Online British Broadsheets: An analysis of The Times Online.

During last week’s lecture, we discussed the concept of online news websites. In recent years, many popular print newspapers, such as the Irish Independent, or Britain’s Guardian have made their digital mark by creating an online news site to satisfy their wired audiences.

In order to fully understand this latest innovation, our class formed groups and examined a differnet facet of online news. My group examined the area of ‘Online British Broadsheets.’ We each chose a news site to analyse. Personally, I chose The Times Online. When our individual analysis was over, we brought our information together under the umbrella heading ‘Online British Broadsheets‘, thus a body of work was created.

I decided to post my portion of the work on my blog, entitled “My Analysis of The Times Online“. This way, anyone in blogland who wishes can read it and decide whether they agree or disagree with my findings; a classic case of journalistic interactivity.

My Analysis of The Times Online

My first impressions of The Times Online were very positive ones. Since I’m a big fan of traditional print media, I was impressed with their layout which closely resembled a newspaper.

Their online featues were simple but effective. A constantly updating headline bar was located at the top of the screen, which informed its audience of breaking news as it unfolded. Typical online news features such as RSS feeds and podcasts are also available.

However, I found the navigation bar at the top of the screeen the most impressive feature of the site. For instance, if you click on the term ‘mobile‘, it provides coherent instructions to receive news updates to your mobile. By clicking on ‘shop‘, it transports the user to an online store where a variety of purchases can be made, from a holiday in Croatia to a teddy bear.

All in all, The Times Online was an equally informative and impressive news website.