News apps
Download at least one new news app for your smartphone or tablet. Use it for 10 days or so and then report back to this blog. What do you like about it? Don't like? How does it affect your news consumption, having it at your fingers? Would you recommend it to others? Why or why not?
20 points, due by 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 16.
20 points, due by 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 16.
I downloaded the Fox News app. I liked that in the menu, you can choose what type of news you want to look at. They have it divided into categories: Politics, US, Opinion, Entertainment, Fox Business, Tech, Science, Health, Travel, Lifestyle, etc. I did not like the alert options. You can choose to turn "breaking news alerts" on or off, but that's about it. Otherwise, it is up to you to open the app up and check the news.
ReplyDeleteI have had the CNN news app for a few months now, and I prefer that one over the Fox News one. the CNN app alerts me whenever almost anything happens, which is what I prefer because if it were up to me to remember to check the app every day, I would never know what was going on in the world. I also prefer the CNN app over the Fox News one because I felt like the coverage of the events was better. Firstly, the stories on the "Top News" page pf the CNN app seemed more important, interesting and relevant to me than those on the "Top News" page of the Fox News app. Also, CNN's coverage of events was more concise and informational while I felt that the coverage from Fox News was sometimes harder to follow.
Lastly, the Fox News apps had ads constantly popping up which was frustrating.
I downloaded the CNN news app to my iPhone. Before my 10 days of trying this app out began, I decided to turn on my push notifications, and I liked that it gave me several options as to how often it alerts me, based on the level of news importance. I, personally, like having as much information as possible, so I turned on all news alerts, labeled as "Can't miss a thing" news alerts. Another thing I liked was the fact that it gave me the ability to choose whether I wanted news strictly related to the U.S., or if I also wanted international news. Seeing as though I opted to be notified over every little thing, I chose the U.S. edition for now. As for the app itself, I love the layout. The articles are clearly titled, and easy to navigate. After 10 days of usage, I've decided that I actually don't not like anything about it. With the news being so easily accessible, I've been much more on top of recent events, and I've been so much more clear on what's actually going on in the country. I'm also much more interested in reading the news, because where I'd have to go out of my way to get a newspaper, or to find time in my day to scroll a news website or click through the television, it's instead on my phone, which is on me 24/7. I would definitely recommend this app to others, as it's been a huge improvement in my daily life. It's easy to keep up with the news, the information has all been reliably and completely covered, and it's a very handy tool.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the Associated Press news app. I like the AP's reporting, I feel like it is truly unbiased so I can draw my own conclusions from it. I also like the way the stories are organized, the display is very orderly so I can very easily scroll through the headlines. I do not like the notification system, it's either on or off. I wish that it was like the CNN app with an option system for how many notifications users received. Also, because the AP covers everything everywhere, I received a lot of notifications for news I didn't find relevant. I do feel like it increased my international news consumption, but mostly I liked that it let me get a different view on stories I heard elsewhere. I would recommend this app, but probably only to people who actually like to stay connected to the news. I feel like it could be overbearing for people who don't.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the LA Times app for android. What I like about the app first and foremost is that the adds are not invasive. Too many times using another news app or website that gains revenue from adds, it seems as though the site is more interested in that, than the actual reporting. This app has the odd pop up here and there, but allows the reader to actually read the articles freely and not through one quarter of their screen whilst the rest is taken up by a flashy add for a movie that came out three months ago. Secondly, it allows the user to edit what sorts of notifications if any the reader wants to allow. This is a feature gone from many news apps among others, and again is less invasive to the user. Finally, I enjoy the articles themselves (the few I could read anyway). The writing (while obviously leaning a bit left) remains fairly objective using quotes and feelings from others to create the article rather than to back up an opinion like an argumentative research paper.
