Journalistic Blog Reviews

I'll lead off with the ever-popular Mindy McAdams. She's an expert in the online journalism rhelm and yet her blog leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, she uses links and white space efficiently, but her page is quite cluttered. To the left, she has her writing as well as the posts of others, including Rob Curley. On the right she has a bio, then an extremely long laundry list of links, followed by a section of other blogs that she reads. I wish she kept things simple like she herself suggests to other bloggers.

Then there's Dan Gillmor. Gillmor mirrors Romenesko in that he chooses to list by linked headlines and then provide teasers beneath those links. This format certainly boasts organization but it also can breed monotony. Overall, I'm indifferent. It doesn't bore me too much, but I'm simply not enthralled. The advertisements on Gillmor's page are plenty, but they run around the perimeter and aren't too distracting.

Moving on to Adrian Holovaty of the Washington Post. Holovaty's blog is especially bland. White background and plenty of listing, but it's successfully simple and he uses boldfacing and underlining well. There aren't many ads and virtually no clutter, so it's an easily navigable site. Certainly the easiest to follow of the three thus far.

Jeff Jarvis and Pamela Parket are good examples of stylistically contrasting blogs. Jarvis uses a smooth gray on his border while Parket features a sharp green. Parket annoyingly dabs groups some links together at the top of her page while Jarvis incorporates his links nicely into his paragraphs. Lastly, Jarvis is politically inclined while Parket is clearly environmentally-minded.