CCT+300+Lab+10

=﻿Lab 10 =

//Using the criteria of Transparency and Functionality in slides 8 and 9 (From Lab 9 Slides), do a media analysis on content (i.e. articles) displayed from two major online information sources (i.e. Google News, About.com, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, MSN.ca etc). //

In order to study the transparency and functionality of sites I used two example sites. The first was Wikipedia.com and the second is Google News. Using these two sites I entered the search term “Will Smith”. Will Smith is a very popular actor who has made many hit movies, making me to assume that the search results will query him very easily.

When I did a search of “Will Smith”, Wikipedia did not give me a list of search results. Instead it went straight to a page dedicated to showing information about him and only him. It showed a short description of who he is, including where he was born and when. It also showed more information about his acting career, personal life, discography, filmography and box office numbers for each of his movies.

In terms of functionality, the effectiveness of its internal search engine is very good. It uses a “best guess” analogy and it is usually right. If it is unsure, it will give you a list so you can pick exactly which search term you meant so you don’t get the wrong information. The site is very well run with no down time, has editors to check its work and is never bombarded with ads as it is run by donations.

In terms of the transparency of the site, each key word on the page for “Will Smith” links to its own separate page that details the key word in more detail. Also similar to that of an essay paper, each statistic or information from credited sources is referenced with a reference page. A page for further reading and external links are also provided at the end of the page to give you more sources to find information.

When I did a search for “Will Smith” on Google News, it gave me a different approach than Wikipedia. Wikipedia gave me an autobiography style page of the actor. Google News however is a news based system that gives latest news about the actor in list format.

In terms of functionality, the effectiveness of its internal search engine is very good. It gives you the latest news updates in terms of relevance to “Will Smith” and shows you the results extremely fast and up to date. You can filter the results in terms of just images, blogs or quotes. You can also filter the news results in terms date, hour, day, week, month or archives. I have not noticed any ads on this site even though Google is known for making most of its revenues through advertisements.

In terms of transparency, each article that it pulls up for “Will Smith” is coming from very reputable sources. It tries to filter out any blogs and other personal sites and shows large newspaper and magazine article links on the top of the list. For example, the LA Times, Hollywood Reporter and the Daily Mail were some of the article results that showed up first.

When comparing these two great sites in terms of functionality and transparency, it has proved that they both offer different methods of providing information. Wikipedia gives you an autobiography style format for its information, crediting reputable sources and Google News shows you the latest updates and news about the search term. So if you are trying to find specific information about a search term in one location, Wikipedia is the place to go. If you are looking for up to date news and information about the search term Google News is the place to go.