I am no longer teaching the classes for which I kept the subscription. I like your product more than wordpress, but I'm not really writing a blog right now.
March 21, 2010
April 26, 2008
GOLDEN EAGLE: Green Living on TheGreenGuide.com
SUMMARY
In 2006, Vanity Fair magazine declared "green is the new black." Spurred by former Vice President Al Gore’s 2006 documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," the terms "sustainable living" and "carbon footprint" became part of the lexicon. Reports about the melting polar ice cap and carbon emissions have seeped into the public consciousness. And in the past couple of years, consumers — who have been bombarded with new products, studies, television shows and dire warnings about climate change — have been jumping on the bandwagon.
It comes as no surprise, then, that there’s no shortage of online packages devoted to green living. There are a number of packages on sites like OrlandoSentinel.com and Care2 that offer a wealth of consumer-oriented information. But of those, the Green Home section of National Geographic’s Green Guide is the most comprehensive and concise, offering practical, usable information to help consumers make informed choices about going green.
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Eco-tourism info: National Geographic Adventure
Analysis by: Michael Hamner
The Best Green Adventures on Earth package on the National Geographic Adventure Website is one of the very few Web packages in the green travel or eco-tourism field that met most of the criteria we were looking for in a "better-than-print" resource for the environmentally-conscious traveler.
After surveying more than 100 Websites related to eco-tourism my conclusion is that there are many helpful packages for traveling "green" if one is satisfied with text content, along with a few photos. There are even a few packages with photo-galleries, and fewer yet with more advanced info-graphic elements such as Flash.
National Geographic Adventure Magazine's Best Green Adventures on Earth, however, contained the best overall combination of great writing, good mapping and design, a decent navigational interface and an element of interactivity in an eco-tourism Web package.
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Healthy Living for the Soul
Analysis by Trinay Blake
Introduction
Health issues are on the rise in the U.S. and worldwide. Obesity, lack of physical fitness, poor diet choices, working long hours, lack of sleep—these problems and more have plagued the U.S. for quite some time. Many people are not covered by insurance and put off basic medical care. Doing so increases their healthcare costs and may cost them their lives.
There is information out there and people should be made aware where to access it. There are numerous magazines, newspaper reports, and the ever present and changing web that people can search to get a grip on their health realities.
Discovery Healthy Living has a wonderfully inviting site that provides very useful information to maximize and to live your best life. The site is a how-to for all things healthy living. Categories include male and female specific health sites, conditions such as stress and plastic surgery and more.
The site encourages participation and allows users to immediately know what they will see when they visit a site link. Navigation is clear, concise, and easily maneuverable.
I visited other sites and did not find any that could compare to Discovery’s. The CDC healthy living site offers a substantial amount of information, but the site lacks visual acuity. The links should be supplemental to the audio, video, and other interactivity components.
CNN.com/health like the CDC has numerous offerings but does not have compelling visual presentation. One site that could be a close second to Discovery is WebMD . Although you have to click on the individual links, when you get to the individual site, there are other interactivity tools to enhance the user experience.
Eating Healthy on WebMD.com
Analysis by Wanda Jenifer
Summary
As Americans we have a preoccupation with everything diet and health. There's a wholesome dose of healthy nutritional information on WebMD.com’s Eating Healthy Web site. WebMD combines the reputation of medical professionals with technical-savvy to deliver a community-driven site of articles, video and interactivity unlike any other health Web site on the internet today. The clean, professional look make the site believable and appealing inch- by- pixel inch.
SILVER EAGLE: The Hamilton Spectator's "Hamilton Next"
The judges gave extra points to this entry because it showed that interactivity isn't just for the journalistic big dogs. Hamilton, Ontario is an old steel town struggling to find new ways to prosperity in a post manufacturing age and that means the local newspaper probably is struggling too.
Nonetheless the Hamilton Spectator devoted enormous amounts of imagination and resources into creating this package, designed to engage readers in a discussion of their future.
The editors used the image at the left, a half-vacant skyscraper that also
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Personal Health and Well-being with Prevention.com
Analysis by Jean Gossman
Overall Quality and Mission
Prevention.com fills a need for consumers interested in general health and wellness. Most healthy-lifestyle sections of online and print local focus on dieting, like the Washington Post’s Lean Plate Club. Many sites are associated with a specific disease or condition, or are broadly focused and have a clinical writing style, like WebMD.com. Essentially, Prevention.com’s readers are looking for content that will help them stave off a future visit to sites on diseases or conditions.
Prevention.com offers an extensive variety of health-promotion news and information on many topics including exercise, nutrition, emotional balance, beauty, medicine, and evolving interests like healthy, environmentally safe housekeeping. It is a very rich site with an incredible array of interactive content.
