11. April 29, 2012
This semester I have been tracking the work and updates of nytimes.com. Although I have been familiar with the site for a few years now, and always came to the site for my news, having closely tracked it this semester, I have learned more about it and have discovered a lot.
Although nytimes.com is initially a little intimidating to look at, it is not as straightforward and dull as it appears. The format of the homepage is very wordy and true to the tradition of the Great Gray Lady. There are not very many pictures of graphics, the homepage is just very busy with words. I originally found this a bit off-putting and I still find the format a little bit discouraging. Since further examining the site and all t has to offer, I have become more impressed with nytimes.com.
Nytimes.com actually has some very creative interactive features, and colorful, informative videos. The site has many ways that nytimes.com readers can have a more personalized experience with their news. Readers can comment, have conversations with other readers, vote on surveys, and have stories recommended to them based on their previous reading choices.
The videos that are posted on the multimedia section have impressed me too. They are updated regularly and are not only on current events but some give a good look into New York life. A few videos have just been features of different New York neighborhoods. Having stories like this – not just hard news stories – is something I would not have expected nytimes.com to have, but I’m glad that they do. It shows that this news source is not strictly for business men.
10. April 22, 2012
One of my favorite interactive features a website can have is an interactive map. I think a lot of the time interactive features are not applicable to everyone, or are very narrow in focus and do not hold the interest of a wide variety of readers. The interactive maps that I have seen usually pertain to topics that are easy to relate to or affect a larger group of people.
On nytimes.com, one of the most interesting features of their interactive section, in my opinion, is their interactive map that features the New York Health Department Restaurant Ratings. This feature shows a map of the city and has dots that represent different restaurants, color coordinated according to their rating. If you click on the dot, an expanded review appears, detailing the grade the restaurant received, how many points they accumulated, and different violations they may have crossed.
There is also a search bar at the top of the page so you can search for a restaurant, filter the search according to grade, points, or types of violations.
I think this is a great idea, and I believe it would be helpful for other cities to adopt a similar system. Not only would it be helpful for visitors to see what places are safe to dine at, and what places are better avoided, but locals can benefit from this type of map too.
9. April 8, 2012
Despite the general dull and gray look of nytimes.com, there is one section that shows a little more life: the Sunday Times Magazine page. The New York Times is notorious for being not so aesthetically pleasing (a common nickname used to be after all, The Gray Lady), and even though they have improved over the years (which is clear if you scroll through the archives as seen on the Times Machine page), but I was pleased to see that there are certain sections of nytimes.com that are not so lifeless. Every Sunday, nytimes.com has a section on their site that they update called NY Times Magazine.
On this section, there are timely features, photo essays and videos. The stories and features of this page have a lot more character than those on the nytimes.com home page, or anywhere else on the site for that matter.
One example of a cool story that they did on the magazine page, is their feature on video games called, Just One More Game… Instead of just writing about how video games are addictive and a waste of time, the story was made interactive with a game that readers could play placed above where the story started.
An example of a timely photo essay they did, one that would not be featured on the homepage, was their feature called Peeps Show. Just in time for Easter, they featured a series of photos showing the Peep-making process and included a little blurb.
I was excited when I discovered this side of nytimes.com. The New York Times is great, and I believe it is one of the most trustworthy news sources today, but if I have one complaint, it would be that they can come off as a bit too stuffy and not friendly for readers of all types of interests and attention spans. This section showed that nytimes.com is working towards being more reader friendly, and can cater to a different type of audience.
8. March 25, 2012
On nytimes.com, there is a video section on the multimedia part of the website. The videos featured show different current events and political problems or topics. On the side bar there are different topics you can choose to watch videos of, ranging from U.S. to Automobiles, Travel to NYT Shorts. The videos usually last from 4-5 minutes.
This week a hot topic on nytimes.com was the Trayvon Martin case. For the video portion, they featured the President Obama speech on the topic. And multiple articles were written about this throughout the week.
7. March 18, 2012
Along with podcasts and the photoblog, nytimes.com often has sildeshows in their multimedia section. The slideshows usually consist of about 10 photos, give or take a few, and have informative captions for each slide. The captions typically say more than just what is happening in the photo, and usually give information about the topic of the slideshow. The slideshows usually have a timely element and are tied in to either a breaking news event, a season, or an upcoming event or issue.
This week I noticed two slideshows that I liked. The first was a slide show about Spring Break that was focused on how social media has affected how students act during the March break. The pictures showed Spring Break vacationers doing different activities, and the captions gave information on how the appearance of Youtube and Facebook are causing young adults on Spring Break to behave more appropriately, for fear their actions will surface via pictures and videos.
Another slideshow I liked was the St. Patrick’s Day parade one. The picture gave viewers insight to the parade if they were not able to go. The pictures captured the different things going on inNew York for the parade: kids enjoying themselves, people marching, and even protesters who were not allowed to participate.
6. March 4, 2012
Nytimes.com has a section on their site strictly for photography. Their photoblog, Lens, contains photography and video journalism.
Along with their different photo series for specific events, they have a daily segment, Pictures of the Day. This is my favorite part of Lens. Pictures of the Day is just a series of some of the best photos taken that day in different parts of the world. For people who may not have a whole lot of extra free time, Pictures of the Day is a great way to keep abreast of things going on around the globe. The pictures all have short captions describing what is going on in the picture, and the location of the event. It is easy enough and short enough for even a very busy person to keep up with and check at the end of every day.
