EPJ Media Organization Web Site Critique

The website that I chose to critique is http://english.aljazeera.net/. I first began reading stories on this website a year ago, when I was taking an International Journalism class. I appreciated its content, often finding the reporting to be balanced and in-depth.

But in taking a critical eye to its use of media, I found there are several things that I think should be improved:

1. While the website uses images and video, I found that I wanted more by way of these media. Typically, each story features a single picture or video associated with it. The lack of pictures made the articles seem a little bland to me. Websites like the New York Times and the Washington Post typically have more than one image or graphic.
2. Likewise, I found myself missing the imbedded links that the Post or the Times provide, which link to additional information. For the most part, each article was a dead end as far as ease in finding additional information. A few web pages did this, mostly for really big stories, but most stories do not include links.
3. The front page of Al Jazeera’s website was extremely jam-packed with links to news stories. But this plethora of data served to merely feel overwhelming rather than helpful. And I really hated having to scroll down, down, down… The sub-front pages for each category weren’t much better.
4. Unlike the Times or the Post, the quality of images was inconsistent, as though it was an afterthought, if that. As a photojournalist, the image quality really bugged me. It was if none of it was taken by professional photojournalists, but they just got an image to have one and possibly catch someone’s eye.
5. Navigation was one of my main complaints with the site. While its task bar remained consistent, sitting on the left side of the page, and a color change indicated which section of the site you were in, getting around after you select an article either means using the back button in your browser to starting at the main subsection page. There was no other way to leave a page. I greatly wished that it would have a ‘back to previous’ button or the like. The Times has links at the bottom of its article pages which include things like ‘Next post’ or ‘More Articles in XXXX.’ This set up seems to invite more surfing.
6. Both websites feature a ‘top news’ or ‘related news’ article list, which is nice for surfing. And both provide related articles. I preferred the Times way of putting them at the end of the article I’m reading rather than at the top of the page.
7. Both sites provide a list of ‘most e-mailed’ but the Times’s style seems cleaner, I think because of the color (or lack of color) used.
8. I’m not really a fan of the mustard color used on the site for headers, etc., but I think I understand the logic of it, since it is similar to sand and Al Jazeera is published in a desert region.
9. One other thing of note: the font on Al Jazeera website was sans serif, while both the Times and the Post used serif’d fonts. While sans serif is supposed to be easier to read, I find myself liking the serif’d font choice better. It may be from a reading background bias, but the breaking up of the font style seemed to make those sites more visually interesting.