CRITIQUE: TRINIDAD EXPRESS

Trinidad & Tobago Express is one of the three daily newspapers in Trinidad & Tobago. Trinidad does not have a distinction between broadsheet and tabloid formats, and the Express is a well-respected newspaper. It commenced in 1967 and registered its website www.trinidadexpress.com in 1997.

Of the three dailies, its website is the most frequently linked to, with 119,786 references as at 13/12/08 according to www.marketleap.com

First impressions… ad-attack and ‘huh?’-galore

At first click, the website’s animated ads on the homepage leap out at the viewer.

Like many other Trinidadian newspapers and websites such as its rival newsday.co.tt, trinidadexpress.com places heavy emphasis on the national colours of red, white and black.

The whiteness gives it a nice, clean layout that enhances readability, and the redness of the tabs for links and as backgrounds for headings works well against the black text.

However the blue flashing Clico ad in the middle of the banner on the homepage jars with that notion immediately: blue signifies UK – the source of former colonisation, and US – the source of cultural saturation, two countries citizens try to maintain a particular distance from when it comes to national identity.

Granted, the site needs ads – but the position of this one is in poor taste considering its colour scheme:

 

As the eye skims down the page, it is assaulted with more ads, most of them flashing.

Though the website obeys the rule of thirds, the entire far right column is dedicated to ads – not to mention those interspersed in the middle column.

If you open any news article, there is a vertical column of “Ads by Google” in the middle of the screen right where you are reading the story, which is very distracting.

Ad in the middle of the page next to the story

 

On the homepage, only two stories — the main one and one other — have pictures to go with them.

After every story, the website states “there are 0 community-posted events. Click to read” – this is redundant.

Underlining links would be sufficient instead of directing the viewer “click to read” endless times, and “community-posted” is also unnecessary.

There is no multimedia whatsoever evident from the front page (and this site is owned by the same company that owns a TV Station, so video should theoretically be available…)

There are links to One Caribbean Media Limited and to the 2008/09 Budget and to the draft constitution of the country – commendable, perhaps, as this reflects the interests of citizens in the economy and national identity, BUT not necessary to have at the top of the page, especially before the navigation.

Navigation… where oh where do I go from here?

The website, operated by One Caribbean Media, functions for both Trinidad Express and CCN TV6.

But available information on TV6 is poor: when you click on TV6 (way down on the left), you are directed to a page that offers TV6 features, and clicking on that brings you to a page that is virtually blank:

 

For no explicable reason, on the homepage there are links to webcams showing views from the newspaper’s offices (seemingly only there to advertise for the sponsor, Chancellor’s Hotel).

Even worse, when you click on these links, one of them is so fuzzy it makes you think your eyesight has gone wonky, and apart from the other one being almost pitch black, it also shows Independence Sq. as at 21/10/07 (we are now in December 2008!) though according to accompanying text, it refreshes every 5 minutes from 6:00AM-6:00PM.

 

The search bar is virtually invisible – you have to scroll down significantly in a quest for the search bar:

VOILA!!!!! EUREKA!!!!! SEARCH BAR!!!!

 

The search facility is poor:

• You must specify a date range to get anything beyond the most recent articles.
• When you search for something, automatically-generated results render the majority of the page white.
• The results show only the headline, date and article number. The article number is irrelevant and all that white space can be used more effectively, e.g. photos and/or an opening sentence to explain what the article is about.

 

There is also duplication of links:

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• The navigation of “Business”, “Sports”, “Letters”, “Features” etc is on the left and also on the bottom of the page.

• On the left, there is a link to “E-paper”; on the right a photo link “Subscribe to our e-Edition”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main navigation, however poorly placed, is commendably consistent as you click through — both the bottom-page and left-side navigation.

 

Writing… hitting the text-wall

The writing follows Jakob Nielsen’s rules in some aspects.

With the writing falling in the middle column of the screen, it does not have too many words across one line of text, usually around 6-8.

However, it does not fully obey the “F-pattern” of writing: some sentences are much too long, and some are grouped together unnecessarily, leaving chunks of text:

Chunks of text: not 'scannable'

This should be broken up, and in some instances it can be placed in bullet-point or list format such as the last paragraph of the story above.

There are also no clickable hypertext links within the wall of text. Hypertext indicates that the writer has done proper research for the claims the article makes, and has looked at other sources that he/she is happy to have the reader consult for verification.

