Favorite Websites

One of my favorite websites to check up one very once and a while is Grantland. While it focuses mostly on sports, Grantland also features articles on other aspects of pop culture like music, movies and television. The articles on Grantland seem to straddle the line between blog and journalism; the articles are written pretty professionally, but they're not too dense (although they can sometimes be pretty lengthy), but the reader still gets a strong sense of personality and entertaining subjectivity from the author. As far as the way the articles are presented/formatted, the front page includes a list of the most recent articles, most of which have a sentence long sub-headline after the main headline. In some cases on the front page, after the main headline and sub headline, links to other articles on the same subject are shown below, often without sub-headlines. I like this feature because it allows who to find different takes/angles on a particular story/topic. As far as the articles themselves, they typically feature lots of relevant links and videos that help enhance the telling of the story.

Another website I visit quite frequently is Rope of Silicon, which is focused almost exclusively on movie news and reviews. Rope of Silicon shares more features of a blog than a straight up news site, presenting movie news with a healthy dose of commentary. The writing is pretty simple and straight forward, but still intelligent and interesting. There are always links to the original sources of the stories being discussed, as well as a litany of links to other portions of the site that do more than just present and commentate on news, but also predict box office grosses, predict award races and review movies. Pretty much every feature on the site features a comments section, as opposed to Grantland, where only some of the articles do. The site doesn't look for any specific "niche" in the film industry; it focuses on both big budget blockbusters and as well as smaller indie films. The articles are displayed in a linear fashion, from those published most recently to those published in the past, and feature both headlines and short summaries of the article. At the top of the front page is a slideshow of the most popular recent articles, giving readers a quick access point to find what they might want to read.

One of the reason I think both of these sites work so well is that they both straddle the line between serious journalism/criticism and fun commentary, making it both accessible and intellectually simulating. I think that's an important quality for writing on the web, where some people may just be passing by casually, but are still looking for something pretty intelligent. I think that's an important part of writing for the web; you're content should be accessible and attention grabbing, but it should also respect the intelligence of your audience and ultimately have something interesting to say.

Here are two successful cases of web journalism I found on either site

Grantland:  http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9946744/the-18-limbo

Rope of Silicon: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/wonder-woman-casting-rumors-batman-vs-superman/