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National Geographic: Health and the Human Body
Health-related Web sites permeate
the Internet. They range from the fly-by-night, weight loss sites to the
National Library of Medicine’s site, which is an amalgamation of all
medical information tracked or associated with the federal government.
Despite the plethora of health-related sites, finding one that gives visitors a basic, unbiased and solid understanding of how the major systems and organs in the body work can be difficult. Two sites that come close are NLM site and health.discovery.com. While these may provide some help, it comes only after extensive sifting through unrelated information, and even then may or may not provide helpful information.
The Web site that comes closer to
the ideal than does NLM and Discovery is the National Geographic’s “Health and
the Human Body” Web package. Although the individual parts of the package
aren’t perfect when considered alone, in aggregate, they provide a solid
overview of what some of the body’s major organs and organ systems are and how
they work.
Content
The package’s content is broken down
into five sections, with each section representing a focus on a different part
of the body. The section categories are the brain, the digestive system, the
lungs, the skin and the heart.
In general, it’s clear that the written
and graphic content within each section is aimed at an audience who know perhaps
a little something about how the body works, but certainly aren’t experts. And
with this target audience in mind, what can be learned from the site is extensive.
The articles that accompany each
section, for example, provide an overview of the parts that make up each organ
or set of organs and how those parts work together. Any of these articles could
be just a couple of lines long and provide only the most basic information, or
the articles can go on for pages, providing explanations in excruciating
detail. The “Health and the Human Body” articles, however, strike a good
balance in providing just enough detail to complete the explanation, but not so
much detail as to clutter the casual reader’s understanding.
An example of this balance is the
“Lung” section article. How the lungs function could have
been presented with a simple, two- or three-sentence statement along the lines
of that these are the organs responsible for our breathing. It could have also
been an exhaustive article, involving fluid dynamic and gas infusion equations.
Instead, it provides a straightforward overview of each of the lungs’ structures
and how those parts work together to allow us to breathe.
Reflecting the clarity of the
articles are the interactive graphics. Each section includes comprehensive
animations of how organs work without skimping on details, but also without
being needlessly gory or dramatic. In addition, each section includes two extra
links to interesting, and even fun, animations. The graphics associated with
the “Skin” article, for example, includes a link to “Stresses
on Skin,” where visitors can experiment with three different ways skin can be
damaged and watch in detail how skin repairs itself. By clicking “Stimulate the
Brain” in the “Brain” section, visitors can watch an animation of
what parts of the brain are active due to different stimuli (make sure you
speakers are on). These and the other graphics serve to give visitors an
opportunity not only to read about how the body works, but also to see it in
action.
My only reservation about the
content is the lack of links for additional information outside the National
Geographic Web site. What links there are go to articles written by either
nationalgeographic.com staff or the organization’s magazine writers. One of the
advantages the Web has over other tools is the ability to give readers access
to deeper content through links to that information. The “Health and the Human
Body” site doesn’t take advantage of this ability.
Although
how the content is presented and how the navigation is structured on the site
isn’t extraordinary, it is good. The main graphic navigation on the package’s opening
page, for example, is fairly intuitive. It’s an outline of a human being with
the five organs and systems highlighted. Clicking on one of the organ
representations takes a visitor to the specific page associated with the organ.
The navigation is repeated below the Flash graphic, but with only straight
text, photos and links to provide visitors with perhaps a more conventional
navigation system, especially for visitors who may not know which organs are
located where in the body.
The package’s
navigation falls apart, however, on the organ-specific pages. The conventional
navigation found below the main graphic on the front page is replaced with each
section’s article. And the main Flash navigation is replaced by each section’s
animations and subnavigation menus. The only way back, then to the main page
and any other page is by hitting one button, labeled “The Human Body.” It would
have been nice to have the full navigation remain in some form so that no
matter where a visitor is within the presentation, he or she can always get to
another section easily.
Interactivity
The site
isn’t full of the type of interactive elements for a visitor to interact with other
visitors through blogs, comments and other vehicles. Indeed, there are no
opportunities for this is. But that’s okay. If the purpose of the site is to
provide a basic, solid understanding of some of the body’s functions, then such
interactive opportunities aren’t need, especially if other sites can fill the
niche. The “Heart” section does make some use of an online quiz and some
printable items, which, if included in the other four sections, would have been
helpful in increasing readers’ understanding of the issues.
Where the
site’s interactivity shines, however, is in its animations. The site’s
developers could have simply provided “play,” “stop” and “pause” buttons to
control the progression of a predetermined, Flash movie clip. Instead, the
developers created a site the can give visitors a deep understanding of the
body’s processes.
