Blog Project two: Topic 3 Newspaper- Examining Newspapers/Magazines

Albany Democrat-Herald

INTRODUCTION: I looked in all the wrong places for The Oregonian. I tried to call the organization
in order to find the locations where the newspaper was, but I was on hold for 10 mins. I was in
downtown Albany driving towards the Linn-Benton school, and I seen a small convenient store
that said Democrat-Herald. It was the only newspaper that I had come across in two days. I just
did not know where to look for them. It had six different sections, and it had tons of reading.
It had more than I expected, and more than I liked. It included people helping back in the community,
politics, sports, classes, nation, world, and games.

DESCRIBE:

What is the primary focus of this publication? What are most of the stories about? Include EXAMPLES?

I would think that the primary focus was politics and sports. There was a section called "jobs

boom favors Democratic counties." It talked about how the Clinton counties had much more jobs

vs. the Trump counties. "On average for the year, ending in May, 58.5 percent of the jobs gains were

in counties that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to an Associated Press analysis

of monthly government jobs data by county." I felt like this was a pretty big focus, and it was located

in the business section. I do want to point out that this paper is from 8/6/2018. Another portion was

labeled as "More fine print with Trump care options." It was about the health care options that he

has been talking so highly of, but it seems that insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield

are warning that it will not be a great policy. This section is located on the top of page A4.

Another section reads "Trump." It is about Muller, and how Trump Jr. had been talking to him.

I have heard some stuff about this on the radio, but I am not fully understanding this story. It

seems that sports were pretty important to point out for this question as well. This news article

included two sections. Stuff like "Elliott mirrors father's victory," "preparing for title defense,"

"unexpected opportunity," "Mariners end skid," "knights clinch road series," "Trojans moving on without

Darnold," "Vols savor fresh start," and "soccer." I found more sections of sports, but I felt like this was

enough to point out. It seems that sports are very important to society because of how much is involved

with the newspaper.

How is it organized? What does it look like? Describe the stories, text and photos/graphics.

It is organized with categorizes like sports, advice/TV, opinion, Nation, World, business, mid-valley,

comic. It also goes by page numbers like A1, A2, A3... It is in bold lettering, and it is also in regular lettering.

There are so many stories to list. Lots and lots to do with sports. Some were to do with how a team is going

to do better, and how they have a good team lined up. Another one was talking about how the team won't

forget about the miserable last year. There was also stuff to do with crashes, and earthquakes. One title read

"Another big temblor rattles island; 91 dead." It talks about different locations around the world. One story

talked about how children were rescued from a compound, and they were released to welfare workers. There

was 11 of them This is something that I have never heard of, and I found it very interesting that a newspaper

would talk about all of this. Another store tile was "Utility worker is killed." It was in California. This story

talked about the fires that are out of control in California. There were more positive stories like the one where

an 18 year won 2,500.00. She won it because she wrote a story about her grandmother who passed with a disease.

The disease brought her family close together. Some of the stories were much longer than others. The short

stories were much easier to read. Most of it was in black and white. But, there was some color to the newspaper.

It was organized into sections. It had lines that showed where the article began and end. It has the name of

the author, and I assume their tit;e pf work. It most cases it also showed where the story was coming from.

I did find other things like zodiac sign readings, and games. The "Dear Abby" section was something that

I have forgotten about.

List the products/services that are advertised. What brands do you see?

One of the advertisements I read the most about was hearing. It was called Miracle-Ear. The

expiration date was 8/10/2018. It grabbed my attention the most because I believe that I have trouble

hearing. They advertise that it is free of charge, and it is completely volunteer. They make it seem like

it is a good deal, and the reason why I decided to write about this is because the end of it. It states that

the person may keep their instrument if they desire. It seems that it is ploy for people to get in there and try

the product, so that a person will get hooked into buying it. They have locations in Salem, Eugene, and Albany.

Other brands that were advertise were AA towing. It has their phone number listed, and it says 24 hour service.

In the newspaper there is a $125.00 coupon for "any complete unwanted vehicle brought to us."

A third advertisement was Xfinty. They listed a TV package for $35.00, but a per has to sign a 2-year agreement.

They grab a person attention by "It's. The. Best. Deal. Of. The. Year."

