Seeing the News in Color

News, as most of us receive it, comes either in soundbites or headlines. But how would the news look if it could be visually represented? That's the idea behind two recent news tracking projects. Newsmap  takes news stories from Google News and creates a visual hierarchy. The goal is to show what stories are thought of as important. And, as the Web site says, "It is not thought to display an unbiased view of the news, on the contrary it is thought to ironically accentuate the bias of it." Buzztracker , meanwhile, takes the Google News feed and maps it, highlighting the geographical location of each story showing the world's hot news spots. It also has a long archive, letting you see the history of certain locations in the news over time.

Uzbek Sources

Following the harsh government crack-down of an uprising in the Uzbek city of Andijan last Friday, there have been conflicting reports of how many were killed in the violence, and no clear picture of what happened has emerged. The country's authoritarian government  tightly controls access by Western journalists, meaning that many have had to rely on local sources for their news. There is, of course, the official government's version of events , but few give it much credence. For a more reliable take, many newswire stories have turned to reporters at Ferghana.ru , a Russian news Web site in the area. There's also the comprehensive Registan.net blog , which, among other reports, includes descriptions from eye-witnesses.