Assignment 1

The Internet is increasingly the preferred medium for people to read about, interact with and respond to events happening around the world. As a result, there have been many independent and diverse online news websites appearing. This report will evaluate and discuss three of these:

• Crikey
• Huffington Post
• New Matilda

There are many aspects that make up a good website, and good web writing. One of the main things to think about is usability for the readers.
DuVergne Smith states, “…a good website builds on the universals of good writing– clarity, concision and content” (DuVergne Smith 2003: 1). In web writing the inverted pyramid is relevant where it is sometimes used to support the argument that readers only scan, meaning a journalistic piece should be brief, clear and enticing (Deuze 1999: 381).
As with any publication, online news sources must write for their audience. In the case of these websites, this can be found in their audience/advertising sections, some are more comprehensive than others.


CRIKEY

Crikey pride themselves on being “Australian for independent journalism” (About 2009: 1). They state their aim clearly, giving the reader an understanding of what they stand for. They discuss wishing to bring the inside word on what is really going on in Australia and around the world. It is important to note that crikey is not part of a media empire (About Crikey 2009: 1). Therefore they are an independent source of online information.

Audience

Crikey’s audience is made up of affluent, decision-making professionals (First Digital Media 2009: 1). This will have an obvious effect on the way the website is designed, style of writing and articles presented. Crikey's audience is made up mostly of highly educated, ABC/SBS watching older professionals and the website is tailored for this (First Digital Media 2009: 1).

Layout

Crikey follows general online news website conventions in their layout, making it user friendly. They have a large heading at the top, a content banner underneath, followed by a central picture and then the articles, main or newest near the top. As you scroll it filters into more specific areas.

As the content banner states Crikey’s main areas of information are:
• Politics
• Media
• Business
• Environment
• Life
• Blogs

Crikey clearly shows when an article is not written by Crikey and where it is from.. This is also demonstrated in their ‘about’ page as described. Crikey does not seem to use alt-tabs. It is a fairly long scroll from top to bottom of the homepage.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: “At Stars and Stripes independent, investigative journalism soldiers on” by Ruth Brown, a Crikey journalist.

From the homepage this article was presented with a heading and a kicker. The story page has a heading at the top and no kicker. This article definitely links externally and allows readers to go outside of the Crikey website. For example the article is talking about the newspaper, Stars and Stripes and it links to the homepage. This Linking proves the wider reading of the author and bolsters the author’s point of view. A hint of sarcasm can be found in this article with the use of such a sentence as “lovely pie chart”.
The story page has options to print, email and rate the article while also providing a related topic box. These topics are referred to in the article.



HUFFINGTON POST

Huffington Post is clearly very political and very American, made by Americans for Americans. It is world renowned for its left wing political views and selection of blogs.
Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington who is known as a political activist, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 2009: 1).
Huffington Post was the hardest of the three to find information on, as the ‘About Us’ section is limiting. There is no information about them or what they stand for. Deuze (1999: 383) suggests that an extensive ‘about us’ section is a must as a valuable addition to any online endeavour (Deuze 1999: 383).

Audience

As the audience information suggests, Huffington Post reaches over “20 Million thought-leaders” (Advertising Information 2009: 1). They attract a large, affluent, educated audience and the websites features tailor to this, providing the many political based articles, celebrity bloggers and a lot of information.

Layout

Huffington Post’s homepage changes regularly with constant content updates. This makes it difficult to find an older article. The top of the homepage is taken up by a very large image linked to a focus article. There are 3 columns to the page, left - the blogs, middle - videos and articles, and the right - the most popular articles, information about the bloggers, applications and entertainment. There is a lot of information presented to the reader and a very long scroll. It is obviously targeted to a niche audience and provides the reader with many and varied reading options. Along with every article on the homepage there is an option to for a ‘quick read’.

