Iraq on Paper vs. Iraq Online

Browsing through the newspaper, I was immediately drawn to articles that flashed out on the front page. On Monday September 10, 2007 The New York Times issued an article titled "Delay Decision on Major Cut Petraeus Says." The article was not accompanied by any photo, so one cannot help but think that visually this was not a very stimulating article. The article continued onto page A8, where there also was no photograph. The graphic designer placed the article on page A8 on the lower half of the page to the right. On the front page the article runs at the top to the farthest right. Now this must be significant since people read from left to right; keeping this in mind I have to conclude that since the article was consistently placed to the right with no photograph, maybe this was not considered as important as some of the other articles.
Online the same article appeared on the opening page, but it also had no photograph. Of course when I clicked on the article the site took me to a page that contained only that article.

Tuesday September 11 I found the article that continued the one issued on Monday; this one was entitled "Petraeus Warns Against Quick Pullback in Iraq." This time the article seemed to be front an center, especially because it contained a fairly large photo that took up a substantial part of the front page. The rest of the article continued on page A18 and took up the entire top half of the page. Online the article was also place on the opening page and contained the same photograph. However, when I clicked on the article and went to its own separate page I saw that it had a video. When I played the video, which contained a speech from General Petraeus, I realized that someone could just play the video without having to read the article and still be able to get the gist of what was going on.

Friday September 14 the article continued, but this time titled "Bush Says Success Allows Gradual Troop Cuts." The article appeared on the front page again with a large photograph. The rest of the article continued on page A8 where it was placed at the top of the page and also had another photograph of the White House. Online this article appeared on the opening page with a photograph as well. When clicking on the article I saw that the photograph was not exactly the same one from the front page of the paper. They were both of President Bush; however, they were from different angles. Online there was no second picture of the White House, but there was a video in which one could listen to a portion of Bush's address.

Considering the differences between the way this article appeared on paper and online I have come to a few conclusions. As the week progressed the paper from of The New York Times seemed to give this developing story more importance and weight as it gave it larger photos later in the week. Also its placement at the top of the continuing pages made it seem more important as well. However, online this article has its own sense of importance as well. Like every article online, when clicked on the site brings you to a page that is devoted entirely to the one story, which makes each story seem essential and important in its own right. Also the later addition of videos to this story also made it seem more it important, but it also made it more accessible. People who do not enjoy reading as much could simply click on the video and still know what the article tended to say; whereas, with the print version one has to read in order to know what the story says. Overall I would say that the online version of The New York Times in this case seemed to make the article seem even more important, because of the videos and the personalized page dedicated solely to the article.