The first page created nice and calm atmosphere, the appearance was in harmony.
But the first but came quite soon: what is the subject? D-Ladies is the highest heading but I know that it is the name of the group. Next heading which bounces up is General Information. But about what? Based on the front page, I thought the subject is "How smart you are?" since it is the only link which has actual name, others are just some typical links like Articles and History.
Next thing that confuses me is that the left navigation bar contains a bit different links than the table of contents which is placed on the right side of the front page. As I looked closer, it was only a matter of different order, otherwise the links are same. Then there is also Menu at the upper right corner.. It contains only two links, both find on the other navigation elements too. Where to start?
I decided to start on the History-link, I thought it would be about the subject´s history and maybe it would also enlighten what the actual subject is. The last mentioned did get some enlightenment: the subject has something to do with news about Russia. The history-page was about the history of the group work. Since I´m a nitpicker I have to say that the outline of the text was a bit indistinct, some clear paragraphs would have been nice. But I am what I am ;)
Then I continued with the left navigation, since the table of contents seemed to be only on the front page.
Sources-page was nice and clear. Though there was a slight misunderstanding because of language.. With "English news Channels" you think about news channels from England. But in this case it was about news channels in English since the mentioned channels were all from USA (Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today). Russian news channels in English were Itar-Tass, Prime-Tass, RIA Novosti and Russia Today. Estonian online newspapers were Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht, Äripäev, Eesti Ekspress, Õhtuleht and Rahvusringhääling. French-ones were Le Monde and Libération.
The Articles-page was really full of articles! Shame that I understood only those in English. But the categories were well picked and the listing was easy to read. It would have been nice if the news were in time order, then the listing would also have been a time line.
The actual fruit of the work is in the Analysis-page. It was interesting to read that Estonian articles didn´t have analysis on them, they were more like neutral story and the reader gets to decide what is his/hers opinion. Compared to English articles which were more analyzed and gathered a whole from different points of view. One of the group members had lived in the USA for a while and was surprised how much more she got information and Estonian media lost its reliability in her eyes. It was nice that the group also found a possible reason for this style of Estonian media: people are busy and want to read their news as short, compact fact.
While telling about internal things in Russia, it also pointed out that the group had followed the news about Russia for ten days. One of the biggest issues was the Russian presidential term extension in Russian Duma. In Estonian media this was seen a lot. Also English (USA on my opinion..) and French new agencies brought this issue up. The two last mentioned kept the subject in fact of what is happening -level while Estonian media mentioned also who are against the new constitution.
Also United Russia -party got attention in media. English portals mentioned Putin at the same context. Half of the articles were quite identical. Other issues were Russian army reform (it was mentioned in Estonian, Russian and English media), Kasparov (Estonian media doesn´t give that much attention, RIA Novosti and Reuters do), Politkovskaja (a lot of attention all around), Russian economy (gets quite well attention), Ukraine (only Russian media brings it up), Estonian and Russian relationships (Estonian media had several articles about the issue, others didn´t mention Estonia), Georgia (all selected channels talked about it, English media had the most details) and Russia and international relationships.
This last mentioned is a big issue in Russia, there seems to be a lot to say about other countries. Estonian media talks about NATO quite a lot, Russia almost not at all, English some. The new president of USA was a popular subject in every media. Estonian media also brought up Czech’s prime minister thoughts about European Union and the tariff rise of wood. Russian and English media had some articles about the American missiles in Poland. English media brought up also AIDS-issue.
The Interviews-page was about some interviews made to Russians who live in Estonia. The group got two answers which are shown at the blog (anonymous).
Ideas-page was a kind of brainstorm the group had in the beginning of the group work.
The last link of the left navigation is How smart you are? It goes to an almost blank page, is this a promotion of some project? I remember we talked about something like this in one of our Skype-chats (of this course); I managed to forget to answer to the questionnaire.. Maybe I´ll do it now :) EDIT: *buahhahhaa* Seems like I´m not that smart :D
I´m too impatient ;D
All in all, interesting subject! And the analysis-page was really very well done, though the analyzing could have gone more deep. I would very much like to read more this kind of follow ups about news considering a certain country! Good idea to do a study like this.
