Journalism Assignment One

The first news site that I viewed was MSN.com. Because MSN is not just a news site, it has many things that come up as prominent placement. There are sections about cars, sports, money, video highlights, and entertainment. I think that the site does adhere to the Murrow standard of being fair and balanced, as there are many aspects to the main page is clicked on msn.com. I think that MSN.com focuses more on lifetstyle issues and not necessarily breaking news. The main headlines on the page included planning the perfect wedding, how not to end an MVP season, and a section about career moves. I think that this sites primary audience is the general public, and that they are trying to target most people by creating general lifestyle headings. I go to this site often for the broad variety of information put on the website. Additionally, MSN.com can be used as a browser in addition to Google.com and Yahoo.com, although it is more news based than those other two.

The second news site I viewed was CNN.com. Unlike MSN.com, this site is more focused on hard news. On the home page it has different titles of breaking news. As one scrolls down on the page it has other aspects and sites which one can click on for other parts of news, whether it be entertainment, technology, politics, or others. The types of stories that get the most prominent placement are the breaking news stories. Currently on the browser the top stories include information about Baghdad’s one day death toll, civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base, and about a train carrying chemicals exploding. On top of the hard news angle of this site, it also includes some other news that is more interesting and appeals to the lifestyle reader. For example, on the main page under breaking news there are links about the hit TV shows “Lost” and “American Idol”. Because of these examples I believe that the site does follow the Murrow standard of being fair and balanced. I think that the sites primary audience is a bit older than the audience for MSN.com. CNN.com is a more basic format and attracts viewers that watch CNN. Most college students my age, from my experience, do not usually watch CNN, therefore that leads me to believe that the target market is a bit older. I would go to MSN.com over CNN.com for pleasure, however if I wanted to find a hard breaking news story I would probably chose CNN.com.

For my third news site I decided to choose a news website for a newspaper. USAToday.com seemed like a good choice because of how broad it is and how much it encompasses. I enjoy USA Today because I like reading about national and entertainment news, and it is a well known newspaper across the nation. Similarly to CNN.com, the breaking news got the most prominent placement on the website. The biggest headline is the information about Baghdad’s death toll. It also focuses on winter storms and the deaths that they are causing. I think that this website out of the three I focused on adheres to the Murrow standard the most. It focuses on breaking news but doesn’t seem to neglect other types of news. When browsing this website, I can find various types of news from articles about Michelle Kwan and Naomi Campbell from Obama’s interest in the White House to information about the Golden Globes, all on the same main page. The variety is fresh and encompasses many aspects of news, which I admire. I think that this site is supposed to attract everyone. However, I don’t really think it would attract people from small towns who don’t care about national or international events. This website doesn’t really focus on certain cities or towns or local news. It is a newspaper for the entire nation.