1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

178 Journalism Online
not graphics. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported
that one researcher surveyed 500 agricultural web sites and
only rated two with top marks for ‘net appeal’. 5
Users’ information requirements and interests
This final category links most closely with the question ‘What is
the message I am trying to communicate?’. It requires a definition
of what your prime users wish to get from your site. It refers to
their interests, desires and needs.
Interests – this is particularly important to news sites. Defining
the pre-occupations and consuming passions of your readers.
Desires – maybe they want to be entertained rather than/as
well as informed?
Needs – this is particularly important for information-based
sites. Many sites of commercial organizations simply reflect the
corporate structure of company. They may regard their
customers as a prime user group, but the site does not meet the
customers’ needs. This lesson is being learned the hard way on
e-commerce sites where brochureware and hard sell is giving
way to information and service with opportunities to buy.
However many corporate and not-for-profit information-based
sites still have a long way to go. The starting point is to know
your user and put yourself in their shoes. Needs must also be
considered from the utility perspective. We have already seen
the advantages of breaking stories into ‘chunks’, but what if the
user wants to print off the entire story as a single document?
They should be offered this as an alternative, with the whole
story reconstructed into a single file for easier printing.
What is the message I am trying to communicate?
In an ideal world, this question would be answered by giving your
users what interests them, what they desire and what meets their
needs. However, there are several considerations shaping this
5 www.abc.net.au/pm/s104157.htm