For some time, the only website I visit daily has been FARK.com. Fark is essentially a news aggregator specializing in oddball, weird and funny news items, but breaking news is also posted on Fark. In fact, it impresses me that Fark often beats major news aggregator sites such as Google News when it comes to getting a story online fast. Fark’s main page is a constantly updated list of links to stories published on websites around the world. Each story is given a brief and generally snarky description by the person submitting the link and the story is assigned a tag, ranging from “asinine” to “spiffy.” Interspersed among the news links, Fark posts several Photoshop contests daily. The contests have a unique theme, recent examples being “inappropriate amusement park rides” and “earn your own entry on Snopes.com.” Humor is generally the main goal here but some of the posts are beautiful examples of Photoshop artistry. I’m a graphic designer and these contests are my favorite part of Fark. Fark’s slogan is, “It’s not news, it’s Fark.” Fark’s creator and operator, Drew Curtis, believes mainstream media have strayed too far from thoughtful and thorough coverage of news in favor of Fark-style journalism that values entertainment over information. Ironically, without the wealth of light-weight stories to collect from the mainstream press, a site like Fark could not survive.

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