Write a review of a magazine website. Due Thursday, April 10 on the class blog. The point is to get you thinking about multimedia in other mediums aside television and newspaper sites. Focus on the multimedia in your review. Use the following questions to guide your analysis.

1. Choose a magazine website.

2. Introduction: Tell us what website you chose and why. Who is the typical audience for this magazine? How long has it been around?

2. Competition: Who is the competition for this magazine? How does this magazine differentiate itself from the competition?

3. Magazine website: First impressions... does it look like news website? What makes it different? What kind of content is on the website? Do they use multimedia = audio, photoslideshows, video, Flash? Do they encourage reader feedback through forums, story comments or blogs? Are there any advertisments? If so, what kind? Banner ads? Advertorials? Does the magazine website have content that is different from the print magazine?

4. Evaluation: What do you like about the magazine website? What don't you like? What are are two or three things you would do differently with the website to attract more readers? How could the magazine incorporate multimedia - video, photos, music?

5. Conclusion: If you could pick and direct a next story for this magazine what topic would you choose and what multimedia would you plan for it? Write a headline and summary/tease for your proposed story. Explain how you would use multimedia to enhance certain parts of the story. Read Multimedia story planning with storyboards and use it as a guide to explain how you would enhance your story for online. Don't include a sketch or storyboard. Just explain how you would enhance the story using a bulleted list.

Example:

Let's say you decide to pitch a story about the judges on Dancing with the Stars.

For multimedia, I would pitch the following:

• Video clips of the judges in action on the show.

   

• Bios on the judges - photos of them and what makes them worthy of judging (maybe make this resume style).
• Online poll. What judge do you like better?
• An interactive multimedia piece that takes one dance and breaks down what each judge looks for in the dance. Could include video clips of the judges' explanations.