TurlockCityNews.com is getting ready to launch a new website design along with new features and more diverse updates. A new website design can help with keeping up to date with new styles and user needs as technology progresses. Listening to the needs of the user is important, and whether it is web design in melbourne or web design in Turlock, websites need to fit in with what the people feel connected to for easier access.
TurlockCityNews.com’s Owner and Operator DJ Fransen has been working very hard to facilitate (and mediate) the much needed communication and participation from the leaders, businesses, non-profit organizations, and general public. Website designer Jimmy Lesondak has been working tirelessly to create owner DJ Fransen’s vision of what a Turlock internet hub should be, what Turlock businesses need it to be, and what the general public needs TurlockCityNews.com to be.
TurlockCityNews.com is willing to let the Turlock community make this website what they need it to be. Any comments (anonymous or signed) with feedback and/or input on how this website could function better, look better, or be better would be greatly appreciated.
With this new TurlockCityNews.com launch, we’d like to discuss some of the features and issues we have been working on so far. These features will be carried over along with a few that we can not mention at this moment. These areas mentioned below are common discussion points we are constantly having meetings over.
Multimedia:
The live and recorded video broadcasts of Council Meetings are an example of how actual and 100% factual, important information can be dispersed right into the homes of the general public. Businesses, organizations, and event coordinators will begin submitting video press releases and recordings of events. This feature is just at the beginning of what will ultimately turn into a 24/7 video broadcast channel right here on TurlockCityNews.com. Don’t trust what you read, watch it unedited!
Articles:
If you do look for information in type form, then TurlockCityNews.com has what you need. The articles you’ll read here come from reported information, press releases, contributed information, letters to the editor, and such.
Comments:
Probably the most controversial but beneficial form of communication on TurlockCityNews.com are the comments we allow people to make on articles. The comments are not automatically published, though some media websites claim that auto-publishing comments is the best way to deal with the liability associated with them. This is not exactly true, turning a blind eye and throwing up your hands does not take the liability away. Any “media” site knows there is very little liability either way (manually approved or automatically approved), as of right now with the lack of internet laws and this grey area.
If a media website allows automatic publishing of inappropriate comments, they are most likely doing it to increase sensationalism, don’t have the staff or money to oversee them, or don’t think it is their responsibility to mediate. No matter what the reason, it shows a lack of concern and investment in the community they service. TurlockCityNews.com has taken on the extra duties and responsibility of mediating because we care. TurlockCityNews.com has improved the discretion used while continuing to manually approve and mediate comments because we are a locally owned business and are part of the Turlock community ourselves.
Many people have lobbied to keep anonymous comments off TurlockCityNews.com. Stereotypically, these are the same people that say they don’t read this website (while quoting comments from 2 years back) and don’t support it because “too much information” gets out (if there’s such a thing). The general public benefits more than they even know because many of the anonymous comments contain inside information and experiences that a reporter would never be able to print or quote. Yes, there are many false, irrelevant comments but this is where TurlockCityNews.com tries to go above and beyond as a mediator. If the people that claim they know a comment is false, they need to contribute the correct information. Either way, people need to decipher and filter their own information that they come across.
The people that don’t want anonymous comments to be allowed also tend to be the ones who don’t contribute anything (or at least with their names signed to it). So how important are they to the community compared to all the anonymous that participate and contribute? Only information they deem to be “fact” or “relevant” count? Besides informational purposes, TurlockCityNews.com is providing traffic and exposure for promoting and supporting “Anything and Everything Turlock!” Businesses and event promotions are benefiting from multiple daily visits by TurlockCityNews.com viewers.
Comments are equal to word of mouth. Comments posted on any media site most likely stem from words spoken first. The only positive is that comments can be more easily corrected or retracted than word of mouth. People can deal with untruthful comments in two easy was, contribute the correct information in response or send a request to remove a comment to TurlockCityNews.com. Removal of a comment will most likely only be approved if it is specifically damaging and can be proven to be false or damaging. Otherwise, revert back to the first way to clarify someone’s “opinion.”
What is media these days?
Media is anything with the means of mass communication. If someone has a popular website, blog, MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube; they could be an equal to a radio station, newspaper, or television station. Some people scream “This is not right!” Leaders used to controlling what they can buy claim “People are self-publishing and may be biased.” Other claims say these “media forms” could be reporting incorrect information or influencing people one way or another. We all know CNN and Fox or Modesto Bee and Turlock Journal have never been accused of being biased on opposite sides or have never had to offer retractions, right? Of course they have, and so what makes their bias any more reliable or relevant? Actually, they have almost always been accused of being more biased because they are corporate and financially driven. We all know a company without personal stake can be bought and sold easy and more often.
TurlockCityNews.com is a media form and/or forum. TurlockCityNews.com is having to address this because of situations just as of lately. A bomb scare occurred at Julien Elementary School recently. We got a lot of people asking us what was going on from Facebook, Myspace, and email contacts. After going to the scene, an officer asked for a media pass, if one was not presented then basically not even general information would be given out. I told him I owned and operated TurlockCityNews.com and the officer said, “Well just having a website… That’s not good enough.” So what are media passes and who makes them? According to a statement from the Turlock Police, media passes are “issued by newspapers or journalist type issuances. I looked it up on the internet and your webpage doesn’t qualify you as a journalist unless you can get something from one of our newspapers… Modesto Bee, Sacramento Bee, etc, etc.” This statement would be addressing who is a journalist, which is in itself a big debate also. The real answer is anyone can make a media pass, it is the standard of whoever is willing to accept it as such that counts.
Intelligence would say for example, if anyone wanted to get information out to the public, they would accept any help offered and especially if it was free or cheap. They would appreciate a college student who wanted to do an article on them and put it on the student’s MySpace where he/she has 1,400 friends who read it or if the Modesto Bee wanted to feature them in their newspaper that most of the region gets their “news” from.
Cities, organizations, businesses, and public officials are using RSS Feeds, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, and other online networking sites to get information out to the public in a quick fashion with minimal costs. Where are Turlockers at with this mentality of communication and PR?
You can call TurlockCityNews.com what you want, but information is dispersed to many others from the pages of TurlockCityNews.com. People look to TurlockCityNews.com, the TurlockCityNews.com MySpace, TurlockCityNews.com Facebook, TurlockCityNews.com YouTube, and now TurlockCityNews.com Twitter for information. Advertisers receive the benefit of traffic, exposure, and information dissemination in a more cost effective way on TurlockCityNews.com.
Locally Owned and Operated:
TurlockCityNews.com is a locally owned and operated media form. This means a great deal for many reasons. We have a true stake in this community and participate in the same manner. We also have to face the consequences of every decision we make because our family, friends, business partners, and acquaintances live right here with us. TurlockCityNews.com can’t use terms like “it is corporate policy” or “legal says we can or can’t.” Well we can, but my grandpa and grandma (who are now on the internet) can still chew me out if I do something he hears everyone is unhappy with and then I won’t care what “legal says!”
Again, please let us know what you think about our community effort and these issues.
