Recommendations for Fox 5’s Website

Throughout the semester I have analyzed myfoxdc.com. I complained about how the website appeared to be congested and that the only really good examples of multimedia use were dated. So, I believe changes to myfoxdc.com need to focus on making the website more user friendly and visually appealing as well as incorporating more multimedia reporting. The news station does a good job of getting the latest local news stories onto the website in a timely manner, so I think it’s really important to make changes to the way in which content on the site is formatted and creating more interactive ways to present information and stories.

Since I began the class, I have looked at websites with a more critical eye, especially news related websites. Just enough white space, bold words, boxed sections and the use of pictures make browsing through a website easier. Fox 5 needs to improve some of these elements to their page format. I find that print news sources such as newspapers and magazines use more multimedia reporting than TV news station’s websites. Fox 5, like other TV news station’s websites, uses video and pictures as their multimedia tools. I believe incorporating more multimedia aspects would make the website more user friendly, interactive and possibly even attract more visitors.

Fox 5 recently made some changes in the format of their website. Bold font, boxed spaces and the use of less text and more pictures make the information on the website more visually appealing. It looks like Fox 5 is already working to evolve the user experience on their website. A particular change to the site that I appreciate is the information provided at the bottom of the page. Contact information and a search box are available as well as sections for feedback, Fox 5 mobile information and links to things that were mentioned on any of the station’s newscasts. I think the recent changes to website show that Fox 5 is making steps in the right direction.

Fox 5 Analytics

597,691 people in the United States visited myfoxdc.com from Jan. 30th- Feb. 28th 2012, according to quantcast.com. The number of visitors has greatly increased since the end of last year when only 237,795 people visited the site each month.

The demographics of website visitors is examined on both analytics websites. According to quantcast.com the website is visited more by females, 54 percent female and 46 percent male. The age group 35-44 years old visits Fox 5’s website the most, 28 percent. Only 6 percent are 65 years and older whereas the age group 18 year olds makes up percent. People with no kids as well as those who earn $50-100k have higher percentages of viewing Fox 5’s website. It was no surprise to find that college graduates and post-graduates have higher percentages of visiting the site than people with no college. In terms of ethnicity Caucasians makes up 55 percent of visitors. However, I was surprised to find that  African Americans make up 33 percent of the composition, while Hispanics make up 7 percent and Asians 4 percent.

Alexa.com ranks myfoxdc.com as 5,625 in the U.S. and gives it a reputation 6,292. Websites such as google.com, yahoo.com and apple.com link to Fox 5’s website, which improves it’s rank in search engines.

The top 5 search queries from search engines that drive traffic to myfoxdc.com are Brazilian big brother show scandale, fox news, fox 5 news, fox 5 dc and fox 5. The show scandele query got 5.02 percent of search traffic, whereas fox 5 news got 1.20 precent. High impact search queries for this website include fox news, big brother show, fox 5 news and big brother. These queries are relevant to the site and are actively targeted by competitors advertising on search engines. Within the last month the percentage of site traffic from search engines is 4.6 percent.

This analytics website compared the website traffic of myfoxdc.com to that of wusa9.com, CBS’s affiliate news station located in Washington, D.C. Fox 5’s website is ranked 22,879 globally and WUSA 9 is ranked 52,371. I found this especially interesting because I interned at both TV news stations. According to these analytics websites myfxodc.com has been pretty successful in the amount of site traffic it gets. I was surprised with the number of views the website gets per month.

Simple Navigation

In terms of the website’s navigation, Myfoxdc.com puts an emphasis on local news stories and is very simple to navigate through. The navigation bar is located at the top of the website, under the banner. This makes it apparent to visitors the different sections of the website and conforms to the findings in eye tracking studies on how users read Web content.

The top of the page contains headlines and links to stories in categories (local, latest, national and weblinks). The center of the page has a carousel that shows the top 3 stories in different categories. A picture that goes along with the top story appears as to the left of the linked headlines. The navigation is consistent from page to page and there tends to be a carousel on each of the section pages. I find this moving element to be extremely useful as it allows viewers to have a glance at the latest headlines.

Individual stories are very basic and easy to navigate through; but they are not put together in a manner that engages the reader. This story on George Zimmerman being charged with 2^nd degree murder is an example of how almost all of the stories appear. A video is at the top, below that is text on the right and links to related stories on the left.

Fox 5’s homepage effectively links views and visitors to the bulk of the site. The “About Us” page is included in the navigation bar along with news, weather, traffic, entertainment, sports and other important topic sections. Myfoxdc.com may be easy to navigate through; but I believe a cleaner design would simplify navigation even more. The website has the basic gist of good page navigation; however, I find that the links box and carousal on the home page are distracting.

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Social Media

Social media has become extremely useful for news organizations in sharing news and opening up room for discussion. Fox 5 has uses social media to connect with its viewers. From the website’s homepage people can access links to the TV news station’s social media sites, mobile applications and RSS feeds.

Fox 5 uses Twitter to keep their audience up to date on breaking news along with stories covered by their reporters. They seem to tweet at least once every hour and always include links to the stories on myfoxdc.com. However, there is very little use of hash tags, which could be useful in their tweets, especially for trending topics. One example of a tweet that could have used a hash tag is one about Trayvon Martin’s parents coming to D.C. because it’s a hot topic.

