Newspaper advert: Research

Newspaper advertisements are a good and in-expensive way of getting a product known, for the advertisement to be more successful on a national scale, it would have to be seen used in national newspapers

Website Contents

Homepage – The homepage is the most important part of any website, it is where the first impression of the site is given to the audience, it needs to be easy to navigate and look appealing in order to keep the attention of the audience.
Homepage contents – This page should include:

o Attractive theme
o Imagery of programmes
o News feed
o Links to other pages
o Special features
o Video
o Search engine and or archive

Service page – Page offering additional services.

News page – The news page can offer news on upcoming shows, events and possibly general news (or any news related to the site or programmes).

News page contents – This page should Includes:

o RSS feed
o News on shows
o Upcoming features

Calendar of shows – A calendar showing when and what programmes will be shown and at what times.

Website search – A search engine (search bar or archives) that can be used to easily navigate the site.

FAQ’s page (Frequently asked questions) – this page gives answers to the most asked questions about the site.

Site map – Map of the sites layout.

Additional pages and contents.

o Terms and Conditions page
o Copyrights
o Links page
o Contacts page
o Privacy policy

How is the internet shaping our lives?

http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_031229_uk.pdf

http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=6336

Modes of Communication

The internet has drastically changed the way in which people communicate with one another, it is an indirect method that most prefer and have become accustom to, Email is probably the most significant invention to have come out of the internet, giving people with internet connection the ability to send messages to and from each other instantaneously. After the creation of Email, even more ways to communicate have come into existence such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol – popularized primarily with the emergence of Skype and Google Voice) and instant messaging. These new pieces of technology have made it incredibly easy to communicate with one another from great distances with the additional options of sending extra information such as images, screen sharing and conference calling (Using a webcam and voice to be able to see and talk to the other person). These advances in communication have given people much more flexibility in when how and where they can communicate with peers, friends and family. But has this new technology taken away our ability to communicate face to face with people, with more and more people becoming accustom and used to typing to a faceless screen and waiting for a response of letters constantly, people may become less accustom to talking face to face in the real world, this could cause difficulties in various aspects of their lives whether it be in their social or professional lives. Also with more instantaneous communication people want responses just as fast, this is especially evident in peoples working lives where if they can be constantly send and asked to send work they have much less downtime, while this is much more efficient work wise it may be more stressful for the individual worker as they are almost constantly required to work.

Businesses also have taken advantage of the internet through e-commerce and e-banking, one example of e-commerce is online shopping, this makes life easier for the individual as they have a massive variety to choose from when it comes to products (especially if they live in a area with not much commercial activity) they also save on time (if the person is in no rush to get their product of course, and even then some delivery services can deliver on the same day as ordered) and transportation costs (fuel, train etc).

Researching

The internet has revolutionalised the way in which we search and find information that we are looking for, at the click of a button we can now access many pieces of information on almost any subject we want to know about that in the past may have been very had or impossible to access. search engines such as yahoo and google have given us the ability to do this with their large array of search answers.

Shopping

Commerce has also come along way with the arrival of the internet, with it comes new opportunities and business potentials, shops and businesses can now setup websites online to show off a much more accessible and larger variety of their wares, also we are given the opportunity to order these from online and get them delivered to us, giving us much more choice and luxury in when we are shopping and searching.Businesses such as Amazon and Ebay have really taken advantage of the internets accessibility and through them people can easily purchase almost anything they want from the comfort of their computer chair.

Website analysis

- Search bar and button panel at the top of the screen, obvious spot to put best search options.

- Attention catching slogans and text, in a colour that stands out to the rest of the text.
“Sky TV - bringing you the TV you love with the UK's widest range of HD channels.”

- Multiple images to make the website look interesting and immersive also shows the genre specifics of sky television (sports, general entertainment, kids etc).

- Offers and advertising for television services shown clearly on the main television site of sky.

- Simple user interface with clear buttons , background is simple.

- Information about the site and “legal stuff” are below at the bottom of the page.

- Logo clear in top left corner.

The sky website shows a large focus on imagery and colours to stand out as a bold and interesting website page that will catch someones attention, the images it shows are full of many different genres of television shows declaring to the person looking at the site that the channel is based on general entertainment with no specific category of programming. also, there is no real colour theme further enforcing the "all rounded" programming of the channel.





- Interesting page background.

- Search bar and buttons at the top of the website again (repeated theme amongst TV websites.

- RSS Feed.

- Movie advertisement next to title, only text in gold, standing out more then any other piece of text.

- Advertisement and competitions.

- List of television shows and times.

- Video on the front page, interesting and use of multimedia.

- Theme colours which are commonly connected to E4 (purple, black and gold).

- Simple, easy to navigate layout.

The E4 page holds imagery but in a smaller and more ordered fashion as to sky, as it does not aim to show as much information on the first screen as possible as opposed to the sky website, the images are a mix between real life and cartoons, indicating that the site is aimed at a younger audience, it's colour theme is purple, black and white, these colours together (especially purple) are not commonly seen as a base colour on websites and gives the site it's own unique look to attract an audiences attention.






- Minimalistic design.

- Black and white, no real colour contrast.

- Large list of categories in a simple and clear manner.

- Small simple directory of different types of programme genres above.

- A-Z search directory.

- The consistency of text size and font remains very similar throughout the page, allowing the images to be the only unique and interesting pieces on the website.

The Channel Four website portays a minimalistic design, it's been made to look very simplistic and easy to use, this kind of website would appeal more to a older audience demographic as an older person may not be as used to using new internet tools and this may cause them to lose interest in the site. there is no real colour theme, as it is a simplistic design, also that for a older audience, colour is sacrificed in order to give the site a formal, proffessional look.

Similarities

- All of the websites share the fact that they have their logos on the top-left corner of the page.

- Each show a variety of images of programmes from their shows.

- Each site has featured programming.

- Each site has at least one extra piece of multimedia e.g. images, videos, videos would be particularly good to add in even if in a minimalist designed website.

- Each website has a set of colours.

- Each site shows it’s selection of television programmes in lists and rows with information available for each of them.

Differences

- The pages have their own unique differences such as the Sky website has an emphasis on imagery to promote it's product and services in a interesting to look at fashion

- Each site has it’s own unique colour theme.

- Each site has it’s own individual layout.

- The overall design types are different.