Evaluating "Lac La Biche Post.com", Isaac Kaplyuk

I chose to investigate and evaluate the laclabichepost.com, because it is a local paper that I grew up with,and I decided to see how legitimate (or maybe not) their website for the paper is.

Overall Content

The purpose of the web page is to provide the weekly local headlines. Factual information is obviously presented because it is a newspaper site-accuracy is a must.As for products being sold or advertisements, on the site there were none that I could see; in fact, there were just separate tabs labeled 'Advertising' and 'Classifieds' if you wanted to see such things.

The information on the page is incomplete as there are just short blurbs of stories, and you must click the 'Full Story' link to navigate to a separate page for the full story. There is a feature photo on the home page with a full caption, and authors for the blurbs and the individual person who shot the photo are not named on the homepage.

The intended audience are locals of the area or readers of the paper. The site does not state that it targets a special interest group of an kind, and the site isn't for researchers, children, or librarians specifically, but said individuals could most certainly navigate the site.

Compare With Other Resources

Compared with the range of information resources based on this topic within the site, that is, the local happenings of Lac La Biche/Lakeland County, this one is most certainly the best. Other larger papers don't really cover the happenings of these areas, unless a larger, more pertinent event occurs. This site covers small, local events, but also covers hard news stories and other stories with headlines that read 'Bright Fireball Spotted Over Northern Alberta'.

This site is preferable to other resource types because it focuses on the local area readership, and focuses on all happenings, which larger papers and sites wouldn't regularly bother cover-it keeps locals in the know, even if they don't have a paper handy.

Since this a newspaper site, the dates are current, or as current as they can be considering that this is a weekly paper.

This site is about as comprehensive as it gets for such local areas. The site even links out to other local paper sites, providing for even more insight to smaller locals. Aspects of things going on outside of the general locale may not be covered as in depth, or even covered at it all as in the case of larger papers. Further links aren't provided in the stories that I checked out, but as mentioned earlier, links are available to other local paper sites, possibly providing further information therein.

Author

The author/producers of this site are the same people who run the paper. The author of the article is the byline, at the top.

The authority or expertise of the people who run the site are those with, at the very least, a Journalism diploma, so the expertise is there.

If there is any kind of bias present, it's just towards the local area. The stories have a broader connection in some cases, but tie in to the local area to give locals the angle that concerns them.

The site and the paper appear to be owned by a group called Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership.

Check the Links

The criteria that is used to provide links (the links that are given are ones to other local news sites, and other things within the site like Classifieds, Photos, Advertisements, etc;) are either papers that are owned by the same company, or things that are relevant or pertinent to the site and its readers.

I couldn't tell when these links were revised.

The links are comprehensive as they provide everything that you would expect them to-no samples of any kind really to be had here; and, they are mostly just links to other local newsgroups, essentially (found near the top, right hand corner labeled 'Other Publications, accessible anywhere, anytime on the site.)

The links offer possibly more comprehensive coverage if the event that occurred is more thoroughly covered by a different paper if said event happened closer to that specific area. For example, an event could occur in Athabasca that the Lac La Biche Post could cover, but the Athabasca Advocate, Athabasca's local paper, would most certainly cover it more in depth.

The links don't appear to be evaluated in any way, but they shouldn't be as this is a legitimate local newsgroup site.

Evaluating "The Huffington Post", Susan Eder

I chose "The Huffington Post's" website to evaluate to help me better understand their version of the news as well as how they present that information to the readers. Using Figure 5-2 on page 99 in our textbook website accuracy was checked.

OVERALL CONTENT
The purpose of this site is to present unbiased newsworthy stories to citizens. Authors are named with a chance to post comments to them. The site was updated one minute ago. Dates and links are included as well as RSS feeds and other social networking sites. The intended audience is the average citizen who blogs, posts videos and uses community sites. Anyone wishing to find current information can use the site. This is a good source for finding new story ideas. The site provides bios of the authors to check out. The site offers quick reads and following links provides well written detailed articles.

COMPARE WITH OTHER RESOURCES
There are a wide range of sources on the Internet that would cover similar stories. For example, the story in "The Huffington Post" about police attacking looters after the Chile earthquake such as "The Associated Press" and the "The Globe and Mail" provide more information. The website is good for quick reads and to gather lots of information fast. The use of videos can help the user to not only view the pictures, but also feel involved in the process. Sites that do not incorporate video may perhaps not have these strong connection feelings. The sites provides references to others sites as well as other stories.

