Assignment 1: Website critiques

Value: 10 percent of your grade for the semester

Due date: Feb. 11, 2008 (Late work loses two letter grades)

Turn-in method: TBD - For now, keep electronically, and be ready to e-mail and/or post in a blog on Feb. 11 at start of class.

Length: Although our format may not lay out as follows, this should amount to a five-page paper, double-spaced (not counting supporting images, screenshots, non-words). Approximately 1,250 words.

The assignment: Compare a pair of journalistic Websites from each of the following three categories (that's 2 x 3, or 6 total sites): 1) Local media company, 2) national media company, 3) Web-only. For the media company categories, choose sites of the same media type - i.e., two print companies or two broadcast companies. For the Web-only category, try to find a pair similarly matched in content and scope. Using the criteria listed below, evaluate the effectiveness of each site. Note: Aggregator sites like Reddit and Google News are not good choices for this assignment. These should be sites that produce and package plenty of their own content.

Criteria:

a) Content: What's there? Is the content a bunch of flat text files or are there value-adds like multimedia, databases, images, etc. What type of content is there? News? Commentary? Is it well-written and credible?
b) Interactivity/community: How does the site regard its audience? Is the audience encouraged to participate? How effectively is that participation elicited and presented? Is the site encouraging the formation of communities or the participation of existing communities?
c) Navigation, design, ease of use: Can you find what you want? Can you find what you might want? Does the layout make sense or is it cumbersome to use?

You should describe and evaluate. Decide what you think is important and rate the site accordingly. The weight of each criterion might be different for each site, depending on what you think the site is trying to do.

Organization: The organization of this assignment is up to you, but pick a method that makes sense.

Webbed-out: Prepare this assignment for publication on the Web, even though it's not decided how that will happen yet. That means you should include links to relevant parts of the sites, keeping in mind that a link to a section front or a homepage will probably not last and may not show what you want it to show. Take a screenshot to preserve something specific and include it.

What counts: Everything counts. Your organization, your choice of sites, your claims and how you support them, your spelling and grammar - all these are important for a working journalist, and they are important here.

Important: This isn't an assignment that can be done at the last minute. You are expected to look at your sites over time, across different day parts, and your discoveries along these lines should be part of your evaluation.