There is also no list of articles that many be connected to the one you are reading. This results in the reader losing interest after that particular story — whereas the point of a website is to keep the reader within the web of information.

It also does not embolden the first sentence; most websites such as the BBC do this.

There are no sub-headings between the main body of text of the article, and some sentences are much too long.

It appears as though stories have been copied verbatim from the paper format.

 

Content… Web 2.0?

On the plus side, the font used throughout the site is Arial which is a web-friendly Sans Serif font.

In line with the Web 2.0 world that offers users to share content, when reading an article there is the option to “Email to a friend”. There is also a “View printable version” option.

Though it allows for interaction with its audience via “community-posted comments”, www.trinidadexpress.com  does not qualify as 2.0 website because of its lack of multimedia.

The lack of subheadings and clickable links within the text of the story, as well as the absence of connected stories, may cause the reader to lose interest.

Its overall structure is poor, some of its content is very outdated, it is bogged down with ads, and it depends too heavily on the print format.

It seems as though not much thought was put into its design — for example, for usability, the first thing should be to move the search bar to the top, such as with other news sites, including its rival newsday.co.tt:

 

Main suggested improvements:

• Its search bar needs to be wider, more visible, and at the top (not a tiny square far down the page).
• Its navigation should be placed at the top like the Guardian and the Times, or at the left side directly under the banner like the BBC.
• It should also be sectioned into more categories than the navigation links it presently has, e.g. adding in “Lifestyle”, “Politics”, “Education”, “Science & Technology”, “World News” etc.
• There should be more photos — and larger ones.
• There should be a much better organisation of stories than the list at the bottom with no categorised structure or date of the articles.
• There should be hypertext links, connected stories, and also “killer quotes” extracted from the text
• There should be less ads and more news-related multimedia.
• There should also be blogs — the inkling of this idea does not seem to have crossed the minds of the designers.

It is surprising that this is the most popular news site in Trinidad, but this can be attributed primarily to the paper format, which has prospered throughout the years.

The main plus about the site is the snapshot of the paper-edition’s front page, which is also done by the websites for the two other Trinidad dailies.

As a Trinidadian living abroad, I know exactly how much those that belong to the diaspora scattered around the globe enjoy looking at the front page to feel closer to home.

MEDITATION VS. MEDICATION: HEAL YOUR WAY TO HAPPINESS

 

Left pic from Wikipedia, taken by User:Deepak, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany License; Right pic taken from http://www.freeimages.co.uk

Meditation may be a better cure for depression than forking out money for NHS prescriptions and enduring lengthy waiting lists, according to a new medical study that appears today in The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

But it remains to be seen how these findings will change people’s attitudes – particularly young people – to alternative medicine in the tried and trusted world of traditional Western medicine.

“I have been suffering from depression for several years,” said 22-year-old Amanda*, a graduate of Lancaster University. 

She recalls episodes during her final exams in May: “I didn’t even go to one of my exams because I had a complete breakdown. The nurses at the University actually came to my room and had an intervention session with me.”

“I’ve been on medication after medication including Seroxat and Citalopram, and every time I come off’ it, I have a severe relapse,” Amanda said. “But I don’t think meditation is the answer.”

Medication or meditation?

“It depends on the severity of depression,” said Alberto Furlan, a 21-year-old Journalism student at Westminster University. “In lighter cases it might work, but not for people with severe depression.”

Wanjiru Karago, 24, an international student from Kenya, said: “I think meditation therapy could be more effective because sometimes the solution lies in sitting down and thinking about a situation, as opposed to chemicals being introduced into your body.”

“What people forget sometimes is that the whole thing about meditation and healing is not about becoming completely well but about accessing something within yourself,” said Juliusz Wodzianski, a reiki and spiritual healer who uses meditation in his line of work.

Greater chance of relapse with drug therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy [MBCT], developed in 2002, has proven to be more effective than medication in improving patients’ quality of life, the BBC reports.

The study funded by the Medical Research Council [MRC] found that relapse after using anti-depressants occurred in 60% of long-term depressed patients, versus 47% of those using the new approach of Buddhist meditation techniques, according to the Metro newspaper.

The group-based MBCT is more effective because it teaches people skills for life, the Metro quotes Willem Kuyken, the Professor of Clinical Psychology and Co-Founder of the Mood Disorders Centre at the University of Exeter.