ReplyDeleteThough those are some good qualities of an app, it's not the shiniest thing on the market. The interface is clunky, something befitting of a homegrown app from four or five years ago, not a big name news source from 2017. The articles are more so to the left, though they remain objective it doesn't feel as though I'm getting both sides of the story. Finally, while it's understandable that they require a subscriber base to thrive, only giving the free audience five articles for a whole month is ludicrous.
I would certainly recommend this app to other people to use, as I think a better following would garner better attention to the app from the developers; but I would not recommend this as a free means of a primary news source. The articles are well written, and the app has potential but it also clearly has a political stance and doesn't allow for much free viewership. While it would be good for the odd 'treat' so to speak, the LA Times app isn't where a non-subscriber should be going for all of their news needs.
I download the New York Times, NPR News and Associated Press News app. I actually enjoyed all of the apps. I normally pick up a physical copy of the New York Times every morning, but I really enjoyed getting updates throughout the day that gave me either complete new stories or updates on the stories within the paper. I also enjoyed on the AP News app I was able to select different topics that I wanted stories on. This was cool because I did not have receive minor Sports stories all day that I had no interest in reading. The main thing I liked about the NPR News app was being able to listen to the stories. I was able to listen to the reports as I was walking around campus or driving around.
ReplyDeleteWith these apps I felt as if I was more in the know because I was able to get quick updates throughout the day. With the updates, even if I didn't have time to read the whole story I could read the notification and get the gist; however, with news papers you have to read quite a bit of the story to get the gist of the information. I would not solely rely on these apps for all of my news gathering because I like the information and reliability within an actual news paper, but for updates throughout the day I really enjoyed the apps.
I would recommend all of these apps to people. Especially people who do not regularly read the news paper or watch the news. These apps are quick ways to keep up with what is going on in the world and to stay in the know at any time of the day.
I downloaded the CBS App. I really enjoy the notification system. I am able to receive breaking news updates on CBS about fifteen minutes quicker than on any of my other news apps. The only issue I have had with the app is that when you click on a headline it pulls up the lead of the story and you have to click another link to open the full story. I enjoy seeing the lead first, but I have issues pressing the full story link. The link is really small and if you don't click it right on the link it will close the story lead. I overall enjoy the speed of information and the quality of the news source and I intend to keep using the app.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the CNN app. I liked how I was able to choose how many notifications I receive every day pertaining to the most important news. I like the Top News page where I can scroll through and check important headlines in my free time. I also enjoyed the Watch Now tab because, to me, watching news is more entertaining than just reading news. There were posted videos, live TV, and more. The last thing I liked was the simplicity of the app as far as having separate pages for different categories (Travel, Sports, Tech, Health, etc.). I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t able to personalize the notifications I receive, I was only able to choose how many notifications per day, I’d like to be able to customize it to my interests. It definitely increased my news consumption because, even though, I didn’t always read every article that I was notified about, I was still able to read the alerts and get the gist’s of the stories. I would definitely recommend this app to others because it covers a wide range of stories and can alert you about all the top headlines.
ReplyDeleteI chose to download the CNN news app. I like how it gave me the option to choose how often I got alerts to my phone. I started off with the "can't miss a thing" alert frequency, but after a few days changed it to "the day's top news" frequency. I also liked how you can choose to get either US news or international news, but I dislike how you can't choose both. I didn't really explore the news categories that were available on the app. I mostly stuck with the top news stories. I'm not sure if it drastically increased my news consumption though, but it definitely gave me another source for the news that I didn't already have on my phone. I would absolutely recommend this app to others because it is easy to navigate and covers a wide range of stories which keeps things interesting.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the CNN news app, and I'm surprised how much I actually enjoy in. I never really thought much of keeping up with the news, my though process was if it was really important I would hear about it through the grapevine, I was so wrong. I like how I could turn on push notifications for it, and select how I received them. I have the "can't miss a thing" alerts, and the "U.S. Edition". I wish I could do "International" along with it to see whats going on all over the world, but that unfortunately is not an option. I like how the app is set up, the articles are easy to get to and the app is easy to navigate. I would say I defiantly consume more news on a daily basis with this app than I did before, and I will continue to use it. I would absolutely recommend it to others because its easy to use and has a wide variety to choose from. I already made my roommate download it.
