Jason Howarth's Blog

The biggest change that has been made to this blog over time has been the addition of personal touches, mostly notably photos of myself to allow for people to see the man behind the blog. I’ve also taken great care to expand the RSS feeds for blogs that I follow, as well as provide a few places of intrigue for users beyond this blog. I re-tooled the search bars to make it easier to find my various blog entries both via title of entry and category/subject matter. This is evident in that every story I wrote this semester was put in at least one distinct category. I acknowledged the importance of consistent hierarchical design, with each post following the same structure of an image at the top, then the first part of the entry, split off to encourage a complete reading, while not removing the main point of the story, with the two lines of the blog reserved to link to the original blog post I’m responding to and where I got my headline image from. I limited the amount of entries my readers would see, because I understand that most people won’t bother to read past what’s on the first page, but with less on that first page, they might just be encouraged to read more. [Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized by Jason Howarth
No Comments »

As technology continues its rapid expansion from the sky in the form of drones, to web-searching smartphones in the palm of our hands, the question ever looming this innovative field is often what’s next and who will make it. Amazon has been one of the companies who has built their entire reputation online/through technology, alongside brands like Google are the premier examples of 21st century business at its finest. And now, at least according to Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff and multitude of others, Amazon is getting ready to change the world again with Amazon Go. Amazon Go is essentially  designed replace the grocery store, in particular the human interactions, through the use of the Amazon Go smartphone app, simplifying shopping to a grab, check-out, and leave. In addition to this Amazon is planning on bringing physical Amazon stores to aid not only this prospect, but their online delivery ones too. This all sounds great in theory and I can understand the intrigue and excitement, but this almost feels like a giant lab experiment, one fueled by online data and consumerism, basically bringing to life the things people complain about when using the internet. [Read more →]

Tags: News Story, Personal/Opinion, Tech by Jason Howarth
3 Comments »

Journalism has been one the most affected job fields since the internet became mainstream. While not a new feeling for journalists given how technology has often dictated how their message is spread, and the internet era has been a difficult adjustment for many involved. CBS News’ Scott Pelley is just one of many journalists to offer their take on what journalists can do to ensure the integrity and good standards in their reporting during this transitional era. Pelley referred to American journalism as a house built by others (the previous generations) which modern journalists live in and “it’s on fire”. He notes how this era has made reporters less precise and correct in their stories, something which I agree with as if it is not some misinformation being fed to us to try and beat the competition to web, it’s stories and agencies that have blatant agendas. Pelley doesn’t outright blame reporters and most of the time neither do I, because as he admits their is just as much bad information as their is a wealth of helpful information to aid the accuracy of reports. [Read more →]

Tags: Tech by Jason Howarth
No Comments »