The news station’s Facebook page is very easy to navigate through. At the top people can find links to their photos, latest headlines, Twitter and their number of likes. Links to stories are posted less often then they are on Twitter, but there tends to be a lot more discussion about the stories posted on Facebook. Open discussion is one of the elements of social media that makes it so useful.

Both Fox 5’s Twitter and Facebook pages have a large graphic that lists the times of their daily newscasts. This says a lot about what the organization is trying to emphasize. Fox 5 is a local TV news station, so getting the message out there about the station’s show times on their social media sites is a clever way of reminding viewers of the primary place to get the news.

Fox 5 makes the effort to be interactive with their audience through social media at a bare minimum. They use these tools to allow people on the website to share stories on Facebook and Twitter, post links to stories and most importantly, remind viewers of when to tune into their newscasts. Myfoxdc.com could use more than just the simple option to share stories on social media sites. Twitter feeds and other efforts would add interactive elements to the news Fox 5 is reporting on the websites and ultimately create a better experience for viewers.

Broadcast Features & Interactive Elements

Broadcast features are most frequently used on myfoxdc.com. Videos and pictures can be found with almost every story on the site. Interactive elements such as polls, chats and maps are used for less news based content. Myfoxdc.com aims to inform viewers on local news, but goes the extra mile by incorporating content that the news station’s localized audience would find important and helpful.

Videos and photos usually accompany the website’s local news stories because TV news uses visuals and audio to appeal to viewer’s eyes and ears. The videos are broadcast on the channels newscasts, so they are always produced very well. However, the same amount of effort is not always put into the pictures that are used on the site. Myfoxdc.com has some photo galleries such as this gallery on rain causing flooding in the DC area. But sometimes photos are just frozen screen shots from the TV package.

The website’s “Money” tab has a link to “Frugal Family” where users can find feature stories and tips on smart living. Some of the recent stories include “Secrets to Supermarket Savings” and “The Perfect Potluck”. Along with these fun and informative feature stories are a quiz and a reader poll in the right sidebar that incorporate facts about healthy living. This is a good example of how Fox 5 tries to engage viewers in an interactive manner while giving them useful information.

“Aging Judges” shows data collected from 2009 on more than 1,200 federal judges that is analyzed in a fun and interactive manner. The page includes a video, a picture of 9 Supreme Court justices, a graphic with former U.S. presidents and a Google map of the United States. When you click on a justice a window pops up giving you more information. The graphic of the presidents allows the viewer to click and see the judges each president selected and the Google map gives details about federal and state judges from different states. This interactive page is very informative. Although it is a great example of multimedia, the information on it is dated.

It’s clear that the news component is the most significant on the website because the home page is filled with links to news stories and accompanying videos. Finding the interactive multimedia components require quite a bit of clicking and searching. It would be challenging to create interactive elements for news stories that are pushed out daily; but I think more of these would make viewers’ experience on myfoxdc.com more engaging.

Myfoxdc.com & Multimedia

Fox 5 is a local TV news station, so the organization’s website myfoxdc.com uses a lot of videos and photos to cover stories in multimedia. The stories that are covered particularly well tend to be very local, high profile cases or events. These stories receive extensive coverage.

A good example of multimedia coverage on the website is the Lululemon murder case. In “New Video Shows Brittany Norwood’s Police Interview From Lululemon Murder Case” the news organization uses several videos to tell the story along with photos and a brief written element. This particular story is about the release of police interview videotapes; however, other videos related to the case are linked in a side bar on the left under “Lululemon Employee Murder.” People can use social media options in a side bar on the right to share the story via Twitter, Facebook, etc. Having all of these elements on a single page, just a click away, allows for a user-friendly experience that incorporates all viewers need to know about the story.

Myfoxdc.com also uses photo galleries in an effort to use multimedia to tell stories and cover events. “Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Opens in DC” is a good example of how photos can be used particularly well. The focus of the story is the opening of the memorial, so pictures of the statue and people visiting the memorial do a good job of conveying the message.

Fox 5’s website uses multimedia particularly well in stories that the organization has widespread access to and are of great interest to the local audience.

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How Fox 5 Tells the News

Fox 5, like so many other media outlets, uses their website to expand their viewers access to news. People are not always able to watch local newscasts, but myfoxdc.com allows them to see what the news station is covering along with other important content, 24/7.

I think myfoxdc.com does a fairly decent job of presenting news. But because Fox 5 is primarily a TV news station, the written content is not always good. The focus of the website is to present news through videos. The site’s local news section contains a lot of the TV packages that are broadcast in their newscasts. While some stories may contain a well written, detailed element alongside video and pictures, others only have a brief written piece that explains what the package is about.

The local news story “100^TH Season Ahead For DC’s Cherry Blossom Trees, Peak Dates Announced” aired in today’s early morning show, is an example of a story that does not have a strong written element. Alongside the video and two picture is a brief description of the video and a link to the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s website. It is clear that the written component is not as important as the TV news package. But, having all the information in one area makes good use of the medium.

On the other hand, sometimes reporter’s provide a detailed written element to go along with the video, such as “Controversial Ad at Clarendon Metro Station Curses President Obama” by Bob Barnard. This piece incorporates video, photos and a written element that details important parts of the story

When considering that Fox 5 is a TV news station, I think they do a pretty good job of managing the content on the website and making use of the medium. When viewers and users visit myfoxdc.com, they can expect to see stories that they may have missed in a newscast as well as access local, national and the latest news.