Even for those people who do read the paper every night, and may keep up with the news throughout the day via Twitter, Facebook, or mobile updates, Pictures of the Day can still add an extra, important element. Reading about a story is one thing. I can read as many articles as I want about voters in Tehran, a woman fainting in South Korea, or a gymnast training in Manhattan. Getting the facts this way is good and effective, but it does not necessarily give me an accurate portrait of the event. Seeing a picture of something makes it more real in one’s mind. It solidifies an event and brings more emotion to a story. I was very pleased to see this section of nytimes.com, and plan on keeping up with it now that I know it exists.
5. February 26, 2012
Although reading a story can be great, sometimes a print story can lack the personal, up close appeal. Audio stores can give a tale new meaning and make it resonate more with a reader. Hearing an interview, or ambient sound, can really grab you and pull you into a story in a way that is not as achievable in a print story.
On nytimes.com’s multimedia section, there is a section for podcasts. There are book review podcasts, podcasts highlighting the front page news, discussion podcasts, and more than this. Not only is this a cool way to get a story, it can also be more convenient for people. With the nytimes.com podcasts, a person can be doing work on their computer and also listening to stories that they didn’t have time to read in the Times.
4. February 19, 2012
It has been a week since Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel room. In the past week, countless news and feature pieces have been written about the topic. Although finding an article about Whitney Houston on the web will not be hard for the next few weeks, nytimes.com has a section that will make finding stories about Whitney Houston even easier.
If you visit nytimes.com, one of the tabs at the top is labeled, Times Topics. If you click on it, Whitney Houston is one of the featured topics. On her page, there are stories and slide shows about the artist. There are even feature stories about the negative toll alcohol can take on a body, because of Houston’s infamous problem with alcohol and drug abuse.
Of course this tab isn’t just for Whitney Houston. The Times Topics feature is a great thing nytimes.com did to put all their stories on a certain topic in once place. By centralizing a topic, it makes it easier for readers to know everything about that topic, or do research if they need to.
3. February 12, 2012
While exploring nytimes.com, I took a closer look at the Sunday Review Section. This section is basically comprised of all the opinion pieces, the columnists, editorials, and letters to the editor. While exploring this section more closely, I was impressed with the letters to the editor section.
In this section the Sunday Dialogue can be found. In the Sunday Dialogue, they post a letter to the editor that was printed in the New York Times paper, and they post several readers reactions to it. It is the closest thing I have found on the site to interactivity. This is definitely a feature of nytimes.com that is most user-friendly for the audience.
The Sunday Review Section on the whole is more reader-friendly in my opinion. The format is clearer and less wordy. It is easier for the reader to find what they are looking for in this section. Maybe nytimes.com believes that it is more appropriate for this section to be less serious, since there are no hard news pieces or breaking news stories to be posted on this site. I think if the whole site was a little cleaner and easy to navigate, just like the Sunday Review Section, nytimes.com would benefit from it.
2. February 5, 2012
After comparing and contrasting nytimes.com with other news sites that people in class were assigned, I was able to clearly see how differently they utilize the three pillars of online journalism: interactivity, multimedia and on-demand delivery.
The home page is, as previously stated, overwhelmingly wordy, and does not leave much room for video or pictures. There is a video tab at the top of the page, which leads to a more multimedia friendly section of the site, but besides that this site is not very photo or video heavy.
The interactivity on this page is also lacking. The only real form of interactivity comes from the fact that stories can be commented on and shared via Facebook, Twitter or other social media outlets.
Near the bottom of the home page, there are most emailed stories, and the most recently updated stories. If you create an account and log-in, the site will track what you read and come up with recommendations for what to read next based on that. I think this is a very cool feature, but it could be better advertised. You have to sift through quite a bit of gray before even seeing this.
Although I know that nytimes.com is a respected news source, I think they could perhaps make their site a bit more user-friendly. It is apparent they are trying to stay faithful to the reputation they have built for being serious about news. This is understandable and admirable, but people generally do not h for news online to read it the way they would read a hard copy with their morning cup of coffee. If news is being digested online, the audience member most likely just wants to stay abreast of world events, but probably doesn’t have time to read a whole lot or sift through things that they are not that interested in.
If the New York Times is not willing to completely let go of their appearance, maybe they could take some tips from boston.com/bostonglobe.com. They could have one site that is formatted in a more classic way, and another that is more multimedia friendly. This way they could have the best of both worlds. They wouldn’t have to betray their style, but they could also cater to a much larger audience.
1. January 23, 2012
This semester I will be tracking the New York Times website (nytimes.com). My first impression of the website is that it is very word-y. There is a lot of text on the screen, and a minimal amount of graphics. This site is very different from other websites, for example The Huffington Post web page. On many news websites, there are large pictures and graphics to attract a reader to read a story. On nytimes.com, however, this is not the case. Not all stories are advertised with a picture, and even the pictures that are used are not overpowering or very large. I assume this is because the New York Times is a highly trusted news source, and reading it is tradition for many. The Times probably does not need much help gaining readership. The audience may also be different than the audience of other news websites. Perhaps the main readers of the Times are people who are not impressed with flashy pictures. Perhaps, on the whole, the average reader of the Times is more interested in the accuracy and facts conveyed in the actual story.
In this way, the Times website is much like it’s printed paper. The New York Times has been nicknamed the Gray Lady, because of the paper’s notoriously word heavy form. The paper, like the site, is very no-nonsense and classic.
The New York Times website is effective in its tidy format. At first glance, the site is efficient and professional.
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