MSNBC's political blog First Read shares the field with some strong contenders, such as NPR's It's All Politics and the New York Times' The Caucus. Such blogs offer a mix of analysis and updates. And recently they have been transfixed by the campaign for the GOP nomination.

How transfixed, you ask? Out of the eleven stories on the First Read's front page at the time of writing, only three aren't related to the campaign. And two of those three relate to the Obama campaign for president in 2012. As a comparison, let's look at the Wisconsin State Journal's "Daily politics briefing," which has enough resemblance to a blog, and yet isn't in a position to focus on the GOP race. It has eight stories, and three relate to elections. One relates to redistricting for the state legislature and the other two relate to.


I'm not blaming First Read for its focus on the campaign. I'm blaming it for focusing on the campaign at the exclusion of everything else. Certainly, MSNBC has a general politics section, which picks up some of the slack. But don't people want to hear about what politicians are doing when they're not campaigning, but governing? 

At the time of writing, a big red banner on msnbc.com announces that Micha Murray has been sentenced. But looking at some other outlets, there's no "breaking news." At the same time msnbc.com was trumpeting the verdict, Reuters was emphasizing Tehran and the New York Times had the latest campaign news about Herman Cain front-and-center. But among broadcast news, the emphasis of Murray's sentencing was the norm: see these screenshots of CNN, CBS News and ABC News. USA Today was one of the few newspapers I found with coverage.

Some of this is due to the constraints of their media. Broadcasters can show you the trial live and it makes for reasonably good TV. The stories Reuters and the New York Times emphasized, could be told well in pictures and words. More important, though, is the audience, as USA Today shows. It is still mostly a newspaper, a text and photos business. But it still features the trial.

I think a similar issue is behind msnbc.com's intense focus. As I have learned, msnbc.com emphasizes domestic news and stories that a broad audience will find interesting. People care a lot about Michael Jackson, so the twists and turns of the trial of the doctor implicated in his death interest them. But generally, people don't care that much about the primaries. And they don't care that much about Tehran, either. So to a certain extent, this editorial decision is all about giving people what they want.

Before I paint a too negative picture, let me add a third reason. Broadcast outlets, particularly msnbc.com and CNN, pride themselves on up-to-the-minuteness. Newspapers, while still aiming for timeliness, often try to be more comprehensive or to find a unique angle. That isn't to say broadcast news doesn't do those or that newspapers don't do breaking news. Rather, because of the history and technical aspects of broadcast and print news, broadcasters are more often going to break stories and newspapers are more often going to give them a detailed look.

Continuing on from my last post, today I will look at msnbc.com's other three blogs. They are all science and technology related, surprisingly. Blogwise, msnbc.com could stand for more variety.

I might as well start with In-Game, msnbc.com's video gaming blog. One of its main features are short videos, each reviewing a single game or covering a specific story. There are also plenty of written posts which focus less on reviews and more on news. 

New hardware devices — like smartphones, ereaders, tablet computers — release so frequently that one could write about it daily. And that's exactly what msnbc.com has done with Gadgetbox. Interestingly, Gadgetbox also has a 

Despite its name, Cosmic Log is not just about astronomy — although it certainly covers that. Much like Body Odd, it's a what's new and interesting in science kind of blog. Articles spread the gamut from serious — like one on genetically engineered bees — to lighthearted — see their roundup of science-themed gifts.

One thing that interests me is how these stack up against stand-alone blogs. I haven't made a detailed comparison, but what I can tell, that difference is probably depth and, to a lesser extent, credibility. For instance, the blogs of Discover Magazine are mostly maintained by people with science degrees, a qualification the writers of Cosmic Log seem to lack. But since msnbc.com's blogs are intended for a wide audience, despite their niche topics, that's okay.  

Last week I looked at msnbc.com's consumer blog, the Red Tape Chronicles. A few weeks ago, I looked at the site's PhotoBlog, as a part of my post on their photojournalism efforts. But msnbc.com has eight blogs and so today I will look at three of the others.

Political cartoons got their start in newspapers, but they've survived the switch to digital. Cartoon Blog of msnbc.com features two different takes on a timely issue in a daily "toon-off." Most comics are drawn by cartoonists employed by other news organizations. Daryle Cagle, who runs the blog, publishes his own comics every month or so, seen here.

Riffing off other news organization's weird news pages (see Yahoo's), Body Odd revels in the odd results medical research sometimes turns up — stories like "Right Handed People Don't Care for Reggae" and "4 Reasons a song gets stuck in your head." Hard-hitting journalism this isn't, but the occasional fluff piece can be OK. 

A look at msnbc.com's investigative and enterprise reporting probably deserves its own post, but I will quickly look at Open Channel, the blog which is all about investigation. The stories are typically short and are often summaries of other outlet's reporting, particularly that of NBC and MSNBC. Nonetheless, it all looks interesting

The interesting thing about these blogs, is they're all specialized, except the investigative blog. I suspect this is a winning strategy. There aren't many blogs that comment on consumer issues, look at odd medical findings or feature daily political cartoons. Fewer still are well-written and frequently updated. This gives msnbc.com a chance to stand out.

Being a large media outlet, msnbc.com has a number of special sections. One I stumbled upon today is its consumer blog, The Red Tape Chronicles. It focuses on the pitfalls of being a consumer in 2011: online scams, ripoffs and technology-induced problems.

The latest story is a remarkable one — interesting enough to make the front page. It tells of Jonathan Barnett's attempt to track down the 50 people who have acquired his social security number. It's surpising because it's almost entirely a personal story and not a basic informative one or guide to preventing it. It does have a paragraph at the end, titled "Re Tape wrestling tips," but the focus is on Barnett's story.

Apparently, this style of article is something of a break for Bob Sullivan, the blog's author. More typical are stories like this one on cell phone contracts. Nonetheless, the identity theft story was well-written. The writing sometimes fell prey to cliches, but it kept my attention and was informative. 

But what about the blog as a whole? I won't go into detail about the articles but will look at a question relevant to Digital Journalism II: How does the blog use social media? The author is active on his (public) Facebook page and his Twitter. Additionally, he seems to use them as more than a way to announce new blog posts. He answers readers questions, replies to other tweets and occasionally, enjoys a bit of levity. So, full marks for interacting with users. He also isn't afraid to link to other articles his readers might find interesting. Instead of sending people away, it makes him look genuinely interested in informing people rather than just trying to self-promote.

On the heels of a debt deal in Europe and the accompanying stock market surge, the news came today that Greece may allow citizens to veto the deal in a referendum election. Facing this piece of big news, MSNBC's wire, msnbc.com News Service, stepped up to the plate and published two stories on this new development.

At the moment, none of MSNBC's television news programs have done anything on the latest news, so the two text stories — one on the referendum itself and one on the American stock market's response — are the ones featured on the top of the page.

The stories are no-frills hard news, which is exactly what this situation calls for. A more feature-story approach is nice and often illuminating in a way hard news can't be, but that takes time. In this case, get the story out the door quickly in a straightforward way was important, and that's what they did.

Msnbc.com News Service is not nearly as well known as AP and Reuters, but it produces solid and timely content — exactly what you want from a news wire.