Introduction:
The Villager is a student-ran, online newspaper at Stevenson University. The weekly publication consists of news, sports, and other happenings around the university. Staff consists of students enrolled in journalism as well as other members within the Stevenson community. Although the publication reports well-written articles, it lacks showing the negative sides of the university.
Linguistic:
Articles within the villager are written and edited by students who understand the style of newspaper writing (AP), due to their journalism class as well as previous English classes. The word choice within these articles is simple enough for the average person to comprehend.
Visual:
The layout of the site is straightforward and simple. There is a white background with black text as well as a green logo. The front page holds images with scrolling content with the titles paced int the middle of them. Font remains consistent throughout the entire site including body, titles, and links.
Aural:
There is no use of music or other audio when opening the page. Videos that consist of interviews and sports clips are the only use of the aural mode. There are not many of these videos and can take a long time to find.
Spatial:
The physical arrangement of The Villager is quite appealing. The top of the page hosts tabs that can be selected to sort information within that category. There is also a search bar which allows information to be found efficiently. On the article pages there is a good use of white space and includes a side column that the ten most recent posts can be found.
Gestural:
The Villager is does not convey an interactive experience. There is no place where readers can comment and connect to other readers and the writers.
Conclusion:
The student-ran online newspaper provides readers an opportunity to find out about events and happenings around the Stevenson community. However, the publication lacks showing all sides of the university, while just focusing on the positives.
1. The thesis is clear and debatable. The author expresses an opinion that The Villager is well written, but it shows bias by not showing the negative sides of the university.
2. The author analyzes all five modes. However, the author does not provide specific examples of each mode.
3. The affordances are implied, but not clearly stated. For example, the author says, “There is also a search bar which allows information to be found efficiently.” This implies that a website publication is effective to allow for the reader to search for information. But, there is not really a spot in the post where she talks about the affordances.
4. There are no screenshots of the information provided. The author could possibly add screenshots for the layout, videos, tabs, or side bar with the recent posts.