Choose hope over fear

The website I drew out of the hat was The Huffington Post, which I might add, I have never seen. With this being a new experience of visiting the site for the first time, I found the entire page a little boring. There was very little color, just the basic white background, black font and a little red here and there. With the inauguration coverage some four hours old, newer stories have surfaced, such as Ted Kennedy collapsing at the inaguration luncheon. The paper is also focusing a lot on the "HuffPost Ball." While the picture on the homepage of The Huffington Post shows President Obama, his wife and two daughters at the event, they give only links to articles surrounding the event. I believe the audience The Huffington Post is trying to reach is clearly those interested in the inauguration and stories focusing on the event itself. I think the site could be meant for older readers, since the site is not overloaded with pictures, colors, and articles, making it easy for readers to enjoy. Obviously viewers of the site are reading the articles based on the 7,441 comments that have been left on just the inauguration portion of the site.

If I was the editor of this newspaper, not just focusing on the inauguration itself, but the website as a whole, I would definetly add more color and make it seem a little busier. The layout is pretty simple as well, nothing compared to CNN.com or FoxNews.com.

The differences between Brett's website, Drudgereport.com and Thehuffingtonpost.com are quite a few examples. Brett's website, The Drudge Report does not write its own material. The website contains links pertaining to inauguration stories, however, it does not have writers employed. The stories containing information on the inaugration have links that send readers to Yahoo!News.com, Breitbart.tv and independent blogs. The website is very cluttered, confusing and as much information that is provided, none is written by Drudge Report staff.