I came across an interesting article examining the effect of Twitter on the swine flu pandemic. The piece states that powerful disease-tracking tools, including those currently monitoring the spread of swine flu across the world, were once reserved for officials at the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization – but this is no longer.

(more…)

I remember during our first online journalism lecture three months ago our lecturer asked us had we a Bebo page. Most of us raised our hands. A facebook page? Several of us raised had one. Did we write a blog, he asked. Only one out of the 50 or so students did.

Finally he asked did we use Twitter. (more…)

While The Guardian’s website is greatly lauded, The Telegraph’s website surged in popularity last month, overtaking The Guardian as most popular website for March. (more…)

An article published in the technology section of The Guardian (9-3-2008) compiled a list of the 50 most powerful blogs in the world. The blog that scooped the top spot, The Huffington Post, was set up by Arianna Huffington who wanted to transform the blogosphere and to do so, she invested heavily in the blog.

So what makes the Huffington Post so powerful? (more…)

The DCU student newspaper, the College View, has a website. The paper, which comes out every 3 to 4 weeks, is quite interactive, with users allowed to comment after each article. However as there is no need to register with the site, comments can be anonymous – probably a bad thing in terms of libel. (more…)

Steven Mangan posted a blog called An everyday mobile phone makes an everyday journalist. He  speaks about the recent phenomenon of  every user of the standard mobile becoming, in a sense, an everyday citizen journalist. (more…)

Sean McTiernan posted a blog entry about Kaycee Nicole Swenson, a fake online persona created by a grown woman that caught the hearts and minds of bloggers and severely questioned the integrity of blogs. (more…)

The Guardian won four awards at the British Press Awards recently, including website of the year. (more…)

Nos , according to its website, is an exciting and innovative new addition to the Irish language mediascape, providing a “unique take” on the best of Irish and international music, film, technology, travel, style and more. (more…)

Beo is an online Irish language magazine which is updated monthly. Funded by Foras na Gaeilge, the magazine survives by articles by unpaid contributors. Students of Irish often uses this site as a way to add to their journalism portfolio. (more…)