For
example, visitors who go to the “Digestive
System” page and click on “Feed the System” have the opportunity to select foods
to see how they are digested (in an easy-to-take animation) and how the body
uses those foods. Visitors who go to the “Heart” section and click “Pumping
Action” can control and see (and hear) the effects of progressively more strenuous
physical exertion on the heart. They can also then take a tour of the heart and
how it functions.
Conclusion
Formula One
Summary
Formula One fans are a devoted bunch, especially those living here in the U.S. This is because the races span the globe and to watch a live broadcast, U.S. fans usually have to tune in late at night or early in the morning. As with any other sport, spectators like to log on and pull up their favorite site to get the latest breaking news and information for their favorite driver or race team. When it comes to Formula One, BBC Sport coverage is pretty much unmatched.
BRONZE EAGLE: The Whitney Biennial on NYTimes.com
SUMMARY
The New York Times multimedia package exploring the Whitney Biennial 2008 combines old media authority with new media sizzle that brings users inside the event but doesn’t overwhelm for the sake of being flashy. It was judged to be the best of the arts and entertainment online features.
The Times has long been renowned for its arts journalism, but multimedia features further elevate the Whitney package by effectively recreating the experience of a visit to the exhibit. This is especially notable for an exhibit that is heavy on installations, which are much harder to capture and portray than are traditional paintings, sculptures or even video pieces.
An interactive, interior map of the Whitney Museum of American Art and of the Park Avenue Armory, an annex for the exhibition, guides users through the Biennial. Individual rooms within the buildings, highlighted on the map, are clickable and link to photos and audio descriptions of the various pieces. Panoramic video of entire floors contributes to creating an immersive experience.
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'Lost' on BuddyTV
Analysis by Chris Snyder
SUMMARY
Watching TV is a very passive experience, but with technological advancements on the web, the viewer can now become much more involved. BuddyTV seems to be taking the lead in daunting tasking of evolving this traditional form of media by incorporating highly interactive news packages focused around ongoing television programs. While it is not your typical news site, BuddyTV offers both original reporting and user generated media as part of an intricate and highly sophisticated social network.
News coverage of television programs is limited to an occasional review or preview on most mainstream sites. BuddyTV offers this in addition to in depth analysis, constantly updated blog posts, exclusive interviews with cast members, spoilers and a complete multimedia showcase. One of the more popular shows on television at the moment is ABC’s "Lost," a unique, complex and often confusing drama where the post-show discussion is as important if not more so than the weekly hour-long viewing. BuddyTV surpasses all other online news packages on "Lost," embracing the fans' desire for up-to-the-minute information and the ability to reach out and communicate with each other both after and during the show.
Writers Strike on BBC News
The Writer’s Strike was a hot button issue in 2008. The Writers Guild of America wanted a swift resolution to the three-month old strike. During that period, scores of articles about the strike were posted on the Internet. My quest to encounter the best Web site that included all of the main elements such as Content, Interface, and Interactivity yielded the following results. Of all the media outlets and Web sites out there, BBC News had the best multimedia package available to viewers.
Rilo Kiley live in concert on NPR
In the last year, my favorite personal media outlet, National Public Radio, created and launched what is now my favorite music site, npr.org/music. Even after spending only a few minutes surfing around the site it's clear NPR spent a ton of time and money putting this site together. While music fans are the main benefactor of this time and money spent, artists on npr.org/music also benefit because they receive an amount of attention on this site that they rarely get in any media publication anymore. It's clear that there are many music lovers at NPR and they have crafted this new site with great care and affection.
The Academy Awards on ontheredcarpet.com
SUMMARY
ontheredcarpet.com had the best online coverage of the 2008 Academy Awards. The Web site, from KABC-TV, the local ABC network affiliate in Los Angeles, has many strong points and uses many current multimedia techniques.
The site includes many interactive elements including an up-to-the minute weather forecast, live streaming video with ABC 7 morning traffic reporter Jane Monreal interviewing celebrities on the red carpet as they arrived and the ability to submit a question for Monreal to ask the stars, there was also live streaming video of ABC 7 entertainment reporter George Pennacchio reporting from the Governor's Ball after the show, video and photos from the show, polls and a printable ballot among others.
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Book Review on the Times Online
SUMMARY
Compared to the breaking news pages of Internet news sites, which have been experimenting with creative and sophisticated interactive storytelling techniques for years, book reviews seem like so much shovelware. The Times Online's review of mystery writer Patricia Cornwell proves that online book sections can also make the most of the medium (without overdoing it).
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