheimer’s disease sufferers who wander away from the premises. Outfitting patients with medical chips, containing health and medical info, may be somewhat controversial, but gohomelaker asserts “If we can prevent [sufferers wandering away], it is more than worth the loss of individual freedom.”
He might as well be called the “Anti-Sprite,” because cgull has consistently warned us about the dangers of drinking harmful soda drinks. This week, he stumbled upon a new report identifying a chemical in soda that damages cells. The article hit the DJ community so hard one particular user was moved to action — Picasso convinced her husband to switch from Diet Pepsi to a safer alternative. I’m mimicking Mr. Picasso’s decision by cutting my fave pop from my diet — goodbye, Mountain Dew, it was nice knowing you.
Combining health and politics in one post, permafrog jumped on the breaking story of Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger partnering with Ontario, Canada, on a landmark stem-cell project. This cross-border cooperation was likely sparked by the announcement of Canadian researchers isolating cancer stems cells in leukemia, brain and colon cancer. Looks like Ah-nold forgot about Toronto (aka Hollywood North) stealing jobs from California. Phew!
Political stories were rob13‘s domain, considering the back-to-back posts on Hilary Clinton — one on the presidential candidate asking YouTubers to pick her campaign song, and an additional 770-worder on a Clinton friend facing a lawsuit because he used company funds to ferry the Clintons on a private jet. If this isn’t fodder for Democrat attack ads, I don’t know what is.
The political swampland of increasing the minimum age was the focus of an intriguing article (part of a series) courtesy of CIABOB. The articles triggered discussions on the Republican-versus-Democratic agendas, which included thought-provoking comments from lensman67.
Speaking of American politics, Posthappy reminded us of the cost of the Iraq war, complete with a live counter. As Post pleaded, “When will we learn from the errors of our history and not repeat the mistake of the past? Enough is enough, isn’t it?” The article was also complemented with four links to find out more about the subject, in case any reader wanted to do some extracurricular research.
“Who should be held accountable if torture occurred?” So began an insightful piece from Lady Justice, who lived up to her name by detailing the ACLU fight to hold a Boeing subsidiary accountable for transporting CIA-tortured victims. The article deserves a second mention for this issue’s relevance on the ethics of torturing suspects overseas.
World affairs brought a global vibe to news-gathering this week: Lady Justice reported on President Putin’s remarks about Russia testing new missiles (that is so 20 years ago); gohomelaker delivered an eye-opening post on Orthodox Jews protesting a gay pride parade in Jerusalem (if the city is so sacred, why not love thy brother?); and Ringwraith summed up an important story of the week with the headline Beijing Official Describes China and India as Victims of Climate Change. But as Ring rightly pointed out later in the post, “Isn’t everyone a victim of climate change?”
In environment news, gohomelaker posted a well-researched article on Virgin Blue’s carbon-offset program, critiquing the controversial idea to lower greenhouse gases. gohome wasn’t the only one interested in the human-environment balance — GotTheScoop introduced us to a “scruffy-looking plant” at the risk of extinction, and patxxoo reported on a contest to award millions to inventors of energy-efficient cars. Good finds all around, green-friendly Digital Journalists.
When it comes to tech news, our writers were quick to report the news before many mainstream hubs. As if she’s secured a steady beat, momentsintime covered Google’s announcements about its new software built to work online and offline, and the search-engine giant’s foray into South Korea’s online-video market. Add cgull’s posts on Google Maps’ new “street view” option and Google buying a Web-security firm, and DJ became the main source for anyone interesting in following what the “Big G” is doing these days.
malan wowed us by writing on Microsoft’s surface computer that eerily resembles the technology used in Minority Report, without the clichéd climax. Ever the informed writer, malan also spiced the piece with his opinion, stating, “Finally Microsoft unveils a product that appears that it should have been created by Apple.”
It’s not often a DJ member relates a personal horror story dealing with a tech company. So it was to our surprise and delight we read museinspiredart‘s Flickr Can And Will Delete Your Account For No Reason, focusing on the account-deletion ordeal suffered by muse’s wife. An absolutely necessary piece for any Flickr user, the story touched on a customer-service headache that would make a great memo to Flickr head offices.
Other noteworthy tech stories this week included unicorn5‘s post on Jerry Falwell memorabilia appearing on eBay, MDee‘s look at police forces gathering “mobile phone evidence,” and paigemom‘s buried find on a poll that revealed one in five vacationers bring their laptop with them.
The above-mentioned stories were valuable contributions to the site, but we’d like to bestow several special honours in what you all know as the weekly TopFinds Awards.
The end of May saw a lot of new users join DigitalJournal.com, but there was one writer who stood out for journalistic prowess and story range. Winning the New DJ User of the Week Award is Wanderlaugh, a self-described “general annoyance and inner city gargoyle.” To us, he’s a godsend — his ideas have spanned Chernobyl, Chinese heritage, and writing scams. Most notable is his blow-by-blow account of Rupert Murdoch’s proposed takeover of the Wall Street Journal, a piece so well-written I thought I was reading the Washington Post. And for something completely different, read Wanderlaugh’s personal piece on his connection with nature. Is there anything this guy won’t write about?
We like a good laugh on DJ, so it’s with great pleasure (and a hearty chuckle) that we give this week’s TopHeadline Award to MDee for her inventive headline Friends, Romans, Accessories: Lend Me Your Ears. Writing about crystallized iPod earphones, MDee followed up her hilarious headline with a strong piece on the stylish trend of fashionable electronics and the problems associated with it. We look forward to more original and snappy headlines from our ever-growing citizen journalism community. Remember, good headlines make your story stand out.
User-generated content is the bedrock of DigitalJournal.com, and it’s always encouraging to see journalists contribute stories formed with original reporting. Using no outside links or cut-and-paste text, one writer brought to the site an article full of exclusive interviews and a useful embedded video. Winning this week’s TopJournalism Award is pbrite for the post ThankFull Makes Rock Music for Jesus. Profiling an up-and-coming religious rock band, pbrite added flavour to this entertainment feature by interviewing the musicians and fleshing out the band’s story with illuminating quotes. This is the kind of original reporting that elevates writing to a level worth recognizing in our awards section of TopFinds, and is the essence of Citizen Journalism.
An appreciative congratulations to everyone who posted significant stories to DigitalJournal.com. It was another high-quality week for citizen journalism, and all you writers and commentators should pat yourselves on the back for adding your valuable two cents to the site. Until next week!
