The Study of Privacy, Accuracy & Order on Insidenova Website and Moving Little Sites Up

Caroline B
(cbore001)
Outline, March 2015

The Study of Privacy, Accuracy & Order on InsideNova Website and Moving ‘Little Sites’ Up

About the Community: InsideNova is “Northern Virginia's news, traffic and weather website, owned by Leesburg-based Northern Virginia Media Services, which publishes Prince William Today and four other weekly newspapers. The papers, including Leesburg Today and the Sun Gazettes of Arlington and Fairfax, reach close to 200,000 households every week.”[1]

Though all online communities face obstacles, the biggest one I see with this site is the topic of privacy and how freedom of speech is exhibited. This site is mostly managed by a single group of people though write in options are available. The privacy issue faces more on the aspect of others disclosing personal information, whether it be the authors of the site or a write in. I will use our class readings to understand the constant battle between sites such as this and where the line of privacy should be drawn. I have read several articles on the concerns of privacy and will touch on these concerns in the online world.

I have observed this community over the last several weeks in order to help answer my two biggest questions: the aspect of privacy, as others can write in and how the authors rate and format/manage the information to keep readers, like myself, coming back. I will conduct research to see where the information is originally obtained (other Washington websites or primarily the newspapers) and the effects of other online communities, such as social media, playing a role (can people tweet directly to the site, e-mail site, etc.) I will also research the echo chamber effect on this particular community.

From my research, I have obtained much of this information is from other Washington D.C. news sources, such as the Washington Post[2] , and WTOP[3]. It seems as if the news presented on InsideNova is filtered and presented in a way in which the echo chamber effect is observed. Stories are combined in a way to grab the attention of readers and organized in a sense that draws the reader in.

-Provide examples of website formatting and how the stories are shown

Last, I began research on how sites like CNN have become the most trusted site on the Internet and conduct analysis on how little sites, such as InsideNova, can become more trusted and valued and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve this.

-Interview people on what news site they frequent most on the Internet and why

Note: After speaking with Ryan, I am most likely changing my community/final project topic—I will e-mail the class page once I decide upon a new one. Thanks.

[1]Inside Nova http://www.insidenova.com/site/about.html (accessed March 2, 2015)

[2] Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com Accessed March 30, 2015

[3] WTOP <www.wtop.com> Accessed March 30, 2015