‘Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy’ cheaper and more effective

An estimated 3.5million people suffer from chronic depression in Britain, with 9 out of 10 admitting to having had at least one episode of depression in their life, according to a survey conducted by the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

More than £10billion is spent on cures for depression in the UK every year, with one in five patients visiting the doctor and one in ten visiting a therapist.

These new findings about MBCT by the MRC aim to reduce this figure by providing a cheaper and more effective, natural way to treat severe and recurring depression.

Amanda, who struggles to maintain a normal life in spite of her depression, remains skeptical about the new findings about MBCT.

She said: “Not that I am a fan of medication, but I need hard facts — very very hard facts — about how it was found to be better. There are a lot of therapies out there based on flimsy evidence.”

*name changed to protect source’s identity

 

[BACKGROUND] THE INTERNATIONAL INSPIRATION PROJECT: OLYMPIC YOUTH PLAN

The implementation of the International Inspiration programme is part of the fulfilment of the London 2012 bid team’s promise to engage and inspire the youth of the world through sport.

This marks the first time that a host country has undertaken a legacy programme of this kind. The programme focuses particularly on developing countries and aims to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

“Our vision is to see millions more young people – in Britain and across the world – participating in sport and improving their lives as a result of that participation,” The Guardian quotes former PM Tony Blair’s message at the final presentation to the International Olympic Committee in Singapore in July 2007.

He adds: “London has the power to make that happen. It is a city with a voice that talks to young people.” 

In January 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the International Inspiration programme in India. The first five countries in which it was implemented were Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Palau and Zambia.

Positive changes to date

A media release identifies the significant positive changes the programme has achieved thus far in its first year:

• INDIA: helped to support a national drive for Physical Education and Sport in the run-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, including a new programme to reach millions of children in 250,000 rural schools and the training of thousands of new PE teachers.

• BRAZIL: over 81% of the districts in the North-East have now signed up to a “Sports & Citizenship Challenge” to increase awareness and improve access to sport and play for children and young people. Almost all districts have now completed sports events and around 7,200 sports leaders have been trained to work in schools and communities to provide sporting opportunities for their peers.

• ZAMBIA: supported the Zambia Volleyball Association in organising the largest national schools’ volleyball tournament and training camp. Over 170 girls took part and a further 20 girls were trained to teach the sport to others in rural areas.

• AZERBAIJAN: supported the Azerbaijan Government in the development of a new National Sport Development Strategy in Azerbaijan. This will see a new drive towards community sport-for-all which has the potential to reach all communities in the country.

A case study discussed by UK Sport describes a cultural exchange that has been organised between the Isle of Islay (just off the coast of Scotland with only 3,400 inhabitants) and Palau, an island in Micronesia and the smallest of the countries involved in the pilot phase with a population of just over 20,000.

International Inspiration programme ‘living up to the promise’

On 26th November 2008, it was announced that five more countries – Trinidad & Tobago, Bangladesh, Ghana, Jordan and Mozambique – will form the second stage of the “International Inspiration” programme.

“Our vision is to use the Games to inspire change – changing lives is the driving force behind our plans,” said London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, quoted by the BBC.

“This project is one way London 2012 is living up to that promise and the IOC is delighted to be able to support them in this worthwhile endeavour,” the BBC quotes Denis Oswald, the chairman of the IOC’s coordination commission for London 2012.

The scheme hopes to reach 12 million children in 20 countries by 2012.

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL POST ON “JUST A ‘YOUNG BWOY’?: OLYMPIC MEDALIST RICHARD THOMPSON”

 

 

JUST ANOTHER ‘YOUNG BWOY’?: OLYMPIC MEDALIST RICHARD THOMPSON

photo by Sacha Fortune

 

He was talking to a couple of friends during the interval at “The Best Little Whorehouse In Guapo” when I walked straight past him.

“Aye, ent that is…?” my sister beside me asked.

“Nah…”

“Yuh sure? Girl! Yes, yes!”

“Nah…”

But it was.

He shares a name with many others of reasonable repute – a British musician, an English footballer, and an Australian parliamentarian, to name a few.

But if you say the name ‘Richard Thompson‘ in Trinidad & Tobago, particularly in the height of the Olympics season, only one person comes to mind.

Funding to develop the nation’s next generation of athletes

Richard Thompson is an inspiration for young Trinbagonian athletes.

His success comes at fortuitous time for the developing country, which has just received a boost in expenditure on sports for the nation’s youth. 