At the bottom right there is a large section that is labeled ‘Links’, this shows their news sources, blogs, columnists and all thing Arianna. All the news sources link externally to the relevant sites. There are many images and videos throughout the homepage to attract attention, provide entertainment and information. Again, it follows basic online news principles of the heading and content banner. The most annoying thing about The Huffington Post’s layout is the constant Facebook link that nearly always sits over their logo and link back to the homepage.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: “Jaycee Lee Dugard Reappears After 18 Years; Sex Offender, Wife Arrested” by Juliet Williams and Samantha Young, Associated Press.

This article was presented on the homepage, on the right column, with a large picture, accompanied by a heading. When clicked on a small box appears in front of the page as a ‘quick read’, there is an option at the bottom to read the full article.
This particular article ‘piled on’, meaning it added a new update on the already existing article. This piling on breaks up the story and does not follow good online techniques. As Dube (2003: 3) states in breaking news stories, “in an effort to seems as current as possible, sites will often put the latest developments in a story at the top” and “ then they’ll pile the next development the top, and the next” (Dube: 2003: 3).

At the start of the article it clearly states that it is not written by Huffington Post but is from Associated Press. Underneath the large article heading is several options to share, on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and options to Email. Some of these do and some do not have alt-tabs associated with them.

This article also had no links, external or internal within the text for readers. There are three options presented at the bottom too read related articles ‘around the web’. These are from three other news sources; there are also options at the top of the page to ‘read more’. These are keywords that people can follow, all linking to previous articles from within Huffington Post. Some of these keywords seem very broad such as ‘kidnapping’.

The story page always has the main stories from the homepage largely presented with a scroll sideways option on the top of the page. The Huffington Post heading is at the top left with advertising to the right of it. As mentioned the Huffington Post logo is largely covered by the Facebook logo, this makes it generally less user friendly.



NEW MATILDA

New Matilda describes themselves as “an Australian website of news, analysis and satire” and are “fiercely independent” (About Us 2009: 1). This shows their willingness to link externally.
It was founded by former Whitlam staffer, John Menadue (Simons 2005: 1) and is owned by Complex Number Pty Ltd, which “has no formal association with any political party or major media organisation” (FAQ 2009: 1).

Audience

Like Crikey and Huffington Post, New Matilda’s audience are affluent. Most of their audience are working professionals from areas such as media, health and science (Advertise with us 2009: 1). Again this website tailors their layout and articles to their audience base. For example featuring long, wordy articles in which people can further read and discover by external linking.

Layout

In contrast to the other website homepages, New Matilda has a relativity short scroll. It seems quite uncluttered and clean. The heading, ‘NewMatilda’ is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the page, however not entirely unnoticeable.
Three main stories feature on in the homepage, followed vertically by a box of six recent stories. Generally the articles are quite wordy, so not very scannable. The preference for scannability may not apply in this circumstance as New Matilda tailors to an audience that may be willing to read articles of length.

The homepage consists of alt-tabs that are short and easy, kickers that are relevant and headings that are short.

Key Article

The key article chosen is titled: ‘There’s Big Trouble Down At The Mill’ by Dan Edwards.

This article is presented as one of the three articles at the top of the homepage and has a headline, kicker, how many people have commented and a small picture. This gives a great indication of exactly what the article is going to be about before clicking on it.

This particular article is over 1,000 words long so it is not short and not easily scannable or quickly read.

There are several external links provided in this article, for example: a past New Matilda Article, a Wall Street Journal article, a New York Times article as well as one from ABC news. These are all reputable websites. This shows wide reading and research as well as providing great usability for the reader as they can gather their own information and form their own opinions on the issue. They are obviously not scared to link outside of their own website therefore adding to their viability and usability. This article can be hard to read in a short amount of time, if this is needed.

Conclusion

It is hard to describe exactly what constitutes as ‘good online techniques’ as what one person might find user friendly the other may not. However the willingness to link externally, especially within a news based website is very important, as well as the usability of the website in general. All three websites are very aware of their key audience base and tailor both the layout and content of their websites for this purpose.

REFERENCES

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