ANALYZE:

I think the biggest thing that sets it apart from the rest is that it's a local paper. This is one of those questions that I wouldn't have an answer to.

I would have to be reading lots of newspapers throughout my life to know why it is so great compared to the competition.

But, why would there be competition between newspapers? Is that a goal between companies? This question has me wondering.

I thought the purpose is to get the news out there to the public. I would much rather read something about my town that

was locally written vs. something written across the states. I think that sets it apart from the rest. The New York Times

has written about places in Oregon, but it is better to have someone write about us who is local. Again, I would not know

where to cite examples from. I have only ever looked at a newspaper. I never wanted to read one until I had to.

I would not be able to say what makes this newspaper so different from the rest. I could not tell anyone what sets

it apart from the rest. This was the first newspaper that I have ever read in my life. I feel somewhat ashamed to

even have to admit this. I have never been much of a reader. The only magazines that I have ever read was

related to health food. I don't think that I can answer the question of what makes it so different. Simply, I do

not have an answer to why. I can say that I think it is great that people are out in the world writing about the

stuff that they think is very important. The world needs people who want to get a story out in the open. I had know idea until this class.

I wanted to read The Oregonian just because I felt it would be a good piece. The New York Times would have even been better for me,

but I didn't think that I would be able to find that locally. I did not try. I stumbled across the Albany Democrat-herald, and I did not know

that it was a recommendation. While I drove around the city of Albany, I did pass their office. This is another something that

I found very fascinating. I enjoyed figuring this out. I also enjoyed noticing the three differences between the two versions.

The newspaper version a person can see it all laid out in front of them. This was a huge difference between the two.
The stories are updated by the hours. It tells when a story was updated. A person can choose what story they want to read instead of it being blasted

all over a newspaper. The internet version is much cleaner than the paper version. The advertisements on

the internet were different. I noticed pizza advertisements. There was more color on the internet version.
The internet version will lock a person out once they have looked at 10 articles. A person can subscribe for $5.00. I paid $2.00.
I know that the Sunday paper was $4.00 where I bought my paper.

INTERPRET: I think the primary audience is people who are into politics. The reason I think this because Oregon is
a Democrat state. The point is with the name "Albany Democrat-herald." I think it is also do with with
people who are not satisfied with what Trump is doing. The reason I believe this is because he is
brought up four different times. It also seems like the newspaper targeted Marijuana saying that Oregon
grows too much, and it is the reason why the product is so cheap. That portion of the newspaper was
under the opinion section. It doesn't clearly state the opinion of Trump, but it seems like the whole
news paper is targeted politics. The other target I think is people who like sports. I previous brought up many exampls
, and I do not think I need to bring in those titles again. It talked about the losses and gains of the seasons.
It also talked about Tiger Woods. I think the target audience is democrats, and people who like sports.

Do the ads seem to fit with the stories and photos in print and online? How are the ads different in print and online
The organization was very different. For an example, the times when something was last posted online would show.
I did notice that the ads were different online, and I am wondering the answer behind this. There were several
different ads, but the ones that I remembered the most were the Papa Murphy's pizza ads. Those were defiantly
not in the paper version.

Offensive Messages The only message I found that was offensive was the pot section. The title reads "Oregon must curb pot oversupply."

I am not a smoker, but I do support it. I have no idea what the section was talking about because I have not

heard anything of it until now. It was basically talking about Oregon getting in trouble in the future because they

are growing too much illegally. But, as far as I know, Oregon has been a target for a while. I wonder when this

will just stop. I think that this adds to the unwelcoming thoughts that already exists. Why add more thoughts to it?

They were also comparing Oregon to Colorado. They said Oregon should follow was Colorado is doing even

though they brought up that they have an over stock as well. I thought the message contradicted itself. I do see
this as a personal opinion though. Not everyone is going to find that section offensive the way I did. Again, it was
labeled as the "opinion" section, so I think the author knew the type of message they were sending out to the
public.

EVALUATE:
One of the biggest difference is an obvious one. It was on the internet, and it was not a newspaper. One of the weakness' is it being too long.

It seemed to drag on and on. The short stories were okay. But, I got very overwhelmed at the end when I thought I was almost done. I figured out that

I had a lot more reading to do, so I think that is a big weakness. They want people to come back for more, and it does not make me one to come back for more.

