MSNBC vs. CNN

Honestly, I really don’t like MSNBC’s website. There’s something about the way it is set up and the way they organized it that really puts me off. One of the biggest things that I have a problem with is the amount of advertisements on the pages. They are everywhere! CNN.com didn’t have any ads on any of their pages. The advertisements are overwhelming and get really irritating, especially when placed in the middle of a story. The ads that are placed within the stories are especially distracting because they break up the story in an awkward way and can stop a reader from continuing on in the story. I know that I stopped reading when my attention got interrupted by the advertisement. It makes it seem that making money from the advertisements is more important to MSNBC than giving their readers the news. There are also two ads on the home page that separates the groups of headlines (“In the News,” “Recommended Stories,” and “Only on MSNBC” to name a few) from the section listings (“U.S. News,” and “World News” for example).

Also, both sites have the ability to search their site and the web, but MSNBC uses their own search engine, MSN, while CNN uses Yahoo. Both sites list their stories using only the headlines without any sort of description to entice readers to click on the link. Also, both sites use sections to break down the news by topic or regional area. They both list them toward the bottom of the page, and they both give readers options for different types of content in each section. Both sites include links to outside sources, but MSNBC only used a link to “Newsweek” magazine’s site.

I really think that the content is missing on MSNBC’s site. There are no links to other related stories when you’re reading even the big story of the day like there are on CNN. Also, there are no links to videos or other media on MSNBC. Take, for example, the top story on Sunday, January 28, 2007. Both sites covered a big battle that took place in Najaf, Iraq that killed 250 insurgents. MSNBC only used the Associated Press story on their site, and didn’t add anything of their own. CNN actually wrote their own story and included links to content on the site. The story included links to a photo gallery with pictures of Ashura, the commemoration of “the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson”. (MSNBC’s description of the holiday was horrible. It didn’t clear anything up for me and actually confused me more about what the holiday was.) Also, the story included links to numerous videos that were directly related to the story. The link I found most interesting was the link “Watch what the insurgents planned in their attack.” I expected to find a video with detail on what the insurgents had planned and what had actually happened, but instead, I got a video of the news story that was reporting basically the same story that I had just read. Also, when I opened the link, a separate window opened with the video, and underneath the screen where the video played, it said “All CNN videos Commercial Free,” but as I was reading that, a commercial popped up. MSNBC had no real media that was related directly to the story like CNN’s was. They included three videos, but none were important to further a reader’s understanding of the story. Also, on MSNBC’s page, they included a box titled, “Resource Guide,” that was simply another advertisement for numerous other sites, just like the classified section they included with the list of other sections on the site.

MSNBC doesn’t include a list of popular stories like CNN does on its homepage. In order to see the most popular stories, you have to go to a story and find the box on the right side of the page, half-way down into the story. As far as allowing people to participate and contribute to their coverage, visitors to MSNBC have to look very hard for it. It is with the section titled “Blogs, etc.,” and then a viewer must figure out that the section called “Firstperson” is the section for some participatory journalism, at least as far as giving readers the ability to post pictures. There are archives of old reader-written stories, but there isn’t any apparent place where someone can send in their stories. CNN seemed to encourage their readers to send in stories.

I can’t decide what it is that I don’t like about the MSNBC site, but there’s just something about it that makes me want to go elsewhere for my news. The site looks like it is only there for a few of the biggest stories and a lot of advertising space and revenue. There is only one thing that I absolutely loved about the MSNBC site. It has a box on the right side of the page about a third of the way down where readers can enter their zip code and stocks so they can have the coverage of their local news and anything about their stocks on MSNBC. I really like that a reader can tailor the coverage to their local area news. I doubt that it’ll be really local, like covering Bridgewater, New Jersey, Somerset County, or even New Jersey (since we are always lumped together with New York; just look at the coverage of Rutger’s football game, “The New York metropolitan area Rutgers football team.” I would have been happy with the “New Jersey Rutgers football team,” and I know I would have been asking too much for them to be the “Piscataway Rutgers football team.” And, as the commentators said during Rutgers’ bowl game, “all of the South Jersey fans are out today,” it would be nice if they got even close to the geographical area. Sorry, this seems to have turned into a rant) but at least the coverage on MSNBC would focus on stories that we might actually care about in this area of the United States.

If I had to make a choice about which site I would rely on for my news, I would definitely have to go with CNN. I’ve only seen one ad on the entire site, and that was during the video; I know that when I go to a story, I can find all of the supporting information I may need to understand the story. I really like the way the site is set up, and the amount of interactive material they include on the site. Lastly, I really love that they give the people the ability to send in stories that may be used, and if I were to send in an editorial about something I had seen on the site, I’d actually be able to get a response from CNN. So CNN seems to be the news site for me, at least between these two sites.