Week 9 News Website Review

I'm going to briefly review the following 'news' websites, giving my subjective opinion on each.

Sydney Morning Herald

Immediate response: Too crammed with information and pictures. It's looks very disorganised, I couldn't focus on one picture or heading long enough to be drawn in to reading the actual article. One plus I suppose is the sheer amount of content available, but you have to wade through a lot of junk to get to anything worthwhile.

Intended audience: People who believe the headlines. Possibly ADHD sufferers.

Rating: 3/5

The Conversation

Immediate response: Simple layout, easy to read and pick apart story-by-story. Simple navigation and interesting article titles with short blurbs that allow you to decide if you want to continue reading.
I enjoyed skimming through this website, you feel as if you're a little more informed after using it.
And it's not strictly written by journalists, so views are varied, genuine and refreshing.

Intended audience: Those who are interested in current issues. Uni students, intellectuals, "conversationalists", as it were.

Rating: 5/5

The Australian Institute

Immediate response: Boring. Outdated navigation, colours and layout. Article titles too seem pointless and uninteresting, no desire to read further.

Intended audience: Old, boring people who like boring things.

Rating: 2/5

The Global Mail

Immediate response: I like how it's trying to be all cool and modern, using video streams as the main article content. Even including the authors Twitter pages in the page information. Trendy.
I skimmed through a few 'articles' though and didn't feel as if anything I was watching was actual news, it seems more focused on human interest stories.
Cool layout though and interesting despite it's lack of informative content.

Intended audience: Young adults, people who can't be bothered actually reading.

Rating: 3/5

The Daily Telegraph

Immediate response: Obnoxious. Immature. Unappealing.
No knowledgeable content. If something IS vaguely news related, like about the US presidential campaign, is something trivial like "Obama sneezed- Look we even got a photo!"

Intended audience: People who accidentally clicked onto the news site via cracked.com...

Rating: 1/5

ABC NEWS

Immediate response: Professional, well laid-out, easy navigation of topics and choc-a-block full of content. Engaging images and to-the-point articles. Only draw back is it may be a little dry and wordy if you're not an avid reader.

Intended audience: People who actually give a shit.

Rating: 4/5

The Huffington Post

Immediate response: Very similar to the DT. Borderline obnoxious, but with slightly more content.
All the articles seemed to be election-based. It's only if you go fishing through the website are you able to find something not in direct correlation with the US election mentioned on the first page. Like the weather.

Intended audience: The kids who think they're too cool to read the Daily Telegraph.

Rating: 2/5

Crikey

Immediate response: I like the idea of keeping it "Aus- relevant". So many people are uninformed about what's happening in our own backyards, me included!
The layout is a little tedious, a lot of drop-down boxes and not enough search freedom. Articles limited to "Our Picks" and related articles. The content seems well-written and researched though.

Intended audience: Those that find the ABC too dry.

Rating: 4/5