I also don't care about sports. When I see "football," I think about rape culture. I think about how it has been socially acceptable. I absolutely don't care about the sport section.

I think that they need to keep all types of readers involved. Majority of what I read was about sports. I get that America cares, but I can say that not all of us do. Don't make

all of us read about it. Another weakness was the quailty of paper. I could see thru to the other side when I was trying to read one side. It made it hard to concentrate.

Other than that I really can not think of any other weakness' that I could like to share to the public. I would say that my favorite thing about the paper was the hope, and

of course one could get that from the online or the print, so I am making that a strength for both. Albany Democrat-herald brought in negative things, but they also brought in positive things to.

One stories was about how the YMCA was helping washing clothes for the community. The purpose for this was to donate clothes to kids. Any one could get them. They wanted to show the postive

light of the community, and I think that is a strength because people need hope.

https://democratherald.com/news/ymca-offering-free-back-to-school-kids-clothes/article_f9fd2a12-b359-5955-aa45-be60599acfc1.html

The other strength to the online version is the ability to not be able to able to be overwhelmed by all the stories. I know that was a huge issue for me while I was

reading the paper version. I pulled the URL from the YMCA. It was a one page article that was in the paper. It was much easier on my eyes to read.

I hate to say this, buy I think that the paper version serves the audience better because they have everything out infront of them. If a person wants to, they can choose

to pick apart the newspaper. They can read it online if they think its easier one by one. I think that is a benefit to the audience. Both paper and online version have benefits.

It really just all depends what the reader needs in that time.

https://democratherald.com/news/

https://democratherald.com/news/heat-haze-forecast-for-valley-this-week/article_dbb261fc-c2f7-589c-a11e-4bf114b1782c.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_x1A3T6K6o

ENGAGE:

How do you interact with this publication beyond just reading?  Do you do the crossword puzzle or Scramble?

I did not do any of the games because that is just not my thing. My step-mom was always the one who would do those. I would watch.
I think that I interact with the reading by listening to the radio. I think that this is one of the ways that I go beyond the reading. Some of the articles

I was already aware of because of OPB. The articles went more into depth though. I believe that was pretty

helpful.

Facebook

• They do use social media. They have 21,923 people following them. They also have 22,251 people who have liked their page.
• They use this in order to get the "word" out. It is a platform to show that they exists.
• https://www.facebook.com/dhnews/
• They are posting news stuff, and things that are involved in the public like baseball for example. I did see a post about baseball.\
• Another post was about how Trump had his Hollywood star messed with. Someone dug his name out.
• Mugshots were posted on their site.
• I did not see much post from people, and I did not see any hate messages from people.

Twitter 

• https://twitter.com/dhnews?lang=en
• Joined January 2009
• 2,359 photos
• Sports-lots
• OSU graduation posts
• Politics 
• News posts
• Highway Traffic/accidents posts
• Fatal accident posts
• Local news: detailed news of stuff happening in Corvallis, Albany, and Lebanon
• 15.4 thousand tweets
• 157 following
• 2,872 followers 

Instagram 

• https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/6247470/albany-democrat-herald/
• Mostly used their instagram to take pictures of newspapers.
• It was not as popular as Facebook or Twitter. 

CONCLUSIONS:

What did you learn from doing this assignment? Did you tell your readers something they don’t already know?

Through this assignment I learned that it is a lot harder to find a newspaper. I remember in the past that

I could just walk down the road, and I could find them everywhere. It took me two days to find this one, and it

was not the one that I wanted to read. I also learned that it is very time consuming to read. I learned that

these are made every day. After I read the newspaper, I realized it takes a lot of time to put these together.

I assume that one important aspect of this assignment is to realize how important newspaper is. I think that

I can gather a clear picture of how important it is. It took me 3-4 hours to read it all, so I can only imagine

that it would take a lot longer to put one together. I think I learned that it is well organized. It looks well organized.

I also learned that there is a democrat newspaper. I thought that was pretty cool. I am not sure if I will read

a newspaper again just because of time consuming it was. I am just not a reader. I think that I can make a goal

to read one once a month. I found good information. I believe that there is knowledge that needs to get out.

Stuff that was related to politics was helpful. It helped me understand a little more of the stuff that I have been hearing on the

radio since I do listen to OPB. It cost $5.00 to subscribe to Albany Democrat-herald.