Mass Media

The New York Times published that those aged 8 to 18 spend more than 7.5 hours a day on the computer, not including the 5 hours texting. During an hour of my time on the computer the major websites emerged as the ones that I most visit were The College of Saint Rose’s homepage, Yahoo’s homepage, and BBC’s homepage. These three websites have millions and millions of people visiting them every minute, but these are the three that I frequently visit on a daily basis. BBC and Yahoo are predominantly news websites, where I read the top stories of the day. The College of St. Rose’s webpage I visit because of the school-related topics. Within the timespan of one hour, I would visit Yahoo the most. Yahoo has been my favorite search engine and is my homepage as well. On Yahoo, they have news stories that have been covered all day, the weather, the headlines, what’s trending on their website and the Olympic medal count in Sochi, Russia. In the center of Yahoo, there is are anywhere from thirty to one hundred stories. These stories have captivating photos with the title of the article that tries to grab the reader and make them want to read it. This is what draws me to the website because Yahoo does a very good job at covering stories that pertain to the United States. The content of the website is very rich with detail and for breaking news stories; there is a section on the page, that can’t be missed. When they are still covering the breaking news, the editor would update it as soon as it happened. Yahoo is also easily navigable. Within the last few years, they have updated their webpage and made it easy to go through the website to find exactly what you want to read, ranging from your local cinema showings or news about the Venezuelan government. Using the website does have its drawbacks however. Occasionally car advertisements pop-up and take up half of the screen playing music. Overall, taking the good with the bad, Yahoo is my favorite and I go there first for the breaking news in America. BBC is my second most visited website. BBC has a large array of articles ranging from almost everything. Unlike Yahoo, world news is what they cover most. They have a very similar display on their webpage as Yahoo, but it includes different languages that you can translate the page into. They have over 30 separate languages the page can be translated into, from a variety of geographical areas of the world. They have a lot of pictures to the stories that they are advertising with captions of the photo to draw the reader into viewing the article. BBC has very little advertising, only around 3-4 small windows for ads. They also have a variety of tabs such as news, sports, shop, TV, radio, and more. BBC is very well navigable because it has everything you need on the front page. There is no need to search or look through different parts of the website to get to one particular page. They have their website sectioned off for news, business, sports, entertainment, health and categories to allow for a smooth transaction. The last of the websites that I visit the most is The College of Saint Rose homepage. Every day I check it because all of my professors post homework or test grades on the website in the form of online grading, such as blackboard or email through the Saint Rose guided email. On their front page, they show tweets about what is going around campus, such as sports games, employment opportunities, or news about events. They also have a separate category for upcoming events, which is very helpful if there is nothing to do on the day, it visually shows what activities are going around on campus to get involved or watch. Mostly on the website, there are stories about Jimmy Fallon, because Saint Rose loves to flaunt the fact that Jimmy Fallon graduated from the college about 5 years ago. The website is not that easily accessible, for the most part, the search engine is the only way I know how to navigate the website. If I wanted to go to blackboard, I would need to go through and search for it, as opposed to it being its own separate category. Because it is owned by the College, there is no advertising. With all the time spent on the internet, they are my three most visited websites on my computer. The College of Saint Rose is because of the schooling factor, which forces me to budget my time and see what homework there is to do, while still participating in college activities. Yahoo and BBC are also my top because of all the news that I read. Millions of people visit the websites every minute; however those are the three that I visit most often. All three of these websites have something to offer that I find interesting because of what I like to do and what I have to do.