TPM-Assignment Three

"The Talking Points Memo" (TPM) is a flagship news blog. This news blog covers information primarily pertaining to politics. The political theme seems to have been inspired by the term "Muckraker". This term is posted at the top of the blog, with a link to a section covering their lead stories. The blogs tend to cover the corruption of the government, and address these questions to the public. The readability and layout of TPM is discussed below.

Length of Text: The posts on this web site differ depending on which section the reader is viewing. The stories featured in the top news section are organized with many paragraphs, all between two to four sentences. The Editor's Blog section, is short and to the point, containing approximately one statement, involving one to two sentences. However, depending on the blog, sometimes the editor will add paragraphs to strengthen the information presented.

Scanability: The ability to examine a text systematically, and leave with a general understanding of the article is important. TPM allows the viewer to do just that, with their addition of hyperlinks, and bold and colored fonts. These hyperlinks are displayed in the color red, which allows the reader to find a related link. Once finding these links, the reader is transferred to another website with additional information. For example, the blog, "Taitz: Of Course I'm Not Gonna Pay!" includes words in red and bold fonts such as, breaking the news and his account of their interview. These hyperlinks also allow the viewer to summarize the main idea of the blog.

Chunking: The grouping of single ideas into larger blocks is uncommon for editors Marshall and Kurtz. Their blogs are usually just a single sentence, but when chunking does occur it usually takes the form of two paragraphs, with an (i.e) at the end. The chunking also is used in direct quotes, organized in a gray box. These gray boxes display a chunk of information including footnotes. I have noticed that the TPM editors like to keep their blogs short, with hyperlinks connecting to parallel stories.

Headlines: TPM's headlines are congruent to their topic. The editor's blog section tends to have headlines ranging between one to six words. Their headlines are never longer than a sentence. An example of an editor's blog title is, Christie's Thin Spread. However, the headlines covering the top news section are longer, and display in detail, the information available in the article. A top news title is, Clinton: 'No Intention' Of Relaxing Sanctions On North Korea. The headlines usually feature a video and include a still photograph of the clip. The headlines of the TPM Voices section change depending on the writer, and these titles include a sentence of their thesis.

Copy Editing: When reviewing the blog, there were no signs of grammatical errors. Many of the articles had a journalistic touch, with writers primarily being affiliated with Reuters US Online. However, I did note AP style, and some of the journalists were apart of the Associated Press.

Use of Inverted Pyramid: The inverted pyramid is heavily used in the TPM articles. The news articles all arrange their information with the substantial information first, and the less important at the bottom. The blog section includes hyperlinks, which direct me to news articles, all featuring this journalistic pyramid. Right when I read the first two paragraphs, I understood the purpose of the piece.

Page Titles: The page titles relate to the post and are not confusing to the viewer. I liked how the page titles were listed in two ways. The first being, the title of the section the reader is in. The TPM website has five sections which include the editor's blog, TPMmuckraker, TPMDC, TPMtv, and TPMcafe. Below the title of the section is the title of the article.

Legibility: The vocabulary is understandable and the articles are concise and readable. However, the placement of the advertisements are too close to the article. The placement of the lead story is reliable, because it is always at the center of the page. The headline includes a large still photograph, with a bright blue font, much bigger than the rest.

This week on TPM, the issues revolve around the Health Care Reform Bill. The lead story features updates on the voting process. The updates are organized by time, with pictures and videos involving the hearing. The lead story is of a "LIVE BLOG" with videos displaying Senator Snowe and Kerry. This headline has a link where viewers can watch the live hearing from the comfort of their own home. Click here to watch the hearing...