ReplyDeleteWith so many different news apps, it was hard to decide which one to download but I finally decided to download the CNN app. Compared to using the regular iPhone news app like I usually do, I did not really like the new app. The thing that I didn’t like was the amount of notifications I got each day from the app and what they were about. The app does have different notification settings such as “just the big stuff” which is 0-2 alerts, “the day’s top news” which is 3-6 alerts, and “can’t miss a thing” which is 7+ alerts. I chose the 3-6 alerts, but it seemed as if I was getting notifications almost every other hour. What I did like about the app is that the headline stories covered things such as politics, celebrity scandals, and natural disasters. I also liked how the app gave you the option to receive U.S. Edition notifications or International notifications. I chose U.S. edition notifications and received many notifications about President Trump. When I used the iPhone news app, I would manually have to open to the app to receive the news, but with the CNN app the news came to me and I was able to read about the news without even opening my phone. I would definitely recommend this app to others just because the app allows you to make your experience customized to your liking. If you want more notifications, you can. If you want less notifications, you can as well.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the ABC news app. I really liked how the app allowed me to prioritize my news notifications. All I had to do was select the categories I was most interested in and news from those categories would appear on my notification screen. What I didn't like about the app was that it gave me a limited amount of categories I could follow.
ReplyDeleteDownloading the app increased my news consumption a lot. I would see a story on facebook and then 10 minutes later get a notification from the app headlining that same exact story only to find out that the story I had seen on facebook had said something totally different. Then, I would find myself researching that topic and learning even more about.
I would recommend this app to anyone looking for easy access to daily news. I thoroughly enjoyed using it and plan to continue to use it in the future.
I downloaded the CNN News app. The thing I liked the most about it is that it lets you know about the five "most important" things for the day, weather it is national or international coverage. I liked being able to also choose how many alerts I wanted to receive throughout the day, how often I wanted to receive them, and how important or urgent they were. The only thing I did not like is how CNN is often biased, based on reviews and how they report breaking news on topics such as politics and government matters. However, I would still recommend this app to others because even if some news may be biased, it is still reliable, global news and one may still form their own opinion. The app is also easy to access and navigate, and you can have news brought to your attention without even having to open the app. The settings may also be changed to fit your specific preferences on alerts and what kind of news is being brought to your attention.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the CNN News app. The thing I liked most about it was it allowed you to control the frequency of its notifications. I don't like that they keep giving me notifications about the same story over and over again. It has increased my news consumption, simply because of the instantaneous availability as well as the mass of information it provided. I would definitely recommend it to others. I also liked the fact that it allows you to watch its newsfeed. I wish it didn't format its ads like news stories though.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded a news app by the name of theSkimm which was a very unique experience for gathering news. It claims to be able to give you all the news you need to know in 10 minutes or less by just reading or listening. I really liked two things that the app provides. The first is that it asks to sync major events to my calendar these events include the release the new iPhone, and sporting events. The second thing that I like is what they call the daily Skimm. It tells you all the major news in a condensed straight to the point version. It is separated into three parts, The Story, Tell me more and theSkimm. I would say this app made my news intake faster but I don't feel like I got the full story. I feel like I got enough to educate myself but luckily they link more in depth articles to their stories. I would recommend this app defiantly to people who are always busy or who don't care to know every little detail of every story. I feel like I know a lot more of whats going on because I even end up reading stories that don't interest me due to the condensed size.
ReplyDeleteKennadi Harris
ReplyDeleteI downloaded Buzzfeed News app. The reason I chose this app specifically is because it has language and content tailored toward a more millennial crowd but nevertheless still delivers accurate and important news. The thing I liked most about this app is the frequent but not too frequent notifications and also the home page offers a "quick catch up" section to give you all the main stories that are popular and significant. The one thing I don't like about the app is the fact that it doesn't have a menu to quickly access different categories. Downloading this app has definitely increased my news consumption due to the automatic notifications. I would definitely recommend this to others because it is simple and easy to navigate through.
