NewsTrust

NewsTrust is an interesting experiment: it isn't journalism per se, it is more ingrained in the study of journalism, and dissecting what goes in to a good piece of journalism. It asks its reviewers and visitors to go out and find pieces of journalism to be submitted to the community for review. It is unique in the fact that, while numerous sites allow stories to be rated and commented on, NewsTrust really centers on this aspect, trying to identify strong journalistic pieces, and organizations which can be trusted to deliver good journalism.

The latest News Hunt for the site was on the global economy. I helped out by finding and rating three stories on the net. This piece, posted on Green Inc., a blog associated with The New York Times, discussed the proposed auto industry bailout from an environmental point of view. The next work I reviewed was a report, witten by the Associated Press and hosted by MSNBC, on a recent meeting of Pacific Rim nations, where some leaders were optimistic that the recesion will be over in 18 months. Finally, another AP report discussed how the global finiacial crisis has resulted in Japan's first recesion in seven years.

NewsTrust does some verygood things and has a good idea behind it, but has some flaws and shortcomings. Firstly, the site is mostly dependant on submissions from visitors, so when visitors are not submitting topics, the site has very little content. And since the site community is still very small, it needs the few reviewers it has to submit whatever they can. Also, though this may be nit-picking, since the site is essentially an expanded comments section, then the ratings are subject to the whims of whoever the reviwers are. If reviewers are not doing their job, the site suffers. Fortunately, NewsTrust recognizes and tries to remedy this by rating reviewers as well, giving more weight to reviews submitted by trusted reviewers. All in all, NewsTrust is an interesting experiment that will be well worth watching how it develops.

Coffee coffee coffeecoffeecoffee....

...okay, not really. I myself belong to the militant anti-coffee faction, so I did not leave Dunkin' Donuts in a caffeine-induced craze. I did leave with a nice hot chocolate and crappy donuts, but that's another manner. The Dunkin' Donuts located at 283 Huntington Ave. - one of at least three in the Northeastern area, in case you were thinking about being disloyal to your new breakfast overlords - is a nice little place open from 6am to 9pm. A medium coffee costs $1.79, but can be gotten with any of their breakfast value meals - donuts, bagles, etc - for around $3-4. The service was very good, but there's not much room to sit down, if you want to enjoy your coffee there in the shop. And, as I mentioned, the donuts leave...something to be desired. If you want to find another good coffee place in Boston, check out our map.

Maps

Our ongoing study of online maps had us look at a map made by the New York Times about the Tour de France. The map shows the path that the tour takes, as well as who won that stage of the tour and who possesses the overall lead. It also has links to the NYT's story on that stage, as well as some pictures and audio. Unfortunately, there is only a little audio and a few pictures - many stages lack any additional qualities beside the story. An improvement would be to increase the number pictures and audio clips available, or to add video highlights of the stage, to expand the scoe of the project.

Anime Boston 2009 - Video Journalism

My first attempt at video journalism, hurray! I went to Tokyo Kid in Boston, where they were holding a preregistration event for Anime Boston 2009, the local anime convention. I asked everyone what they though about last year's event, and what they look forward to this year. I got quite a few good responses, and uploaded them here. All in all, it was a pretty fun experience. I hope you all enjoy it.