Analysis of existing media texts - websites

Masthead – The masthead of the ‘This is Cornwall’ website is fairly basic, using few colours to give it a relaxed, professional feel. Clearly, significantly less money was put into this website than The Guardian’s website, and this shows in the masthead. It follows conventions of website mastheads, as weather conditions and a search bar are included. These all hyperlink to weather information and a search engine within the main site. There is also a chance to sign in/register, meaning readers can comment and add their own opinions to the site. This brings in another dimension to reporting, which is extremely useful in this day and age with the use of technologies available to us, and other websites offering similar services. The speech bubble in the logo is indicative of this, almost saying ‘we value opinion,’ which is good for both the newspaper and customer satisfaction.

Sections – The categories available to choose from are listed horizontally, meaning they spread across the width of the page. They are colour coded, which is useful as one scrolls down the page to know in which category each story lies. Clicking on each of these hyperlinked sections brings about a new page in the same window of the browser, which has specific stories on that topic. This is like where a newspaper has its topics laid out in different pages, but in website form. As we go down the page, the sections are oddly listed again, but there is an indication as to how many stories there are for each one on that day.

Middle – In the main section of the website, the main story is clearly bigger than the other three stories, and also separated from them. The red strip on each picture indicates that the story is of the ‘news’ section, giving a better feel to the website.

In terms of my own website, I want to be able to list all of my stories in time order, as well as following the conventions shown by this local website as simplistic and low budget, yet professional and comprehensive.

Masthead – The Guardian’s masthead of their website includes their logo, which corresponds with that on their front page without the blue background. The dropping of the blue background could show that they view it as a selling point, or something that makes it stick out from the rest of the papers on the news stand. The website’s white background is consistent all the way down, and this adds to the continuity of the website; it follows its colour scheme which matches with the newspapers colours throughout, which connote a warmth and a friendliness, but also often masculinity.

Also in the masthead, the weather for London is displayed, and this is alterable as to the location of the reader. This is something I would like to include in my own website. An internal search engine follows the conventions of a news website; meaning there is easier access to stories within it.

Sections – The sections of news are written in different colours, though these do not tend to have connotations relating to those topics. When each section's hyperlink is clicked, subcategories appear in what is a very slick design for the website. One would imagine the categories are ordered in terms of popularity, with news and sport being the first two listed. Also in this part of the website is a nifty ‘Breaking News’ line, which gives people live updates from anywhere in the site. This is a great example of a newspaper website, in which lots of time and money has clearly been placed. Being only a small, low budget local newspaper, I may have to consider slightly more replicable designs.

Left hand side – On the left hand side and throughout the page, each column is headed with a red strip. This strip indicates the story is ‘news,’ as per the section title’s colour coding. If ‘sport’ were clicked on, the page would transform into green stories, keeping the blue scheme, but giving a sense of slick continuity in the website. Videos and articles are linked, using images and videos to draw people in.

Right hand side – On the right hand side, there are not articles displayed, but it is room to advertise extra parts of The Guardian’s website, such as their new TV ad and their online dating company. Expanding a company to cater for a wider audience is a good thing, especially when there is such competition in the market for who buys whose newspaper.

Middle – In the middle of the webpage, contrary to ‘convention’ as in newspapers and many websites, the main story is not the largest thing on the page. The main story is tucked away in the top left corner, and the big picture in the middle of the page are links to an internal advert for a ‘live Q&A’ with the guardian editor. This connotes the Guardian being up to date in terms of updating their website, as well as involving readers using new technologies coupled with the luxury of their own website to give a comprehensive coverage of the news to a ‘live’ standard, as set by the 24-hour news channels.

Grey boxes are used to separate sections which are not accompanied by text, but instead use just pictures as teasers, again giving a good visual denotation of the website. The fact the site is set up into three sections also does this, and gives the editors of the website some room to play with the design, meaning boxes can be moved about, and images can be re-scaled to keep giving a fresh look to the website, much like the front page of the newspaper itself.

Main - The other colour scheme used throughout this website is blue and dark blue, which is used for the headlines and the blurbs below them. This connotes a seriousness that the Telegraph likes to portray.

It it quite well laid out, and would be easy to diversify from day to day, like its front page and The Guardian website, to keep people interested and involved with the website.

It uses a good variety of images and hyperlinks to videos to encourage people to click on, again much like The Guardian does. This is something I will need to include in my own webpage.

Masthead – In conventional manner, the Telegraph’s website features its logo, the date and a search bar. Its name is written in black font, which corresponds with the navigation section below it, giving the website a slick, continuity filled feel, which connotes that the newspaper is kept up to date, and is friendly to the eye.

Analysis of existing media texts - Websites

Because I need to create a website, I first need to establish conventions and analyse existing news websites in order to meet those conventions myself.