One of my e-mail folders has been filling up with various WebTip ideas that are just collecting cyberlint. So, without further delay, here are some reader recommendations:
I REALLY hate not knowing where, geographically, a story is coming from. I spend hours hunting news for particular topics all over the world. I waste an enormous amount of time daily just trying to determine where geographically a publication/newspaper/television station/radio station/magazine is located. If I want to link my readers to news about a grave-robbing conviction “locally,” I shouldn’t have to spend five minutes searching the first-reporting television station website in order to discover that “locally” means in New Jersey. Or if I think my readers might be interested in a polygamous sect buying a 1,300-acre wilderness retreat for their founder and his 50 wives and hundreds of children, it shouldn’t take me five minutes to find out “east of national forest land” is in Texas. EVERY media website should have the geographical orientation of its coverage stated clearly on at least its homepage, if not on each article page.
Some other recommendations:
- BlogofDeath.com: Read an obituary, submit an obituary.
- A New York Times Link Generator (http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink): Permalinks to Times stories (from June 2003 on).
- EyeWitnessToHistory.com: Firsthand accounts of great moments in time.
YOUR TURN: Send site suggestions to poynter@sree.net.
Sree’s Links:
SAJA’s 10th Anniversary Convention and Job Fair is June 17-20, 2004 at Columbia University in NYC – see our stellar lineup of speakers, workshops, panels. Lowest convention prices of any major journalism convention. You don’t have to be South Asian to attend!
