www.vt.vedu
Okay so maybe this is super original, but why not go to the source of the action? The Virginia Tech website provides a lot of inside information dealing with the students on the campus. I really liked looking at this because it made me feel like I was getting an insider look on things and this helped out tremendously.
The VT website has the names of all the victims and also has dates for memorial services. I also found out about classes and the deal with what they are going to do. I also saw some pretty informational dates that showed me that there are still some vigils being held on campus. I really liked this site because it helped me realize that how up close and personal this tragedy really was.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html
Alright, I know that we said we were going to show websites that we really liked about the tragedy of Virginia Tech, but I am absolutely disgusted with how CNN covers such a personal event. I was scrollling through reading how a young man survived his attack by playing dead. It offered to show a clip of the guy being interviewed on CNN. I clicked on the interview, and an add with cute dogs came up. I thought this was supposed to be serious? I realize that we can't control the ads that come up, but does there need to be profit made off of a video clip and somber and serious as this one? I was just upset and disgusted by such a thing and also by the pictures that have been shown. This awful thing has hit really close to home to me and I understand why these types of things are so upsetting to the people involved. I just think there could've been a little more tact used with portraying something like this.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Virginia Tech
Remember 4-16-07
This was my favorite of the two interactive things I watched. This one was an audio slideshow about the feelings of the students. I liked that I didn't have to look at the direct aftermath of the shootings; there were only pictures of students with overlapping interviews about their feelings about the shooting. This narrative was nicely done and informative without being in your face with pictures of Monday's victims being taken away from the school.
What Happened When
This was the most informative of the two narratives. It was a timeline of when the events unfolded, along with a map to show the location. It was very objective and presented only the facts. I like that it included the emails that were sent out to the students; that was a added information touch. I also like that the timeline doesn't include pictures of the shooter or of the victims being carried out of Norris Hall; I feel like we're so bombarded with those pictures.
This was my favorite of the two interactive things I watched. This one was an audio slideshow about the feelings of the students. I liked that I didn't have to look at the direct aftermath of the shootings; there were only pictures of students with overlapping interviews about their feelings about the shooting. This narrative was nicely done and informative without being in your face with pictures of Monday's victims being taken away from the school.
What Happened When
This was the most informative of the two narratives. It was a timeline of when the events unfolded, along with a map to show the location. It was very objective and presented only the facts. I like that it included the emails that were sent out to the students; that was a added information touch. I also like that the timeline doesn't include pictures of the shooter or of the victims being carried out of Norris Hall; I feel like we're so bombarded with those pictures.
The Denver Post
This could be one of the most disorganized, poorly designed interactive narratives concerning the VA Tech shooting. The Denver Post seems to have rushed this website as their is very little concern for layout or design. Furthermore, it offers nothing new. This is the same old crap that everyone else is putting up (with the exception of the interesting 3D time line of the NY Times). However, there is a somewhat provocative message board at the very bottom. Overall, though, the most unappealing aspect of this site is the fact that much of the information is lost in a jumbled array of words and blue-highlighted links. There is this list of things to watch, listen to or read on the left-hand side. Then the same stuff is offered on the opposite side, only it is marked by actual pictures rather than just words. Finally, there is the informative newsworthy text being construed and wrapped around the two boxes of information that simply reiterates the information that could be read if it were not buried by poor design. Again, nothing new, but poorly designed and difficult to navigate due to a lack of care concerning organization.
This could be one of the most disorganized, poorly designed interactive narratives concerning the VA Tech shooting. The Denver Post seems to have rushed this website as their is very little concern for layout or design. Furthermore, it offers nothing new. This is the same old crap that everyone else is putting up (with the exception of the interesting 3D time line of the NY Times). However, there is a somewhat provocative message board at the very bottom. Overall, though, the most unappealing aspect of this site is the fact that much of the information is lost in a jumbled array of words and blue-highlighted links. There is this list of things to watch, listen to or read on the left-hand side. Then the same stuff is offered on the opposite side, only it is marked by actual pictures rather than just words. Finally, there is the informative newsworthy text being construed and wrapped around the two boxes of information that simply reiterates the information that could be read if it were not buried by poor design. Again, nothing new, but poorly designed and difficult to navigate due to a lack of care concerning organization.
MSNBC
This seems to be the standard for many of the online news coverage concerning the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech last Monday. It consists of a large interactive slide show where you can see some of the shots taken from the scene. It has an interactive time line, the videos of Cho and some audio of the mourning students and faculty caught up in the middle of it all. It is well organized and offers a similar amount of information that every other site gives. However, there is nothing that really makes this narrative any different from the hundreds of other media outlets covering the same stuff. Honestly, there is not much that can be seen now that would amaze me or offer any new information considering the week of non-stop obsessive coverage at Virginia Tech. Overall, it is good, but pretty standard.
This seems to be the standard for many of the online news coverage concerning the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech last Monday. It consists of a large interactive slide show where you can see some of the shots taken from the scene. It has an interactive time line, the videos of Cho and some audio of the mourning students and faculty caught up in the middle of it all. It is well organized and offers a similar amount of information that every other site gives. However, there is nothing that really makes this narrative any different from the hundreds of other media outlets covering the same stuff. Honestly, there is not much that can be seen now that would amaze me or offer any new information considering the week of non-stop obsessive coverage at Virginia Tech. Overall, it is good, but pretty standard.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Tech shooting
Roanoke Times
I felt that this site had a lot to offer starting with videos of both the victims and the gunman. Although the site first appears to be very bland and boring if one looks you can find various things from info on the victims and their families to info on the shooter and his background. You receive inventory from the case and the room of the gunman, you can see a lot of AP videos from the site. Over all this site did not do well with the screen shot appearance but the amount of info is very extensive to a point of to much (day of the janitor) although all the stories are interesting their might have been to many sides to the story.
