By Michael Torrice
It is apparent that the main goal of the CNN web page is to provide
a customizable news experience. From the main page, where all the
top stories in each department are listed, users can link up to the
news stories that interest them most. On the side of each story page,
a set of links are present that are rich in multimedia content. Some
stories have audio or video components that complement the text presented
on the page. Using QuickTime, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player,
the web browser can view these segments. Other stories have links
to background information displayed via plug-ins, such as Shockwave
and 3D viewers. These background displays are usually interactive,
allowing the user to explore a topic further in-depth. One such display
showed the history of Presidential primaries through an interactive
time-line complete with video and audio clips of candidates throughout
the last half-century. Besides these media links,there are also links
to related stories and message-board forums related to the topic athand.
These message boards allow users to discuss issues that are currently
filling theheadlines. If an article incites a user to comment, they
can join the board and see if others agree or disagree.
Another interesting feature of the CNN web page is the myCNN.com
option.
myCNN.com allows the user to actually customize their own front page
of a news site. If the user is not interested in business news, they
can just remove its window from the page. If a user is really interested
in the latest developments of the Human Genome Project, they can use
the On-Targets option to make CNN search out all recent articles and
features about the project. Another interesting aspect of myCNN.com
is its use of different news sources other than CNN. This aspect is
desirable in an age of media bias allowing the user to gather information
on their own without being slanted in one ideological direction. The
myCNN.com experience is useful and interesting, but definitely has
room to expand. A possible improvement could be a feature that Amazon.com
uses to link people's shopping history to future purchases. People
are linked to books that other customers with similar shopping histories
have bought. Translating this to news gathering could be beneficial.
A web site that could compare users' news reading habits and then
lead new users to other possible interesting stories could create
a more customizable experience. In the end, customizable experiences
are the hallmark of the web. Whereas other media outlets must be marketed
to the "typical" or "average" consumer of a given
market, the interactive capabilities of the web allow for marketing
to more specific types of consumers and hopefully eventually to the
individuals themselves. Through the net, news agencies can deliver
news to their customers in ways that hit a wider scope of the market
than TV, radio, or newspaper could ever achieve.