|
Name of Site: The Sydney Morning Herald
URL: http://www.smh.com.au/
Load Time: Quick
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Player, Flash
Review: Sydney's famous broadsheet paper has been magically shrunk to
fit into you computer screen and is now much easier to read without a
single awkward fold required. A complete and comprehensive international
and local news resource is at your fingertips, literally. Because they
have their own entire domains for real estate and jobs, the news section
is devoid of those massive job ads plastered all over the page so you
can navigate the news with ease. The headlines are updated as soon as
they come to hand and the stories, opinions, editorials, sports and entertainment
news are world class. Archived articles over the last 12 years are available
at a small fee. Plenty of Audio and Video and other resources like emailed
headlines and online forum make this a site worth visiting morning noon
and night. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: News.com.au
URL: http://www.news.com.au/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Player, Windows Media, QuickTime
Review: News Limited is like a giant media creature that has encircled
the planet and begun a symbiotic relationship with us humans where they
supply the content and we supply the eyes and ears. The content they can
draw upon is all encompassing. From Hollywood to Afghanistan, they have
their people - or their affiliates' people - on the ground, feeding the
media monster. An extensive menu system takes you to your desired section
or individual publication. Each sub site follows the same structure but
changes slightly according to the style of the real world version. The
only danger of visiting here is that the media monster is so large; it
may become hard to distinguish news from in-house cross-promotion marketing
exercises. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: MSNBC
URL: http://www.msnbc.com/
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Need a Map
Plug Ins Required: Windows Media
Review: What do you get when you cross a media giant with a software giant?
A bloody great big Website! So big in fact that you may begin to lose
your perspective on life itself. The menu system is a gigantic Java drop
down affair bringing you everything from headlines and finance news to
gossip and fashion. The impact of major news stories seems to pale slightly
as it is framed within ads for online blackjack and 49cent DVDs. A war,
a terrorist attack, a horoscope - its all just a mouse click now. Where
do we fit in? Laid back in our leather lounges, clicking away on our remotes,
channel surfing the latest war or talk show on iTV and donating the occasional
$2.00 to charity each time our conscience kicks in. The only news that
matters to us now is the news that affects us directly. Now that we are
all online, that means everything, so stay tuned... - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: BBC News
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Load Time: Slowish
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Player
Review: Time for a spot of news over a cup of tea, eh what? The stiff
upper lip of this top notch British news service is trying hard not to
quiver under the influence of global commercialisation and succeeding
spiffingly. In a way it is a very pleasant relief not to be bombarded
with ads and gaudy animations while you explore the serious current affairs
of our world. Rather than get lost between lifestyle columns, Hollywood
gossip and advertorials, the BBC still has an army of real reporters out
in the real world breaking the real stories. You can tune in to BBC radio
stations, watch the well produced streaming Video segments, participate
in live world-wide debates, chats and polls, and if you really need the
celebrity glitz fix, the BBC do oblige through a few more subtle and understated
links. The focus here is world news and the BBC does it very well indeed.
- SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Reuters
URL: http://www.reuters.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Windows Media, Real Player
Review: 150 years ago, Mr Paul Reuter established this most respected
news delivery business. 40 pigeons were on the payroll carrying stock
market reports when the telegraph was down and his commitment to bringing
us the news has kept the company alive and kicking to this day. The last
150 years have been phenomenally news-rich and technologically progressive
up to now when Reuters can deliver news instantaneously to anywhere on
the planet. All the big stories are covered and updated constantly of
course and a major financial focus remains just like the early days, though
nowadays the shareholders are ordinary folk like you and me, not just
lords, princes and captains of industry. Reuters is used by just about
every news service in the world so why not go straight to the source and
get the information 3 microseconds before everyone else? The "oddly
enough" section is a collection of crackpot items that would be dismissed
as urban myths if they didn't appear here. Hard-hitting and humorous,
the news starts here. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: CNN.com
URL: http://www.cnn.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash, QuickTime, Real Player, Windows Media
Review: The Cable News Network is a massive enterprise based in Atlanta
Georgia with over 4000 journalists worldwide. The main site is a multi-dimensional
link-o-rama of news that tries to cram in every Time/Warner/AOL interest
alongside what they believe Americans want to know about. Fortunately
there are European, Asian, Arabic and Spanish sub-sites to balance out
the equation. With such a large news outlet comes all the expected video
and audio programming, customisable news delivery to email, PC, phone,
PDA or pager, chat, message boards, holiday giveaways and no annual fee
Visa card instant sign ups. Sure it is as commercial as Disneyland, but
the news team is credible enough to deliver the goods. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Yahoo! News
URL: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Windows Media, Real Player
Review: Is there anything that Yahoo! doesn't do? As if search engines,
auctions, interest groups and web hosting isn't enough they manage to
find the time to arrange a formidable news hub as well. Using their well-honed
talents at scouring the Internet for content, Yahoo! provides the best
of the best news links and stories in a neatly laid out page stacked with
everything you need to know and more. The forums are alive and kicking
and there are countless categories to browse, from finance to science
and technology to comics, opinion, editorials and lifestyle. Their site
map quickly shows you the scope of the content and their Internet expertise
shines through as you effortlessly navigate the site, which is pretty
much a dedicated news search engine in itself. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Christian Science Monitor
URL: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: "The Church of Christ, Scientist" has kept this publication
alive since an 87-year-old woman founded it in 1908 after a run-in with
the media of the day. Good Christian values of truth, purity and love
for your fellow man are excellent values for a news service to uphold.