College Media
This site did not have as much info or the same style in fact the site was a blog in a sense to remember those who were injured and lost in the tragedy. However you are able to gain a lot of information from the site. The posts give closure to some and give places to find out more info for the ones that were lost and on the event itself. both of these sites were a little different than the other because of their focus point they did not try and show the mourning of several or place the blame on few they reported the faces with a little sympathy in a way that most of the others did not.
I felt that this site had a lot to offer starting with videos of both the victims and the gunman. Although the site first appears to be very bland and boring if one looks you can find various things from info on the victims and their families to info on the shooter and his background. You receive inventory from the case and the room of the gunman, you can see a lot of AP videos from the site. Over all this site did not do well with the screen shot appearance but the amount of info is very extensive to a point of to much (day of the janitor) although all the stories are interesting their might have been to many sides to the story.
College Media
This site did not have as much info or the same style in fact the site was a blog in a sense to remember those who were injured and lost in the tragedy. However you are able to gain a lot of information from the site. The posts give closure to some and give places to find out more info for the ones that were lost and on the event itself. both of these sites were a little different than the other because of their focus point they did not try and show the mourning of several or place the blame on few they reported the faces with a little sympathy in a way that most of the others did not.
VT Shootings Multimedia
The Victims
The New York Times did an excellent job with this multimedia piece, in my opinion. You can see the names, years, and faces of the students and professors that lost their lives on Monday. There is a feature that divides the victims into their locations when they were killed. What I really liked is that upon clicking a picture of a victim, you can see where they are from and readers' comments about that person. Furthermore, there are links to each person's own news page. I really liked the layout of this multimedia presentation; I have seen other websites addressing all of the victims in some sort of presentation, but this one exceeds all of the others. The individual news pages pop up in separate windows, and it might have been better to just keep it in the same window. However, it is quite convenient if you are viewing more than one personal page at a time.
The Sequence of Events
I picked this multimedia presentation because I couldn't find anything else other than slideshows and pre-made TV packages; the only audio slide show I saw would not load fully. Anyway, I think this is a pretty nifty map to show what happened in the span of just six hours on Monday morning. It is very simple and easy to read, and it shows the different emails sent to VT students as events happened. I like that the background used is an actual photograph. However, I feel like this map is missing something--I just don't know what. Overall, it's a nice, little summary of Monday morning's chain of events on campus.
The New York Times did an excellent job with this multimedia piece, in my opinion. You can see the names, years, and faces of the students and professors that lost their lives on Monday. There is a feature that divides the victims into their locations when they were killed. What I really liked is that upon clicking a picture of a victim, you can see where they are from and readers' comments about that person. Furthermore, there are links to each person's own news page. I really liked the layout of this multimedia presentation; I have seen other websites addressing all of the victims in some sort of presentation, but this one exceeds all of the others. The individual news pages pop up in separate windows, and it might have been better to just keep it in the same window. However, it is quite convenient if you are viewing more than one personal page at a time.
The Sequence of Events
I picked this multimedia presentation because I couldn't find anything else other than slideshows and pre-made TV packages; the only audio slide show I saw would not load fully. Anyway, I think this is a pretty nifty map to show what happened in the span of just six hours on Monday morning. It is very simple and easy to read, and it shows the different emails sent to VT students as events happened. I like that the background used is an actual photograph. However, I feel like this map is missing something--I just don't know what. Overall, it's a nice, little summary of Monday morning's chain of events on campus.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Lost Treasure!
This narrative is about two men that go on an expedition to find treasure lost hundreds of years ago by Spanish explorers. I'm not all too fond of this narrative. For one, the site is plagued by advertisement upon advertisement...the video is even intro-ed by an advertisement. The video also ended before the story was completed and went straight into an unrelated story. There were two good things about this site: one was the picture on the home page and the other was the day by day journal series logging the progress of the expedition.
Expedition Panama: Searching for Panama's Pirate Past
Love!
I really enjoyed this narrative. It was an audioslideshow done by a photojournalist with National Geographic. It was really cool because she divided it up into five different sections and you could play the sections all the way through by pressing play, or select the section you wanted to see. It was also creative because there was video of her talking at various points in the slideshow. The pictures were very powerful and the information was informative.
Love, The Thing Called Love
This narrative is about two men that go on an expedition to find treasure lost hundreds of years ago by Spanish explorers. I'm not all too fond of this narrative. For one, the site is plagued by advertisement upon advertisement...the video is even intro-ed by an advertisement. The video also ended before the story was completed and went straight into an unrelated story. There were two good things about this site: one was the picture on the home page and the other was the day by day journal series logging the progress of the expedition.
Expedition Panama: Searching for Panama's Pirate Past
Love!
I really enjoyed this narrative. It was an audioslideshow done by a photojournalist with National Geographic. It was really cool because she divided it up into five different sections and you could play the sections all the way through by pressing play, or select the section you wanted to see. It was also creative because there was video of her talking at various points in the slideshow. The pictures were very powerful and the information was informative.
Love, The Thing Called Love
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