Critical comparison of the Daily Star and the BBC News website

The two websites that will be analysed and compared are BBC News and the Daily Star. It is important to take into consideration the difference between each websites audience and as a result the varied styles of presentation used to accommodate them. Due to the BBC being a public broadcasting service it is required to cater for the majority of the public placing a far larger emphasis on political and international news which is contrasted with the Daily Star, essentially being soft news and gossip. These differences not only manifest themselves in the content but also within the layout of the two websites, something that will also be analysed in this essay. Accessibility will also be a factor and the ability to navigate around the website will also be compared. The different emphasis on types of news will play a large role in the type of audience the site attracts and therefore the ability to cater to that specific target market will be important.

When viewing the Daily Star’s website the first thing that becomes apparent is the general clutter and disorganisation regarding the various articles and news stories. Jacob Neilsen states that the majority of users will only “scan the page picking out individual words and sentences” (Jakob Nielsen, 1997). If this is the case then it is crucial for headings and categories to indicate to the user exactly what it is they are viewing without having to read the whole text. In the case of the Daily Star’s website, news stories are simply scattered around the main page with no cohesion regarding the articles subject. This is illustrated when an article entitled “nuts lure shark to tourist beach” is placed next to a football story about Andre Arshavin. This swamp of uncategorized news stories leads the main page to be unnecessarily long and therefore requires a lot of scrolling, if one is to take into consideration that “Only 10% of users scroll beyond the information that is visible on the screen when a page comes up” (Jacob Neilsen, 1996), then a large portion of the information on the main page is wasted.

This is in huge contrast with the BBC News website which at first glance appears to utilise the use of headings and categories far more effectively. The homepage is divided into different sections including sport, feature articles and a section of video and audio entitled “watch/listen” amongst others. Although there are a number of headlines that do not fall under any category there are not many and it is quite apparent that they are the main stories of the day due to their location in the centre of the page. This gives these stories a natural priority rather than the Star’s website in which no particular story stands out and is lost in the overload of information. The style used by the BBC in the creation of their website creates a far less cluttered image and allows a user to navigate instantaneously to their point of interest.

Although categories are detrimental to create a clear and concise website, the headers and vocabulary used to define the articles they contain are also equally as important. Jakob Nielson describes headers and headlines as needing to be “short” as well as “rich in information scent” (Jacob Nielsen, 2009). This aspect of the BBC’s website is outstanding and is described by Jakob Nielson as “offering remarkable headline usability”(Jakob Nielson, 2009), not only do the main headlines consistently keep within a six word limit but also provide a great deal of information, this is also true when regarding the sub headings as well. The fact the BBC have opted for a very succinct approach to their headlines allows the user to absorb lots of nuggets of information without needing to explore in further detail, something which is essential for a website. Once again the Daily Star falls short in this area and often displays headlines that are unclear as to what the article is about. Headlines such as “Baby Kai Rooney’s a cheeky monkey” and “Katie’s footy Lover shock” are

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Critical comparison of the Daily Star and the BBC News website

incredibly vague and offer no insight into the subject matter of the article, especially when compared to a headline form the BBC News website “Leaders in angry clash over fee’s” which outlines the major points contained in the related article.

The vocabulary used in the Daily Mail’s website raises further issues and is what Jakob Nielsen describes as “marketese”. This defines “the promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims ("hottest ever") that currently is prevalent on the Web. Web users are busy: they want to get the straight facts. Also, credibility suffers when users clearly see that the site exaggerates.” (Jakob Nielsen 2007). The Daily Star’s website can be seen to use this style of promotional writing with captions such as “hot!” placed next to major headlines, something that is non-existent when viewing the BBC News website.

When analysing the interactive elements displayed on the website both sites offer a range of options for the user. Due to the BBC’s versatility across the different facets of the broadcasting network it is of no surprise that they offer a variety of different types of media in which the user can engage with a story. The “watch/listen” section provides an ample amount of video and audio footage from both their television and radio channels. Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of this feature is the sheer amount of material available, and once again the video footage and radio broadcasts are organised into generic categories as well as articles related to whatever the user may be viewing at the time. This is also displayed with a brief summary describing the clip or sound bite. The website also provides links to programmes on the BBC iplayer that correspond to the articles seen on the website as well as radio programmes. This adds a whole new dimension onto the site and seamlessly provides a link between every type of distribution the BBC uses to convey their material.

There is also a category entitled “have your say” which allows users to post photo’s comments and feedback to issues raised on the website. This generates a far greater sense of interactivity for the user which is important “to facilitate the feeling of interpersonal human communication and increase user autonomy by shifting control away from the media and to the audience.” (Elizabeth Marlow, 2009). Once again the user has a variety of different ways to interact with the website and has a wide-spread amount of user generated content; users can share their opinion by commenting, texting or sending in photographs. Another key feature is the constant links to the RSS Feed which can be found at the top of the main page as well as at the bottom of other pages alongside texts alerts and IPod synchronisation symbols, only further extending the possibilities for the user to interact and respond to the website.

The Daily Star’s interactive content is far less comprehensive. There is a small obscure link entitled “Star Videos” which guides the user to what is essentially a YouTube style line up of random videos ranging from tacky photo shoots, gossip, music and sport. The content however, does follow the theme of the website which is relatively celebrity and sport orientated and therefore the content of the videos is not the concern. Once again the layout appears disorganised and although they fall under generic headers they have minimal description and leave the user guessing as to the content of each video. This is a huge contrast to the BBC News website which offers a far more in depth description of each video. In regards to user generated content it is fairly basic, users will comment on articles however there is no real direction. Unlike the BBC News site which engages users not only by asking questions that are topical but providing different mediums in which to express

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Critical comparison of the Daily Star and the BBC News website

themselves, the Daily Star has a series of un-co-ordinated questions scattered around and no real sense of a community in which these issues are fully debated. The RSS Feed is also hidden amongst the contrasting bright colours and is virtually camouflaged, not to mention the search bar being situated half way down the page.

This lack of clarity is mainly due to the design layout and colour scheme of the Daily Star website. Not only does the bright yellow and red make it hard for anything to stand out on the page but the constant flashing adverts, images and promotional material means that aspects such as navigational tools, essential for any website, become lost and muddled amongst the chaos. This is hugely contrasted with the BBC News website which uses a plain white background with bold colours to highlight different menu’s as well as blue to highlight links. There is no flashing imagery and therefore the focus is drawn towards the content and not the advertising.

The contrast of the two websites could not be greater in content, design and accessibility. The Daily Star overloads the user with small stories and gossip but with no real explanation of the relation to the site or the reader, the layout creates a cluttered image that ends up diverting the reader from essential information such as the menu as well as the RSS Feed. There is no apparent community and what little comments there are appear to be are lost among the endless amount of random articles and adverts. The BBC on the other hand, offers a multitude of mediums to create a vast interactive community constantly adding different user generated content and absorbing the many different forms of written, visual and audio news available. This is all displayed in a clear and concise layout that places emphasis on giving the user s short, digestible pieces of information that is backed up by a considerable amount of material if the user requires it.

References:

Elizabeth Marlow, www.nprcenter.org website Interactivity, 2009 Jakob Nielsen, www.useit.com, Alertbox, 1996 Jakob Nielsen, www.useit.com, Alertbox, 1997 Jakob Nielsen, www.useit.com, Alertbox, 2009 Jakob Nielsen, www.useit.com, Alertbox, 2007

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