This spring I am taking another digital journalism course at Marquette University's Diederich College of Communication taught by Professor Herbert Lowe. This course will be adding to what was learned in Digital Journalism I, which I took last semester. One thing carrying over from class to class is the assessment of specific media outlets and their news coverage. Last semester I was assigned the Tampa Bay Times. My beat for this semester will be the Salt Lake Tribune.
My first impression upon having the site load on my browser was that this design and layout is much like the one used by the Tampa Bay Times, except with a little bit more color. The newspaper has been around since 1871, so maybe there is a little bit of a hesitation of making too many changes and modernizing. The main topics are clear across the top, but some of the words that immediately stand out to me are: justice, polygamy and LDS Church. With a very high Mormon population in the state of Utah, there is no surprise that readers have interest in too many of those topics.
To a reader from another state, like myself, there is very little that comes of interest to me from those topics. I would not say that it is because I am from a city like New York. Other newspapers always manage to find some great coverage of interesting stories. Studying the Tampa Bay Times, any speculation that I had of how odd people find ways to die in Florida were confirmed. That's what made that newspaper interesting even with a dull layout.
Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Tribune does not have a design or look to wow me. The topics across the top are of low interest. It says a bit about the city when the top headline under "Utah News" reads "Is Lead to Blame For Death of Condor?" Really? Of all the things going on in Utah, a reporter is out there concerned about a bird.
Right now, Salt Lake is enjoying the attention from the Sundance Film Festival. Now in just a few weeks, time will only tell what is being promoted on the front page capturing the attention of their devout Utes.
My first impression upon having the site load on my browser was that this design and layout is much like the one used by the Tampa Bay Times, except with a little bit more color. The newspaper has been around since 1871, so maybe there is a little bit of a hesitation of making too many changes and modernizing. The main topics are clear across the top, but some of the words that immediately stand out to me are: justice, polygamy and LDS Church. With a very high Mormon population in the state of Utah, there is no surprise that readers have interest in too many of those topics.
To a reader from another state, like myself, there is very little that comes of interest to me from those topics. I would not say that it is because I am from a city like New York. Other newspapers always manage to find some great coverage of interesting stories. Studying the Tampa Bay Times, any speculation that I had of how odd people find ways to die in Florida were confirmed. That's what made that newspaper interesting even with a dull layout.
Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Tribune does not have a design or look to wow me. The topics across the top are of low interest. It says a bit about the city when the top headline under "Utah News" reads "Is Lead to Blame For Death of Condor?" Really? Of all the things going on in Utah, a reporter is out there concerned about a bird.
Right now, Salt Lake is enjoying the attention from the Sundance Film Festival. Now in just a few weeks, time will only tell what is being promoted on the front page capturing the attention of their devout Utes.