dimatta

Afghanistan the violent frontier

• How well does the site use navigation?

I found the navigation for this site simple and easy to follow. The website is divided up into a number of section covering the main issues and topics relating to the war in Afghanistan. You can navigate to the different topics/sections using the links on the top of the page, or the body of the main page in which readers are provided with one to two lines on what the topic/section is about.

• How effectively is it designed?

The website is professionally laid out, with the use of a number of photographs and images of both Afghanistan locals, the taliban and Australian Defence Force and Coalition soldiers. Its easy to navigate between the pages.

• How effectively does it use photos, graphics, broadcast and interactive elements? List the elements that are present.

The site uses a number of photos of person involved in the conflict. When you click on the link to the Taliban it is interlaced with images of Taliban fighters, as well as uses video al-qadea training video. Each navigation link has at least one video on each page, and is interlaced with small written article, on the current situation in Afghanistan. Viewers are given the option of reading a story or clicking on a link to video of Paul McKeogh, and hid travel through Afghanistan.

• How well are the stories written/presented/packaged?

I found the site provided a basic overview of the situation in Afghanistan and the numerous challenges and issues being confronted by Coalition forces on the ground. The use of video by Paul McKeogh to report on his  travels through out Afghanistan, and coverage of the overall issues relating to Afghanistan, also added creditability to the website providing a first hand experience, of the situation on the ground.

• What did you love about it? Hate about it? Why?

I liked the website as it provided an overall account of the situation in Afghanistan. While the information on the website is not earth shattering or ground breaking, news on the conflict, it provides a starting point, for readers seeking to develop a broad and general understanding  about the current military/security situation.   I suppose a little bit more in-depth coverage may have been good, but then I don’t think that this is the audience that this website is being targeted towards.

Here is what I have noted from each of the contributors.

Each Nation its Own Press :-Jay Rosen

Rosen discusses how the emergences of blogs are challenging the traditional forms of media. As, AJ Liebling said “the freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one”. The blog is slowly changing this theory with the public and the more general community being able to play a more active role in “participatory journalism”.

Nullius in verba Navigating Through the New Media Democrcay:- Lance Knobel

Knobel argues that media has only recently acquired the trappings of true democracy, This has been achieved through the emergence of new technologies such as weblogs, wikipedia, google and RSS.

The End of serious Journalism? :- Eric Beecher

Beecher examines the threat that new technologies pose to serious journalism. The emergence of digital news, is likely to see a fall in serious journalism, old media establishment are being challenged by the internet, given that much of it is funded from advertising which is now switching to the internet. Movement towards accessing news in near time, is likely to also result in a loss of quality journalism.

The Future of Fair Dinkum Journalism:- Margo Kingston

Kingston talks about experiences of Webdiary, and how it has allowed members of the public and the journalist to engage together, in what Rosen would define as “participatory  journalism.”    

Frontier Tales The hype and the reality of the online transformation of News:- Guy Rundle

Rundle discusses how the old media has become pluralized, with only a few owners now controlling the media, and pushing an editorial agenda which is driven by neo-liberal conservatives. He argues that bloging is unlikely to lead to either “frontier utopia” or the dominance by corporate media.

Scaling the Icy Peaks of The New Media:- Andrew Clark

Clark raises the problems journalist face, these days in getting a story being fobbed of to PR or media adviser when trying to gain a story. Once again like other writers Clark, touches on the emergence on new technologies such as the internet, hand held devices and blogs, that young people are turning to for news. He talks about the rise of internet advertising, the need for news on demand etc. As Clark correctly argues new technologies are not leading “freer media landscape”. Old media is now moving into the world of new technologies through online advertising and media.