AUTHOR
Arianna Huffington is co-founder and editor in chief of "The Huffington Post". In 2005 she started the Internet site to report the news and to blog. "In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people". She has an MA in Economics. Arianna's credibility has been established by the amount of times her site is visited as well as linked to.

CHECK THE LINKS
The links in this site are clearly labelled and direct you to expected material. Well labelled links may lead to more story links. There are links to a range of Internet sources such as newsgroups, blogs, e-mails, social networking sites and comment opportunities. Links were updated less than one month ago. The site provides easy access to these links.

BIAS

Political:
Is the "Huffington Post" biased? It is argued that the site favours president Obama and the White house by giving him more coverage in more stories than in other political parties. Most people agree that the site is Liberal.

Advertising:
The home page on this site is uncluttered with advertising. The site saves money (so Arianna makes even more money) by refusing to pay their contributes. However the site does sell advertising. This causes biases in that the site is seen to be catering to those who are attracted to those ads.

"The Huffington Post" doesn't seem to have any corporate biases. The sites includes written material from many different sources. The "Post" doesn't discriminate between race or religion and shows no sensationalism. The site is simple, plain, and educational.

Evaluating “The Edmonton Journal,” and Bias Activity, Matt White

I chose to evaluate "The Edmonton Journal" because it's local and it's reliable. Using the tips found on page 99 I came to the following conclusions.

• The overall content and purpose of this website is news. It is there to inform the public. It includes news from many authors and covers a variety of subjects. You can check for accuracy by comparing the articles with other news related sites, as well as doing some of your own research into the subject through reliable web pages. If you come across anything inaccurate, you are able to comment on the article, or contact an editor via email.
• Comparing this site with others of the same nature is a good way to check for accuracy. It's rare that you would find articles the differ greatly from articles posted on other reliable sites.
• The authors themselfes are professional journalists who answer to a code of ethics. Any citizen partcipation or freelance writing is noted, so readers are always aware of the source.
• Lastly, the links used on this site usually lead to other rebutalble websites, but the user should always be aware of where they're getting their information from. Just because you have been linked from a reliable site, doesn't mean you're going to one

Bias Activity

I chose to focus more on the initial bias of an article instead on focusing on the entire piece.

In The National Post article, there is strong evidence of bias in the word use and balance. This article has many subtle words that direct the reader towards the feeling of “Republications bad; Democrats good.” In the first paragraph the word “derailed” is used to describe the republications effort to stop the bill from passing. As if they are causing a train crash by voicing their opinion or doing what they feel is right. The second paragraph then states that Obama’s health plan aims to “provide cover for 31 million uninsured Americans and crack down on exorbitant premium hikes by insurers.” This does a great job of painting a lovely picture of Obama saving all those poor and helpless Americans from the big bad capitalist giants. Using these two examples so high up in the article instantly gives us a feeling on the topic. We are steered in the direction of favoring this health care bill before we even have a chance to dissect what we’re reading. The article then goes on to give facts supporting the health plan and exhibiting the massive expenses of health care today. It’s not until we’re roughly three quarters of the way through the article do we begin to see an attempt at providing a balanced piece. Lastly, I thought adding the fact that “The United States spends more than double what Britain, France and Germany do per person on health care,” was kind of funny since the article was written by Tangi Quemener, Agence France-Presse.

In the Fox News article, even the headline itself contains a hint of bias: “Controversial Health Plan Provision Aims to Protect Consumers.” Using the word “controversial” in the headline immediately gives the impression that this health plan has flaws and people are debating on it. As the first paragraph takes form, we are given the information that “Republicans have been invited to post their own ideas for reform,” as well as the general public, on a White House website. Why is there a special mention of republicans? The second paragraph then begins with “One of the proposals Republicans are expected to take aim at is the idea of a rate hike authority that will oversee insurance premiums.” I’m already seeing a problem with this new health plan. Surprisingly, the rest of the article does a descent job of providing both sides of the argument. Using examples and quotes from both sides gives the reader a fair view of the issue.

I stumbled upon the One News Page website and this article through a link on The Edmonton Sun website and I’m quite glad I did. I think writing shorter articles is something not often taken advantage of. The article is in fact so short, that I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not it contains bias.

“Barack Obama today revealed the health care proposal he’ll be taking into bipartisan meetings this week, a $950 billion bill that hews closer to the Senate’s model than the House’s. The plan seeks to resolve some of the contentious issues between the two bills, cutting, for example, the special Medicaid...”