The blog
But the first but came quite soon: what is the subject? D-Ladies is the highest heading but I know that it is the name of the group. Next heading which bounces up is General Information. But about what? Based on the front page, I thought the subject is "How smart you are?" since it is the only link which has actual name, others are just some typical links like Articles and History.
Next thing that confuses me is that the left navigation bar contains a bit different links than the table of contents which is placed on the right side of the front page. As I looked closer, it was only a matter of different order, otherwise the links are same. Then there is also Menu at the upper right corner.. It contains only two links, both find on the other navigation elements too. Where to start?
I decided to start on the History-link, I thought it would be about the subject´s history and maybe it would also enlighten what the actual subject is. The last mentioned did get some enlightenment: the subject has something to do with news about Russia. The history-page was about the history of the group work. Since I´m a nitpicker I have to say that the outline of the text was a bit indistinct, some clear paragraphs would have been nice. But I am what I am ;)
Then I continued with the left navigation, since the table of contents seemed to be only on the front page.
Sources-page was nice and clear. Though there was a slight misunderstanding because of language.. With "English news Channels" you think about news channels from England. But in this case it was about news channels in English since the mentioned channels were all from USA (Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today). Russian news channels in English were Itar-Tass, Prime-Tass, RIA Novosti and Russia Today. Estonian online newspapers were Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht, Äripäev, Eesti Ekspress, Õhtuleht and Rahvusringhääling. French-ones were Le Monde and Libération.
The Articles-page was really full of articles! Shame that I understood only those in English. But the categories were well picked and the listing was easy to read. It would have been nice if the news were in time order, then the listing would also have been a time line.
The actual fruit of the work is in the Analysis-page. It was interesting to read that Estonian articles didn´t have analysis on them, they were more like neutral story and the reader gets to decide what is his/hers opinion. Compared to English articles which were more analyzed and gathered a whole from different points of view. One of the group members had lived in the USA for a while and was surprised how much more she got information and Estonian media lost its reliability in her eyes. It was nice that the group also found a possible reason for this style of Estonian media: people are busy and want to read their news as short, compact fact.
While telling about internal things in Russia, it also pointed out that the group had followed the news about Russia for ten days. One of the biggest issues was the Russian presidential term extension in Russian Duma. In Estonian media this was seen a lot. Also English (USA on my opinion..) and French new agencies brought this issue up. The two last mentioned kept the subject in fact of what is happening -level while Estonian media mentioned also who are against the new constitution.
Also United Russia -party got attention in media. English portals mentioned Putin at the same context. Half of the articles were quite identical. Other issues were Russian army reform (it was mentioned in Estonian, Russian and English media), Kasparov (Estonian media doesn´t give that much attention, RIA Novosti and Reuters do), Politkovskaja (a lot of attention all around), Russian economy (gets quite well attention), Ukraine (only Russian media brings it up), Estonian and Russian relationships (Estonian media had several articles about the issue, others didn´t mention Estonia), Georgia (all selected channels talked about it, English media had the most details) and Russia and international relationships.
This last mentioned is a big issue in Russia, there seems to be a lot to say about other countries. Estonian media talks about NATO quite a lot, Russia almost not at all, English some. The new president of USA was a popular subject in every media. Estonian media also brought up Czech’s prime minister thoughts about European Union and the tariff rise of wood. Russian and English media had some articles about the American missiles in Poland. English media brought up also AIDS-issue.
The Interviews-page was about some interviews made to Russians who live in Estonia. The group got two answers which are shown at the blog (anonymous).
Ideas-page was a kind of brainstorm the group had in the beginning of the group work.
The last link of the left navigation is How smart you are? It goes to an almost blank page, is this a promotion of some project? I remember we talked about something like this in one of our Skype-chats (of this course); I managed to forget to answer to the questionnaire.. Maybe I´ll do it now :) EDIT: *buahhahhaa* Seems like I´m not that smart :D
I´m too impatient ;D
All in all, interesting subject! And the analysis-page was really very well done, though the analyzing could have gone more deep. I would very much like to read more this kind of follow ups about news considering a certain country! Good idea to do a study like this.
The blog
