Surfin' safari guidelines:
Since this is a class about online journalism, we visit various Web sites each week to get an idea what's out there on the Net and to learn to look at sites critically. These analyses are designed to foster discussion and to get you to look thoroughly, carefully and critically at various kinds of web sites to help you learn, analyze and understand the factors involved in creating superior sites.
You are expected to visit the sites every week, even when you are not assigned to write about them, and you should spend enough time to take a thorough look and consider their strong and weak points. Two times during the semester, you are assigned to hand in a written analysis of the previous week's Surfin' Safaris. These weeks typically are assigned in the third week of the semester.
The analysis you hand in must be in typewritten form, double-spaced and on paper. These will be graded and returned to you. Please do not e-mail a word-processor file to the instructors. This is an excellent way to spread viruses.
What your analysis should include:
Site analyses should run no more than1,000 words and be double spaced. You should consider the following:
- Design: Is the site attractive, easy to read, functional? Is it clear what the site is about? Does the design fit the topic? (Example: A wedding site done in black probably is not a great example of design fitting topic...)
- Navigation: Is it easy to find your way around, or do you find it confusing? Can you get from one place to another with a minimum of clicks? How hard is it to find what you want? Does the site load with reasonable speed?
- Content: Is the content well-written and well-spelled? Is it authoritative and complete? Is it slanted or unbiased? Does it, perhaps, include subtle advertising masked as information?
- Advertising: If the site has ads, are they attractive, functional and effective without being overly intrusive? Is there both intrusive advertising (example: banners) and non-intrusive advertising (example: catalog ordering)? Do the ads fit the content and the site's audience?
- Purpose: Why does the site exist? Is that clear from the outset? What is the business model for the site, if any?
- Audience: To what demographics is the site intended to appeal, and how effectively does it appeal to that audience? (The sites we visit over the semester are intentionally chosen because they appeal to widely diverse audiences.)
- Interactivity:How well does the site use the capabilities the Web offers? Can readers/viewers do things in addition to simply reading/viewing? Examples of interactive features range from the mundane (e-mail the staff of the site) to searches, chat functions, personalization features and even the really cool (perhaps playing real-time games against other users or composing your own music).
- Multimedia: Does the site have sound, video and other features in addition to the usual document-based content?
- Your pick: Which of the week's two sites do you like best and why?
Obviously, it is not going to be possible for you to fully discuss each of these items in 1,000 words. That's part of the challenge -- you'll have to write about the most important aspects of that week's sites. Decide which aspects to cover in detail based on the sites themselves. Some weeks, interactivity is a major feature; others, it's really content or navigation that should be discussed at greatest length.
Finally, after you've done this written analysis, edit it carefully. This is a journalism course. You are, therefore, expected to be literate in your work.
The key to success with these analyses is to spend some time thinking critically about the sites. Look at them in some detail and then compare and contrast them. A 10 or 15-minute glance at each site is not likely to lead to a good analysis. I suggest you visit each site three or four times over the course of a week. The written analyses each are worth 10 percent of your semester grade, so it's worth spending some time on them.
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