Benefits of Exercise

"Do's and Don'ts of Storify"

After looking through some "Storify" stories, my understanding is that it's a place where writers can get news out to people using social media. The website allows you to post news from facebook, twitter and youtube. The website lets you post comments and pictures in between to better tell your story. I agree with the writer's analysis of the two stories. I think that the Storify story, "Hundreds march to support student journalist" was effective because it gave a wide range of information and it explained in between the posts what was going on. I thought that the pictures were used effectively, although their could have been a few more that showed the rallies. The "Bridgewater State rallies for free speech" Storify lacked explanation and seemed like a compiling of tweets off of twitter. The story didn't read well and there wasn't any background information given. This form of journalism may be effective in creating a story because it allows you to show different sides of the story and present the reader with information from different social media sources. This form of journalism could lead to shoddy reporting because if it isn't done well, it just appears as though the writer grabbed social media to tell their story for them, instead of using it to help them tell their story.

The incident at Bridgewater showed journalists that their freedom of speech may be challenged. Journalists should not be afraid to publish anything because of freedom of speech. It seemed like an unfortunate case that took place at the university. I think that the rally organizers should have focused their stories more around "the freedom of speech" aspect. They could have referenced this more in the Storify piece to help spread the word about it.