Pro Publica is a new-found place to get my news, thanks to this assignment.
The thing that seemed to catch my attention first was Pro Publica's objectivity. I really enjoyed how the writers of Pro Publica didn’t seem to show bias and were fairly objective throughout the site based on the stories I read. I do like how they present stories in the public interest and demonstrate this by having a sidebar on the main page that lists the readers’ favorite stories by vote. They also show their credibility by presenting a box on the right hand side of each page that shows links to other investigative reporting made by other credible sources, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Another thing I liked about this site was that Pro Publica has a blog: a place where they can be opinionated without letting their bias interfere in the stories.
I also thought the style was appropriate because there was a lot of information on each page and that it was organized in a clean manner with certain stories and features boxed off from the rest of the page. I like the site’s professional, clean look but it isn’t too formal at the same time. I also liked how there’s a bar on the top of the page that reads “Don’t Miss:” and then provides several of the biggest and most popular current stories as links separated as tabs. However, there are some pages that seem too cluttered because of the sheer amount of information presented all at once. I think they could've separated some categories of stories into a sidebar down the left hand side of each page with a few different broad categories to break up the clutter. Nevertheless, the site is functional and clean-looking so that readers can navigate fairly easily and not feel overwhelmed.
There are plenty of pictures, audio, and video elements on each page, and each page contains at least one of these, if not more. They have captions underneath each picture and/or graphic. I didn’t see any videos when clicking throughout the site, but I could’ve easily missed them with all of the information and news stories available there.
I also noticed plenty of places for interactivity on the site. Many different links and buttons point you in the right direction of contacting someone or so you can sign up for their e-mails to get daily updates, etc. There is also a comment box below every article so that readers can post their opinions and interact with other readers as well as the journalists.
On the main page there is a box entitled “Follow ProPublica” that has links and logos of the social media sites that they correspond with, including Twitter, Facebook, the site’s Podcast, their iPhone App, and RSS.
Overall, I think that Pro Publica presented their information and stories in an organized fashion. They also use everyday, readable language that is easy to follow and relaxed. I'm definitely coming back for more daily news, that's for sure.
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