It is not a religious publication but a straight news service, and a multi
Pulitzer winning one at that. Of course the Christian values come through
the choice of stories occasionally but in general it is an extremely diverse
and open forum in which all manner of newsworthy human activity can be
reported. Categories include world, USA, commentary, money, sci-tech,
arts and books - plenty of variety to explore. If you want to go beyond
the news into the realms of religion and spirituality, the Church home
page is not far away. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: Anorak
URL: http://www.anorak.co.uk/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: With the catch phrase "keeping tabs on the tabloids"
this humorous long-running e-zine satirises the content and lampoons the
style of the major British papers. They are certainly irreverent with
nothing sacred in the quest for a good bit of fun poking. Join in with
the weekly caption competition, readers poll and news quiz or get your
own comedy piece published as a letter to the editor. The stories come
thick and fast in the categories of broadsheet, tabloid, back page, talking
balls, square eyes, street talk etc. In these times of seriously scary
daily news reports of war, terror, disaster and shame, the only sane thing
to do is to tune out of reality for a while and tune into the whacky Anorak.
It's for your own good. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: Ananova
URL: http://www.ananova.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Real Player, Windows Media
Review: Is this the future of news? Virtual newsreaders that recite the
headlines tirelessly with the looks and voice tailored to our own personal
tastes. Ananova made headlines herself when she was first launched and
has since managed to stay alive through the dot bomb era and seems to
have good prospects for a long and healthy life as PDA and video phone
users begin to see the advantages of having their own personal supermodel
chatting away to them throughout the day. The news reported here is UK
based and more selective than most news services. Ananova doesn't read
every single story, but the future looks bright for this ageless talking
head. The team here realises that news does not happen in a vacuum so
it is working towards assimilating the news with our lifestyles by including
events, tours, wining and dining as possible dates to invite Ananova along
as an escort. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: The Sun Newspaper
URL: http://www.thesun.co.uk/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Windows Media, Real Player, QuickTime
Review: It's tabloid time on line with the "news, sport, bizarre,
life" categories taking us to wherever our base desires for sexy
lurid raunchy scandals want to go. The bold colour and movement add to
the glitzy content where the private lives of celebs and sports stars
reign supreme and the headlines are filled with scandal, outrage and hyperbole.
Adverts abound throughout the publication, as do the scantily clad page
three girls who get their own private domain. The publishers obviously
cottoned on to the fact that the Internet is a porn paradise and The Sun
slots in perfectly to the sleazery and debauchery the depraved surfers
demand. - SS
Rating: ***
Name of Site: National Enquirer
URL: http://www.nationalenquirer.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: The American version of the British tabloid style is a little
lacking in online content at the time of review. The main stories are
there with a few gossipy tidbits and a small selection of articles filled
with the usual amount of sensationalism you'd expect but the main purpose
of this site seems to be to get you to subscribe rather than offer an
online alternative to the hard copy version. Sure you will still find
out when the next baby gets eaten by an alien, but the Internet can offer
far more to visitors these days -multimedia, forums, interactivity - but
then again most readers of the Enquirer are probably not that proactive.
- SS
Rating: **
Name of Site: disinformation
URL: http://www.disinfo.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Flash
Review: Almost six years ago, some enlightened souls realised that the
Internet was the ideal medium to get the information out to the masses
that the mainstream media either ignores or deliberately avoids publishing.
Their concept of disinformation was initially funded by one of the very
same commercial entities they were trying to subvert, but as soon as the
CEO realised what he was responsible for he pulled the pin. This provided
the founders with all the more motivation to continue. This is an information
war and the public is only getting one side of the story. Disinfo covers
activism, drugs, government, sex, drugs, technology and a myriad other
topics perfectly suited for this guerrilla journalism. It may be hard
to tell whether all the facts are in order here, but it certainly puts
a different slant on world affairs when you take off the rose coloured
corporate glasses. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Alternative Press Center
URL: http://www.altpress.org/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Rainforest
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: With so many small and often under funded publications making
up the alternative press who daily battle the media giants for a slice
of the public's attention it is encouraging to find a central Web location
for them all. Over 250 radical, alternative and left periodicals populate
this index, which was born in the halcyon days of the late 60s. The index
itself is a purchasable item in paper or CDROM form while this site provides
details of the kinds of publications included, criteria for selection,
sample topics, discussions and the direct link directory to all the home
pages of the various publishers. If you are even slightly oriented towards
making a difference in this world and looking at life from a perspective
other than the 6 o'clock news, best you bookmark this site and stay in
the alternative loop. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: The Onion
URL: http://www.theonion.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: This weekly "news" publication is a hilarious collection
of headlines, articles and stories that go for the jugular of modern society.
The writers are hip to the ways of the world and find an endless stream
of subjects to attach their satirical humour to. From the war on terror
and its similarity to a Hollywood blockbuster to pathetic tales that expose
Middle America's shallowness, no one is safe from attack. Stoners, rock
stars, geeks, politicians, churches, kids, big business - all are rendered
naked and exposed with their human frailty blowing in the wind. Once you
have spent a few weeks checking the latest Onion headlines, the layers
of reality will be forever peeled back, and your perspective on the 'real'
news will be forever altered. - SS
Rating: *****
|