Trinidad & Tobago, along with Bangladesh, Ghana, Jordan and Mozambique, will be part of the second stage of the International Inspiration campaign targeted to the world’s youth, the BBC reported.

Express(TnT) states that the additional £5.4m from the Department for International Development and a match-funding commitment of £10.2m from the British Council top up the £9m invested by those two backers and the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, the Premier League and Unicef.

The ambitious campaign, launched to deliver the London 2012 Olympic bid’s promise to take sport to the world’s youth, will benefit Trinidad’s upcoming athletes who look up to Richard Thompson as a role model. 

Olympic silver medalist & ‘million-dollar man’

The Olympic silver medalist, the “million-dollar man” himself, triumphed at the Beijing Olympics with at least 1.3 million people shrieking at his glory.

Our hearts burst.

Second place? Who cared?

No one could beat Usain “Lightning” Bolt – and he was a fellow Caribbean person so we were ‘backing’ him too.

We screamed and partied harder for “Torpedo” Thompson’s second place louder than we did the day we lost the World Cup football match in Germany.

Just another ‘young bwoy’

And here he was in front of me — humble, quiet, smaller than expected — dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans, just another “young bwoy” out “liming” with his friends at a local play, “The Best Little Whorehouse In Guapo“ at Queen’s Hall.

All my journalist skills failed me.

My father, pumping his hand and congratulating him, had to introduce me, tossing in that I was a journalism student “studying in England” — as if that would impress the world-travelled athlete who ran for Louisiana State University Tigers track and field team in the US.

Before that, he went to school with many of my friends at Queen’s Royal College, and his primary school Newton Boys RC was also my dad’s — some dinosaur years ago, my father informed him.

And “million-dollar man” or not, he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

‘Balance sport with school’

“You have to always pay tribute to those who got you to where you are right now and Newtown Boys was very instrumental in helping me build the character I have,” he told Express journalist BC Pires.

He advised the nation’s youth at the Olympic celebrations at the Naparima Bowl: ”Balance sport with school and always believe in the Father. 

“You have to understand that at any moment something can go wrong. If an athlete gets into a car accident or injures himself, his or her career is jeopardised.

All your teachers are trying to do is to prepare you for the future.”

 

CLICK HERE FOR BACKGROUND ARTICLE ON “THE ‘INTERNATIONAL INSPIRATION’ PROJECT: OLYMPIC YOUTH PLAN”

 

 

[BACKGROUND] TOO MUCH ‘FREENESS’?: T&T MEDIA, THE BACK STORY

The recent incident of Prime Minister Patrick Manning visiting the 94.1FM newsroom has brought “freedom of the press” back to the forefront of the agenda.

Media freedom is, after all, one of Trinidad’s greatest accolades: since 2003, it has consistently ranked among the top 20 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.

It is the highest in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and even higher than the UK, France, Spain and the USA.

Its 2007 ranking of 19th place was ahead of the UK at 24th, and Jamaica at 27th.

PM attacks the media

The PM’s visit to the radio station was not his first stance against the media.

In January 2003, Manning criticised the media at the 48th anniversary of the ruling People’s National Movement.

While visiting Howard University in Washington DC, USA, it was reported that he had referred to the nation’s kidnappings as “bogus”, a term than he later denied using.

It was alleged that he sought to deliberately mislead nationals of the country living abroad, which showed disregard for kidnap victims and their families in Trinidad.

Former PM attacks on the media

Manning is not the first PM to criticize the media.

In response to Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s condemnation of PM Manning’s visit to the radio station, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira argued that Mr. Panday had committed worse sins in his term as Prime Minister.

The Opposition party United National Congress attacked the media early in their tenure as former government, when the Guardian headline “Chutney Rising – Panday” offended then-PM Panday because of its subtext that he was narrowly an ‘Indian’ Prime Minister.

As the Newsday(TnT) reports, Mrs. Nunez-Tesheira reminded Parliamentarians that this incident resulted in the dismissal of several leading journalists because the UNC disapproved of their work.

‘Bacchanal’ news culture

It is no secret that Trinidadian media, in all its “freeness”, has thrived on a culture of sensationalisation and “bacchanal”.

A prime example of this is the 2007 Akon scandal, when the American rapper was reported as having performed a “lewd”, “dirty” and “sexually explicit” dance with fifteen-year-old Danah Alleyne.

