Online Controversy

News media websites have created opportunities for people to respond on issues or specific stories.  For newspapers, TV and radio stations, it has become an effective way to connect with their audience and to facilitate dialogue between citizens.  Sometimes, the online debates are thoughtful and stimulating but with free speech, problems inevitably arise!

In Manitoba, for example, First Nations leaders  are upset with media websites posting what they assert are racist comments.  A spokesman for the group says, ” There are persistent bloggers who pounce on almost any story dealing with First Nations or indigenous issues and use it as an excuse to rant against or ridicule indigenous people.” He has a point!

Top 2008 Online Saskatchewan stories

We’ve heard from the journalists. Now, it’s your turn.  Here are the stories that attracted the most eyeballs on the Regina Leader-Post website in 2008. (Information was provided by Kevin Blevins, the paper’s Deputy Editor in charge of the site.)

• Luther High School hostage taking incident (most page views of the year for any story)

• Kerry Joseph trade from Riders to Argonauts

• Two little girls freezing death after their drunk father took them outside in the cold

• Girls from the St. Brieux area and one mom die when SUV leaves the highway and enters a dugout

• Two Campbell students dying in a fire in Calgary

• Kerrobert man killed in a freak accident in downtown Regina.

Blevins says the accompanying photo galleries “that went with Luther,  girls’ freezing death,  St. Brieux girls dying and Kerrobert man dying all did very well as well, often finishing second in traffic to the stories on those particular days. As you can see, bad things happening to local people get read. Hands down.”

Changes at Leader-Post & Star Phoenix.com

On November 30, the Regina Leader-Post will re-launch its website with a new look.  I have seen a preview of the test site and it’s a major improvement from the paper’s current website which is a ‘dog’s breakfast.’ It is cleaner and much easier to navigate.

Kevin Blevins, the Leader-Post’s Deputy Editor in charge of ‘online’, says the new version will have more photos, better quality video, different automated features and ‘5 top stories’ instead of the current ‘one’ on the front page.  Viewership of the LeaderPost.com continues to grow according to Blevins with 3.7 million page views in October.  The most popular topic is the Saskatchewan Roughriders with 265,000 views and the most popular blog ‘Rider Rumblings.’

Blevins says some local businesses are starting to understand the power of the web.  For example, he says one auto dealership is moving more of its ads to the Internet from the print edition of the Leader-Post.  The print version along with all the Canwest-owned papers including the Saskatoon Star Phoenix will be in for a change in February, 2009.   That’s when the papers will publish a narrower copy; about an inch and a half less in the case of the Leader-Post.  Blevins says the change is necessitated by the increasing cost of newsprint, the paper’s second highest operating cost, next to salaries.  By the way, the font size will remain the same!

Upcoming Media Lineup

Guests have been confirmed for my three media classes, starting October 21.  Veteran journalist Will Chabun of the Leader-Post will discuss how the paper’s daily editorials come together, where  ideas originate and how opinions are established.

On October 27, Lionel Hughes, the Editor of Prairies North, will speak about the magazine’s editorial focus.  Prairies North, published out of Norquay, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.  It has been compared to Saskatchewan’s version of National Geographic.

The Deputy Editor of the Leader-Post, Kevin Blevins, will join the class on November 4, to describe how it is responding to challenges in the newspaper industry and the opportunities presented by the Net.

Today’s guest is a young journalist, Nichole Huck, who has many stories and pictures to share about her nine months working with local radio journalists in Ghana, Africa.