Recently I examined the popular news, entertainment and general information blog the Huffington Post. I found that it is full of a variety of stories from entertainment news to the forefront of political debates. It also features commentary from a wide variety of writers and journalists. The stories featured on the Huffington Post main page are formatted much like an online news magazine. The reader can choose from a variety of category tabs to get access to stories on particular topics of interest. These categorical tabs include "business", "sports", and "technology", as well as many more.
The stories and information reported on this blog seem well researched and complete. The articles written for the blog incorporate news information with trending social media posts. This is a great technique to integrate the traditional online article with social media posts in the spread of information. Although some stories intermingle opinion and hard news, the Huffington Post looks and feels like a reputable source for current and up to date information.
In order to create a blog that is trustworthy and reputable a blogger must keep a few standards in mind. Whether a person is setting out to create a blog that centers around travel or covers breaking news stories, your first priority for the blog should be to inform your audience and do so in a complete and accountable way. Firstly, a person should never post anything that they would not be comfortable supporting and backing up. Secondly, be thorough. One should always research and source any information that they share. When posting an opinion piece, it is important to remain transparent and to do no harm. Posting content of any kind that could negatively effect another person should be avoided. Lastly, remain honest. Only post something that you yourself would want to read. Don't post information that could be misleading to your audience. Using these "best practices" as a guide, a blogger should have an adequate starting point to start writing and creating.
Hi Christine-
ReplyDeleteYou choice to review The Huffington Post is interesting because it presents itself more as a online news magazine than a blog. The site embodies many of the best practices as outlined in “12 Steps to Launch a Successful Blog” (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/steps-to-successful-blog/) such as looking professional and being search engine optimized, but I think it lacks the personal feel that I think people are looking for when they want to read an engaging blog. When I think of blogs, I think of them as being more informally written and with some first person narration, and I think the The Huffington Post tries to be more like a major news outlet than a blog.
Christine-
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post and having visited the Huffington Post myself, it seems that one of the reasons that people value this blog is due to diversity of content. Above you mentioned that this blog features a variety of stories and a variety of writers. Having diversity on a blog increases its value.
I agree that Huffington Post has done a remarkable job with organization and distribution of information. The sections divided by topic are easy to find and they read well. The articles are generally thorough and well-written. I visit the site often for news and commentary. I have to slightly disagree with the point about when posting a commentary, a writer should do no harm. Only because try as a writer might to be clear, honest and thorough, the message could potentially impact a reader in an emotional or psychological way. I agree that writers should make every effort to avoid negative, false, misleading or harmful information, but sometimes what is not harmful to one person may be harmful to another. A writer can't possibly know how what they write will effect someone. For example, consider a commentary written about a writer's experience with someone they cared about committing suicide. While it may be an important part of the healing process to express their emotions, there could be a reader out there who had a similar experience and was deeply hurt by the commentary. I would consider doing no harm to mean not posting names of deceased before family members are notified or revealing the position of troops where the enemy could find and kill them. It's possible that is what you meant by doing no harm, but the distinctions weren't as clear to me.
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