Analyzing speeches by the validity of its statistics is one type of journalism. After a major event like President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, viewpoints and analysis swirl around the Internet. This page curated reactions in one place. The articles included are from various news and visual data sites. The assignment was a lesson in the modern style of news curating.
For the speech, viewers could tune in on TV, radio and online to hear Obama propose legislation for his final two years. Reactions to the speech began almost immediately on Twitter. In the days that followed, news organizations analyzed the speech from middle class economics to subjects not included. As an assignment for #loweclass, our class was asked to create a single page that compiled reactions to the State of the Union from around the Internet. The project highlighted a new style of journalism that compiles links and allows readers to click through and read various viewpoints on their own. It also revealed the digital focus of modern reporting. From Twitter maps to "by the numbers" reports, journalism is no longer a straight news story. The Baltimore Sun's article about the reaction to Larry Hogan's election as Maryland's governor offered a good template. The process to create my own version involved scouring the Internet for a variety of news sources to find differing reactions. Google News helped in creating lists of articles. In order to get different viewpoints, the final piece includes a mix of news sources so that the final piece was not skewed liberal or conservative. It was also important to include data-driven journalism, since this is a current trend in reporting. The diversity of arguments about the speech was surprising. Different writers focused their articles on strikingly different parts of Obama's speech. One reporter even covered Russia's reaction. The style of curating news and creating one compilation page is a style I hope to include in future posts because it offers readers more than a single viewpoint and can be an important foundation for increasing news literacy. Click here to read the compiled page of reactions to the address.
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A chance to see the world from the perspective of a 6-foot-2, aspiring human rights journalist. Will include lessons learned and reflections.
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