State of the Media

President Barack Obama addressed America as to the state of our union. People wrote articles about it. People wrote blogs about it. In an ideal world, all three of these media would portray the same ideas. However, the speech, the articles and the blogs may relay different messages. It was our job as a class to get to the bottom of this dilemma.
Newspapers across the country produced articles covering President Obama's speech the morning after. I read articles from The New York Times, Politico, and the Raleigh News & Observer without watching the speech to figure out how well the papers portrayed the speech's overall message.
After reading a total of six articles - 3 Times, 2 Politco, 1 N&O - I finally felt that I had a good sense of the message of the speech. Each article portrayed a fairly similar sense of the president's tone. They all seemed to portray that the president let down his usually proper tone to be more colloquial. From the articles, I deduced that the president was trying to please everyone. He chastised both parties, while not really introducing any new sweeping agenda. None of the articles went in depth as to the policy that he put forward, but I was able to piece it together by reading them all. It basically seemed as though the president was "downsizing his ambitions" as one article put it. The articles all gave the impression of a "don't give up on me" tone from the president.
From listening to a summary of the actual speech from a group of my peers who only watched and didn't read any reviews, the articles more or less captured the overall feel of the speech while coming up a little short on policy points.
Reading solely articles about the speech without watching the speech was an effective way of getting an idea of what the speech consisted of, but was certainly not the most effective way. With links to the full audio of the speech and a readable file, I was able to access the speech through these online articles.
People who read only blogs about the speech seemed to think that they were rather effective after reading more than one blog. Reading only one was too one-sided, they said.
I think, if given the choice, I would prefer to watch the speech and not read any commentary. Although it is nice to get a different perspective and some background information through the blogs and articles, I trust myself enough to filter through what's being said in order to get the meat of the message. The best option would be to combine all three methods however, getting the ambiance of the live speech, the research of the articles and the down-to-earth style of the blogs.
I also would've liked to watch the live speech because I haven't been able to sit through an entire SoU Address for the last eight years. This is not to say that I disagree with everything that the former president did while in office, his rhetoric was just not something I agreed with. The new president, despite what he has or has not done in his first year, is a captivating and enthralling speaker - something that America has missed out on since President Clinton.
Overall, the article approach, the blog approach and the live speech approach all seemed to be fairly effective. The most effective route would be to combine the three media. Personally, I would have preferred to watch the speech because I like to formulate my own opinions, be them right or wrong, and I actually like to listen to this president.

NC Blogosphere

Two of North Carolina's most prominent political news blogs, BlueNC and CivitasReview, have obvious opposite slants, but are also very proficient in their news coverage. BlueNC is a more leftward-leaning blog, while CivitasReview is more to the right. They both cover political news in the state with their own style.
Civitas seems to be very opinionated and colloquial in the terminology of those who post. However, the news proves quite reliable when checked with other sources. Therefore it is an effective way for rightward leaning citizens of North Carolina to attain political news. The slant may be too strong for someone who is more moderate or liberal to stomach, however.
BlueNC functions in much the same way. The leftward slant is fairly obvious when reading the blogs on this site. It doesn't seem to be too strong to drive people away from the site, but it is definitely apparent. The stories on BlueNC seem to be a little more in depth than those of Civitas, with many of them having "read more" options that navigate the reader to another page with the full story. BlueNC, like Civitas, seems to be a little conversational in tone.
Something that would make both of these sites a better source of important political news would be a "headline" feature. Creating a link that could navigate the reader to a page with only blogs with headline worthy news would make the process of catching up on news much easier. Both sites seem to be updated with new blogs/stories at least every weekday and often more than once daily. Sifting through these many stories involves a lot of effort and, though each story has its own merit, there are stories that readers are collectively more interested in than others. Granted, it will be difficult to decide which stories would be headline worthy, but such a feature would make reading easier for everyone who visits the site.
Overall, both sites are very effective in their coverage of news, each having their own slant, but lack an easy way for readers to view top stories.

The Mason Dixon state (I know it's long, but bear with me)

Well then...My name is Jordan Powell. This is my first blog, so please excuse any ineptitude. I hail from the great city of Baltimore, Md. Over the years Baltimore has held the titles for both murder and heroin capital of the world, but it's by far my favorite murder/heroin capital of the world. Maryland is perennially a "blue" state, but my particular community is rather moderate. My father is a big advocate of Jon Stewart's and records his nightly show, The Daily Show. So for a few years that was really my only source of news--and for anyone who hasn't seen it, it is a great news source. Something great about Stewart is that he's not afraid to point out flaws in both sides of politics. He'll call out Republicans and Democrats without a flinch. I also enjoy Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report. In my government class last year I was encouraged to watch a channel with an opposite bias, so, although we could debate media bias for hours, I began watching FoxNews. Now, to put on my most boring and cliche face, I feel that watching these programs really enlightened me and I encourage everyone not just to view what they're accustomed to, but to broaden their views and step out of their comfort zone in order to view the "opposing" side. This can be duelly helpful in that it could strengthen your own views by adding background information, or it could put into question and help you discover your True Identity! Okay, no more cliched advice from me.

WBAL is our local news station and the Baltimore Sun our newspaper. Both are pretty weak sources, in my opinion, but the Sun especially has deteriorated of late. We also have the Catonsville Times in which people can find out when the latest councilman received another DUI or how much money our mayor is stealing. The Sun is quickly diminishng its circulation and looks to be OB in another couple years (if it makes it that long). The Times is still relatively strong as a biweekly paper, but is not really a source for political and government news as much as who won the Catonsville High/Mt St Joe basketball game.

Just like almost everywhere else, people in Catonsville are beginning to look more and more to the Internet and cable television for their news. Something that I find great about Stewart and Colbert's shows is that I can get reliable information while enjoying what I'm watching. I can't honestly say that I enjoy watching FoxNews or MSNBC.

So if you're still reading, or if you just skipped to the end, the main points are that my home town's sources of political news comes from television (WBAL, FoxNews, etc), print(The Baltimore Sun and the Catonsville Times) and the good old Interweb.

But we all know that our favorite source of information is the gossip.