Online News Portal Vs. Blogs
In a modern world like today, every issue is exposed to us just in a blink of an eye. We can get access to whatever information that we needed as we have abundance of information resource available today. But it is crucial to differentiate between reliable news and fake news. In this essay, we are going to look at different questions on a comparison of official news portal versus blogs. In last part of this essay, we will compare the advantages and disadvantages of online content and printed content.
Campbell, I. (2013). Print vs. Digital: Advantages and
Disadvantages. Retrieved from http://www.bookwhirl.com/blog/print-vs-digital-advantages-disadvantages/
(Accessed on 13/5/2017)
Retrieved from www.thestaronline.com
1) In terms
of structure, what are the similarities and differences of the interface?
The similarity of interface
structure between news article and blog is both are like journalistic-style
where the main character is writing. However, news article contains a short and
simple headline and followed by the writing with attachment of relevant photo,
but blog enables blogger to decorate the interface with artistic background,
background music, photo as well as Graphics Interchange Formats (GIF) and
videos that able to catch the readers’ attention and make the post more
interesting.
The difference
between blog’s and online news portal’s interface is its formality. In blogs,
the interface is very fancy and not standardized
which create a casual communication. The blogger can put whatever they want without having to follow a
certain standard guideline. However, in online news portal, they have rules on
how to situate, design and formatting their content which resulted in a more
organise interface.
Retrieved from www.jdrf.org
1) In terms
of structure, what are the similarities and differences of the interface?
The similarity of interface
structure between news article and blog is both are like journalistic-style
where the main character is writing. However, news article contains a short and
simple headline and followed by the writing with attachment of relevant photo,
but blog enables blogger to decorate the interface with artistic background,
background music, photo as well as Graphics Interchange Formats (GIF) and
videos that able to catch the readers’ attention and make the post more
interesting.
The difference
between blog’s and online news portal’s interface is its formality. In blogs,
the interface is very fancy and not standardized
which create a casual communication. The blogger can put whatever they want without having to follow a
certain standard guideline. However, in online news portal, they have rules on
how to situate, design and formatting their content which resulted in a more
organise interface.
2)
In
terms of news content, what are the similarities and differences in the ways it
is reported?
The news content of news
article and blog has certain similarity and differences. The similarity of news
article and blog are both discussing on the same issues especially important
event. Both mainstream aimed to inform the readers on what are the significant
things that took place.
The difference between both
sites is the approaches and techniques they used. The approach that news
article used is a fact-stating and evidence-based information, while blog
allows blogger to express their opinion and discuss. It can be shown in the
case of MH370, for example, The Star online has created one category attributed
to the MH370 event and they updated it by stating the progress. However,
blogger posted their own theories or speculation in discussing the MH730 event
such as the reason for the catastrophic. Besides, the techniques of both sides
are different as the words in blog are bombastic, catchy and sentimental
flaming such. It attracts the viewers to read their post and gain popularity
whereas news articles used words that is formal and sophisticated (Tice, 2015).
3) What are
the advantages and disadvantages of online content?
The advantage of online content is the news can spread
faster. Knowing that people can easily get accessed to online materials,
everything is just there in a matter of seconds. As compared to physical
content, people do not have to wait for the next day or to go to nearby stores
just to get a piece of newspaper. With online content, all are ready at the end
of your finger tips. Just like what Campbell (2013) said, online content like
e-book is very convenient as we can directly get accessed to it as compare to
printed book which we have to wait for days for it reaches our doorsteps.
The
next advantage is people do not have to spend money for newspaper. For as long
as you have an internet connection, you can instantly get access to the news.
Not only we can save money on newspaper, we can also save money for petrol and
other rising cost like car rental fees, if you go for shopping by renting a
car. In a world where money is crucial, being able to save even RM1 would mean
a lot. This is also what Wong (2009) said when he mentioned an online marketing
is way much cheaper than traditional marketing media.
Retrieved from www.garciamedia.com/blog/in_malay/
However,
there are some disadvantages for using online content. The first one is we need
to have an internet connection if we want to get online content. We can get
access to internet connection via wi-fi or subscribed data. However, there are
cons to this. We cannot get accessed to wi-fi all the time. You will need to go
to certain places like library, luxurious café and even dobby just to get a
free wi-fi. But of course, every ‘free’ thing has hidden cost. For example, if
you go to café, you will never go there to sit and just enjoy the wi-fi without
ordering a cup of drink or a plate of food. Apart from that, those with no
network access would not be able to get online content even if he or she has
internet data subscription. For instance, rural people who hardly get access to
network could not get the news on the current issues. In this situation,
newspaper comes to rescue.
Lastly,
online content is not a friendly-user medium especially to those elders who are
lacking in technology savvy. As we are aware, online content require you to
know how to use the smartphone, computer or even the internet itself. If one
does not have a sufficient knowledge on this, he or she will have a hard time
to get the news. This is when newspaper comes in handy.
As a conclusion, there are pros and cons to official news portal and blogs as well as online content and printed content. As a wise user, we should know how to evaluate the information that we received and how to 'neutralise' the disadvantages to make it as an advantage.
References
Campbell, I. (2013). Print vs. Digital: Advantages and
Disadvantages. Retrieved from http://www.bookwhirl.com/blog/print-vs-digital-advantages-disadvantages/
(Accessed on 13/5/2017)
Tice, C. (2015). Writing an article vs. writing a blog
post: What’s the difference? Retrieved from http://www.makealivingwriting.com/writing-an-article-vs-writing-blog-post-differences/
(Accessed on 13/5/2017)
A good read
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