I decided to try out the CNN News app, not only due to the fact I see so many people mentioning it but I also know that a few of my family members avidly look at and read different articles that are posted within the app and believe that it is the best source of information. A few reasons I have enjoyed the viewing of this app, is one, it is able to give me an expansive and broad look at different types of news stories, whether it be something that was related to an issue but also that it gave an outlook on the random stories that people report daily. It opened a vast array of news stories and interesting guides, as well. Another thing I enjoyed was being able to control the notifications that came from the app. I wouldn't get randomly notified about something I wasn't particularly interested in and I even wouldn't receive the same notification for the same story repeatedly throughout my day. The only thing I dislike about CNN is how biased their news reports and stories are, but I would still most definitely recommend it to someone, especially due to the fact that the settings can be fixed to how the consumer may enjoy and want to view stories when using the app.
ReplyDeleteTen or so days ago I downloaded the Fox News app on my phone. This was the first time I’ve kept up with the news by myself without hearing it through one of my parents first. I enjoyed this because I felt very caught up with the world and its news. I liked how the news was split up into categories so it was easier for me to narrow down my news search. There wasn't anything on this app that I didn't like, at least nothing I have discovered yet. The Fox News app gave me the option to turn on push notifications and that is what I liked most about it. Every time there was a new story or important breaking news I would get a notification which was important to me because I probably wouldn't check the app otherwise. Another part of this app that I also appreciated was the science category of news because it was really interesting to me to see the things scientists are discovering. I would recommend this app to anyone who enjoys keeping up with news and/or likes it simply given to them because it is very easy to use and provides good content.
ReplyDeleteI decided to download the Washington Post news app because I haven't had much experience with their coverage of events. I enjoyed this app because it let me specify what things I wanted to get notifications on such as, politics, entertainment, local, etc. I haven't yet found anything negative about this app, it's easy to use and user friendly. You don't have to be tech savvy to find your way around the app. Having this app 100% amped up my knowledge on what was going on around me. I would check it just like any other social media and scan over some articles and exit the app with more knowledge on the latest stories. Living in a dorm and constantly running around I never had/have time to sit and watch the news or pull it up on my computer so having it on my phone (which I'm constantly on) made it tremendously easier to access. I would recommend this app to others if they're looking for an easy way to stay in the know about current events.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the Apple News app, which was actually already on my phone! I really liked the layout of the app. I would argue that it is user-friendly and easy to navigate. It allowed me to customize my news. Since it isn't a news company itself, I was able to choose multiple from dozens of news companies such as FOX, CNN, Buzzfeed, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and so on. I also liked how I could choose categories I was interested in. This is beneficial because it would provide me with news on one story from multiple sources. Another aspect of this app that is interesting is the "Saved" feature. Users are able to save stories to return to later. This is very handy so one doesn't have to strenuously search for a story. There isn't much about this app that I did not like. The push notifications have helped increase my news consumption dramatically. When I am in other apps and a notification pops up, I instantly click on it - something I have not done in the past. I would definitely recommend this app to others. Not only is it free and already downloaded onto everyone's phone (if they have an iPhone), but it is extremely user-friendly and personable. You can customize it how you want and have the ability to have all news sources in one app.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the CNN News app, and I am actually surprised that I do like it. It doesn't blow up your phone, but it does keep you updated on the current events. I received all the push notifications just to see how often it would notify me of current news and it did a great job without being too overwhelming. It gave me very broad news coverage and has definitely increased the amount of news I receive daily. It did lean towards politics more than anything, but it also covered other current events, and had different categories to read about. I also really enjoyed the layout of the app because it was very easy to navigate and figure out how to use it. I would recommend this app to anyone who likes to stay up to date on the latest news because that's exactly what this app did.
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