In reality, this type of dance is common all year round — particularly during Carnival season, and Akon did not know she was underage since the Zen nightclub was reserved for over-18s.

The only thing illegal about the incident was that the nightclub did not ask for her ID.

Foreign reporters, garnering research from Trinidadian media, demonized the rapper and accused him of “simulated rape”, which resulted in the loss of his Verizon advertising contract.

The future of T&T media

Earlier this year, a meeting was called by Media Association of Trinidad & Tobago on World Press Freedom Day for “members of the association to come and share their concerns about threats to press freedoms in Trinidad and Tobago”.

Presently, as reported by the Express(TnT), the government is still pursuing Kenneth Gordon, former Chairman of Caribbean Communication Network, to head up a proposed committee on media standards.

But though Gordon admits that commentators have been “behaving badly”, he does not want to be in charge of something that conflicts with the freedom of the press.

In a move to improve the standard of journalism in the country, the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad & Tobago published a draft Broadcasting Code containing rules for regulating media content.

It remains to be seen whether this will be put into place and enforced.

But it is safe to say that recent developments indicate that Trinidad’s position near the top of the World Press Freedom Index may soon be in jeopardy.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL POST “MEDIA FREEDOM ON THE ROCKS IN TNT”

MEDIA FREEDOM ON THE ROCKS IN T&T

 

Prime Ministers are busy people with political issues, international conferences and dozens of staff members to plan their daily agendas. After all, running a country is time-consuming work — even Trinidad & Tobago, barely a blip on the world’s political radar. 

So it was a bit of a surprise when PM Patrick Manning, with full security detail in tow, charged into the 94.1FM newsroom, taking offence to criticism about his involvement with the increase in gas prices.

The ensuing spectacle resulted in newscasters Kevin Baker and David Murray being suspended for two weeks, though the PM denies any responsibility.

“I have no such authority,” he said in a news conference, as reported by the Guardian(TnT). “If individuals were suspended… it was purely internal and a management issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the Prime Minister.”

He added: “If it is proper for a citizen of T&T to visit a radio station, then it cannot be improper for the PM… unless of course, there are rights available to every citizen except the PM.”

But as citizens, politicians, and media officials alike pointed out, his actions had consequences.

With great power comes great responsibility

“Mr. Manning can say what he wants, the fact is that… storming a radio station with security detail to challenge the statements of broadcasters will have the effect of intimidating the management and staff, including journalists,” Express(TnT) quotes Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday.

Newsday(TnT) quotes him: “Such behaviour by a Prime Minister is undemocratic, arrogant and dictatorial at best… it tramples on the freedom of the media to perform its functions relating to scrutinising Government’s conduct and policies without fear.” 

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago issued a statement: “While Mr. Patrick Manning has the same rights as any other citizen, a prime minister has greater power, which should be exercised in the public interest, with due care and responsibility.”

Trinidad & Tobago Publishers & Broadcasters Association pointed out that there are mechanisms in place to have incorrect information corrected, such as the Media Complaints Council and the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Free press ‘behaving badly’ 

Kenneth Gordon, former chairman of Caribbean Communications Network, criticised the PM’s actions but acknowledged that commentators have long been “behaving badly”.

On Caribbean News Channel 3’s current affairs programme The Big Story, he said: “Anybody who purports to be a broadcaster should be expected to conform to certain standards. If they do not… they should be made to understand that there will be consequences.”

Energy Minister Conrad Enill’s controversial statement that “Nowhere in the world is news reporting as bad as here in T&T” may have been exaggerated, but the PM’s unprecedented reaction — however ill-advised — was not entirely unfounded.

The disregard to professionalism, sensationalisation and general “bacchanal” splattered all over the news is not a problem of two broadcasters poking fun at the PM, but a vignette of the greater problem on a grand scale of poor journalistic training in the twin isle.

And in a democratic country that ranks 19th in the 2007 Annual World Press Freedom Index and proudly celebrates World Press Freedom Day every year, the PM’s actions have ignited a media frenzy that will remain ablaze for some time to come, particularly as PM Manning has no intention of backing down.

“If the spirit moves me,” he is quoted as saying, “I will not hesitate to visit media houses to complain if I disapprove of the content they produce.”

 

 

CLICK HERE FOR BACKGROUND ARTICLE: “TOO MUCH FREENESS?: T&T MEDIA, THE BACK STORY”