Why did Google pay $12.5bn for Motorola Mobile? Search me...

The increasingly fierce battle for intellectual property rights is causing many large corporations to make questionable decisions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/21/google-motorola-mobile-john-naughton

Google founders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin ensured that only a minority of shareholders were given voting rights.

The news named “Why did Google pay $12.5bn for Motorola Mobile? Search me…”was published on the Guardian website. The acquisition between Google and Motorola Mobile may be the most striking news in electronics industry on the past few days. Therefore this news has the characteristic of prominence and timeliness.

What attracted me to read this news was not only the headline written in a question sentence but also the sense of humor. As we all know that Google is the most popular search engine on the internet so the headline demonstrates the ingenious use of the characteristic of Google. Therefore, the headline is not only highlighting the main theme but also causing the interest in reading as well as inspiring reading desire.

The beginning of this news can be regarded as a narrative opening and describes how dinosaurs control the Earth, which is aiming at satirizing the tycoon of IT industry. Furthermore, the writer uses an anecdote talking about another auction conducted by Google which caused a heated debate by commentators. These three paragraphs after the opening introduce the background of this issue amply and reinforce the readability as well as the credibility.

Then, from the fifth paragraph, the process of the acquisition is described with a comparison with MySpace bought by Rupert Murdoch in order to prove how strong the shock is towards the industry. Moreover, the blog of Google’s CEO is utilized as another source to justify the acquisition, which illustrates the acquisition for the reader persuasively from another perspective.

The content of last two paragraphs is the argument by writer himself and this issue is compared with News Corporation again due to the same situation. This, however, seems to be a little bit subjective because of the written tone in second person. It can be admitted that the writer attempts to enhance the point of view. Anyway, this is a pretty good news story with a strong news angle.

'Chinese YouTube's' shares fall in disappointing debut

'Chinese YouTube's' shares fall in disappointing debut

A pedestrian walks past the company logo of Tudou located outside its headquarters in Shanghai. Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/17/tudou-shares-debut

I was drawn into this news named "'Chinese YouTube's' shares fall in disappointing debut" immediately because I used to visit this website when i was in university. The reason why i no longer want to visit this website as frequently as before is that the censorship is becoming increasingly stringent. However, there's no doubt that Tudou is still one of the most popular video sharing websites in China and large amounts of people can access to it actively for a wide range of fascinating videos with respect to daily life.

This news is mainly talking about the shares in Tudou witnessed its dropping on Wall street because of the market turmoil.This news is written with the structure of "inverted pyramid" and the first paragraph describes the situation of Tudou's stocks succinctly.

In the fifth paragraph, the writer shifted the scene and compared Tudou with its biggest rival, another chinese video website Youku, was one of the top gainers on Wall street last week as its stock rose 12%.Through the contrast, the reader can understand the situation detailedly as well as graphically.

On the other hand, there are some small flaws need to be indicated. First, the sentences in each paragraph are so short and most of the paragraphs are constituted with one sentence. Specifically, the writer should merge several paragraphs and make the structure in a compact format. Second, there are no credible resources or quotes to support the topic of the news and it results in a vague situation that most of the audience may not trust the figure provided in this news.

Overall, as a hard news, it has a distinct structure and a strong news angle. Furthermore, there are several relevant news stories on the right of this news and such kind of wireframe design is significantly enhancing the readability. Lastly, as a Chinese cyber citizen, I will spare no efforts to support both Tudou and Youku.

London riots:how BlackBerry Messenger played a key role

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry
Title:London riots:how blackBerry Messenger played a key role
Police looking on Facebook and Twitter for signs of unrest spreading will have missed out-they should have watched BBM


I read this article from the website of Guardian.co.uk
Recently,the London riots have created a great sensation and there's no doubt that social media have played a vital role in this chaos.
This article is aiming at publishing a new view that London riots is not fuelled by social media and if it is true,then the chief culprit is not Facebook or Twitter but the BlackBerry Messager.
From my perspective, it is a pretty good article.
First, the writer used an anecdote related to London riots as the opening of the news and it enhanced the readability as well as the epitasis.It depicts the picture for readers in third person with the narrative method, then at the beggining of the fourth paragraph it uses a spontaneous twist returning to nowadays.
Second, conjunctions such as 'however' or 'otherwise'are utilized several times and  they have served a vital function to move the story along. Moreover,it makes the argument more strong and effective.
Another merit that i want to point out is the design of  wireframe and structure of the online page which it posts.
Firstly, many phrases highlighted in blue are utilized for accessing to other relevant articles and it would go far towards searching and reading.
And it also lists keywords of this article and  classifies them into different categories such as technology,media and so on.
Due to the flexibility and diversity of online media, some blogs posted by the audience are listed on the left position of the main body as well and through which readers could supplement the progress of this incident.
In one word, it is a spendid news article and i appreciate its website design as well.

An appraisal of the news Week 3

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/08/02/online-censorship-no-s-x-please-were-facebook/

Online censorship: no sex please, we’re Facebook

This online news published on the website named Crikey was mainly stating the cencorship of Facebook. According to the news, for a long time, Facebook has been criticized for its standards of censorship which is puzzling and blurring. The latest blasting fuse was that Facebook removed an image of an artist which depicts a naked infant swimming underwater though it was reposted later.

In terms of the content of this news from the perspective of news writing skill, there are some flaws need to be pointed out.

First, the beginning of the news was not designed to catch the attention of readers.
Theoretically, it is a narrative opening, it may a little bit insipid. What's more, the second paragraph which is aiming at supplying the background did not work and  tend to be redundant.

Second, there were too many sources or interviewees that did not have clear details for their identities.
For instance, in the sixth paragraph's beginning, it comes like this:

Laura Eckert said she suspected photos of her friend giving birth in her bathtub last year may have pushed Facebook over the edge even though, as AllFacebook website reported, no nipples were showing.

In the industry, Laura Eckert may be a famous photographer, but it is unfamilar to most of audience visiting the website and ultimately it is confusing some people who do not get enough photograph background.
The same situation can be found in the fourth paragraph as below:

 Facebook reps told NME magazine: “Facebook does allow photos of naked … babies. Why? Put it this way — if a parent wanted to share some photos of a newborn with their grandparents, we wouldn’t want them to not be able to share them on Facebook.”

It can be seen that lacking of details of interviewees, as well as using the abbreviation are inappropriate.

Third, what is also noticeable is the error of punctuation just like below and it is may attribute to the failures in typesetting or layout.

”Of course, we make an occasional mistake,” Facebook spokesman Simon Axten said in an email to MSN.

On the other hand, the heading of this news is excellent and it catches the eyes of audience successfully. It was written in first person and what's more, sensationalism is always popular.