Summary

Well obviously oil has been a massive factor in the development of our blog, the BP oil spill was a massive event that occurred in the middle of our coverage. This environmental disaster was unprecedented so it was interesting to witness how the media had to conform to an undefined set of standards to report such an event. Of course being so close to the oil sands we have been bombarded with stories advising us of the degrading to environment, yet it was interesting to see how the view of the oil sands had developed in the states. The only time that the oil sands were relevant in the states, with the exception of James Cameron's tour, was when there was some sort of development deal or merger that included the United States. The fact that there was a second oil spill in the Philippines which only got about a days attention from news outlets really made an impression as how news had to conform to a standard implied by the audience. Overall because we covered mainly one story (the BP oil spill) we were able to see how trends in news was formed, which will impress upon our own stories in the future.