The first task we were greeted with in online this week was to develop some ideas for a website that we could produce and run as a group. To think of some original ideas for a website that we could all find a role working on was initially quite daunting. However our lecturer Jim suggested something quite achievable – a site for the student paper.
It made sense. Last year saw the founding of ‘Canvas’, UCCA’s first student newspaper at Farnham. With issue one a huge success, issue two is well and truly under way and pencilled in for an early March release. As Sports Editor, I’m currently busy gathering stories for my section, which hopefully will be increased to two pages in this issue (given that it is the best section).
Anyway this is the current website Canvas holds. Shocking I know. But, every cloud has a silver lining. The web-hosting is there for us to take advantage of, and the opportunity this unit offers in allowing us to work on a group site could enable us to do just that. If we could set up something worthwhile, then I would quite happily help keep it up and running until I leave Uni. I see the site as having even more potential than the paper, but we can go into that another time.
So this begs the question – what should a student newspaper website be like?
It was suggested in class to look at the regional’s sites and take note of the way they do things. I guess it’s a good place to start, but in reality we all know we will never be able to achieve what they can. Nevertheless, I think we should aim more Guardian, than Daily Star, in the sense of design and layout. The white space, the simplicity of the text headlines on the left hand side, the more graphical link bar on the right are all elements I like. It’s all achievable too, just a watered-down version.
I’ll be back for a closer look at some actual student websites. Just got to grab some lunch. Hold tight.
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Tags: Online Journalism, Student Journalism
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