The homepage of CNN.com on April 14, 2013. Mira Lowe is the editor of entertainment, travel, health, living, and tech channels.
Mira Lowe, the senior features editor of CNN, visited #loweclass this past Wednesday. She really showed passion for what she was doing and it was great to see someone be so successful in an area of work that I am interested in as well. Lowe talked about our blog post assignment from last week, good blogging techniques, packaging at CNN, and social media. She really showed us the ins and outs of CNN.com and I was thrilled to learn about it through the eyes of the editor.
Before she started going in depth about the CNN website, she explained some terminology that CNN uses. She explained that the homepage is like the front door of a house, you can basically get anywhere on the website from the homepage. The stories on the homepage are categorized into T stories and C stories. T stories are top stories and C stories are centerpiece stories like videos and such. The word sections is used interchangably with verticals and channels.
Lowe believes that CNN digital still needs some more work and that she is continually tweaking it. One of the problems is that the archive section is a little hard to maneuver. She says that once it falls off of the page that is very hard to find again. The entertainment section and technology section are two sections that do very well for CNN. She also let the class know that the website is very male dominated, which came as a surprise to the whole class.
CNN has three main blogs:This Just In blog, the Marquee blog and the Belief blog. The This Just In blog covers quick breaking news with live blogging, they do not live tweet. The Marquee blog covers entertainment news while the Belief blog focuses on faith and sprituality. There are other blogs on the website but they can come and go with interests.
Other features on the website that Lowe went through were the iReport page, the photo page, and one story that really touched her. The iReport page is where anybody can submit a story to CNN on just about anything. An editor can amend it and then approve it before posting it on CNN. I think that this is a really great opportunity for anyone to cover news and contribute to the news world.Lowe showed the class the photo page. She believes that photos are always going to be important and should always be included in a story.
While Lowe was deciding on jobs, she saw that CNN did a story about a boy who was dying from cancer. She thought the piece was great and that the story made her choose CNN. She showed the story to the class and it was incredible. Overall Mira Lowe's visit was incredibly helpful. I loved how she shared an insider's perspective to the news room, let alone one of the biggest news rooms in the world. Definitely made me realize that I want to be working in a news room.
Before she started going in depth about the CNN website, she explained some terminology that CNN uses. She explained that the homepage is like the front door of a house, you can basically get anywhere on the website from the homepage. The stories on the homepage are categorized into T stories and C stories. T stories are top stories and C stories are centerpiece stories like videos and such. The word sections is used interchangably with verticals and channels.
Lowe believes that CNN digital still needs some more work and that she is continually tweaking it. One of the problems is that the archive section is a little hard to maneuver. She says that once it falls off of the page that is very hard to find again. The entertainment section and technology section are two sections that do very well for CNN. She also let the class know that the website is very male dominated, which came as a surprise to the whole class.
CNN has three main blogs:This Just In blog, the Marquee blog and the Belief blog. The This Just In blog covers quick breaking news with live blogging, they do not live tweet. The Marquee blog covers entertainment news while the Belief blog focuses on faith and sprituality. There are other blogs on the website but they can come and go with interests.
Other features on the website that Lowe went through were the iReport page, the photo page, and one story that really touched her. The iReport page is where anybody can submit a story to CNN on just about anything. An editor can amend it and then approve it before posting it on CNN. I think that this is a really great opportunity for anyone to cover news and contribute to the news world.Lowe showed the class the photo page. She believes that photos are always going to be important and should always be included in a story.
While Lowe was deciding on jobs, she saw that CNN did a story about a boy who was dying from cancer. She thought the piece was great and that the story made her choose CNN. She showed the story to the class and it was incredible. Overall Mira Lowe's visit was incredibly helpful. I loved how she shared an insider's perspective to the news room, let alone one of the biggest news rooms in the world. Definitely made me realize that I want to be working in a news room.
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