Take for instance the Red & Black. At first glance, nothing on the page really jumps out at me–well, other than the annoying banner advertisements. As Professor Parks has said, editors are called to improve everything around them. Everything. This includes design as well as grammar, punctuation and spelling.
In "The Newspaper Designer's Handbook," Tim Harrower explains, "the World Wide Web is still in its infancy. Only a decade ago, most editors and publishers had no idea how to translate news pages onto a digital platform."
I believe that it is now our job as editors reared in the technology era to visually improve how the news is translated from print to the Web.
Harrower continues, "like fish learning to walk on land, newspapers are slowly evolving and adjusting to this new terrain. Too many news Web sites are still disorganized, unappealing and unprofitable, but online design is steadily improving."
As journalists of the next generation, we must raise the standards of design even higher.
After noticing the disorganization and unappealing layout of the Red and Black's Web page, I looked at other news Web sites to see how these problems could be improved.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Web site appears much cleaner and is much easier to navigate. Like the Red and Black, editors at the AJC have chosen not to take advantage of modern storytelling devices such as audio, video and animated graphics; however, in my opinion, the Web site is much more visually inviting despite its lack of multimedia usage.
Harrower emphasizes that special projects and the use of multimedia are truly the cutting edge of journalism. Now more than ever, I believe it is important for editors to use all of our technological resources in order to give citizens the most attractive, well-organized information possible.
Claire, I agree that in the Digital Age editors need to be very concerned about Web site design. I like the incorporation of Harrower's thoughts with your own. Your post did leave me wondering which news Web site you think is well designed. Do you have a favorite?
ReplyDeleteI actually do. I love the design of The Daily Beast. It's not quite an online newspaper, but as a news source I find it very informative. Professor Parks has brought it up on the projector in class a few times, and it really caught my eye. I think the designers take advantage of white space very well while also bringing emphasis to sections of the Web site through the use of color (red mostly) and bold headlines. There is also a great mix of text, photos and video content.
ReplyDelete