Audience and Site Analysis

WE

Abstract

This will be a user-generated content (UGC) website that will provide an outlet/medium for users to discuss and communicate with one another about current events, news, issues, ideas, research and more. This will be a moderated site that is structured for academic/intellectual debate and discussion that encourages compromise and understanding.

Purpose

The goal of this website is to provide a medium for people that are interested in sharing their ideas, research, arguments, and thoughts on current events. This will be a social media website that encourages debate and discussion in an academic and respectful format so that the users are able to not only get across their ideas and thoughts but also understand the ideas and thoughts of others. Information and news has become so accessible via the internet and social media that there is an increasing lack of focus on the importance of debate and discussion. Current search engines have enabled every piece of information to be accessible at any moment and place in developed countries. This has created an overwhelming amount of information to be circulated from person to person and this has resulted in a lack of respect for the knowledge of this information. Progression of knowledge cannot be achieved by information spreading alone, there must be debate and discussion. The main goal of this site will be to allow users to post any piece of information they feel should be known, researched or debated. This medium will encourage discussion and debate for the purpose of understanding and compromise. There will be a weekly debate on a current issue that will ultimately come to a conclusion and a synthesis of ideas and thoughts at the end of the week. Users will be able to start their own discussions and debates on what they feel are important issues. A page will be dedicated to American and World news and current events that allow the users to share links or personal articles that they feel should be shared and seen by everyone. The goal of this is to have a form of dialectical news in which the thesis is the news or current event article as the thesis and with the ability to discuss the news article as an antithesis. Through discussion and debate there will encouragement to have a synthesis of the thesis and antithesis to progress the ideas and knowledge of said news or current event article. Users will also have the ability to post their own opinion articles to provide the community with further discussion and this will also allow those who share their article to have positive criticism. Research papers and journals will also have spot that users are able to share in the hopes of encouraging further reading and it will also provide sources for the community for further research.

The overall goal is to bring back the importance of knowledge through discussion and debate by creating an active community that shares the information they feel is important. There is so much information that it has become diluted and it is often times overlooked and not discussed as it should be. With this much information available in the world we cannot forget the importance of discussion and debate through the human collective to progress knowledge in the search for truth.

Measurable Objectives

1. Users are easily able to navigate through the website

2. Users can easily find what they are looking for

3. Pages are labeled and organized allowing for the previous two goals

4. User sharing

5. Quality content

6. User Interaction

7. Quality discussions and debates

8. Overall community activity

9. Amount of traffic and views of user content 

Audience Analysis

The audience that will be targeted for this website will be those who use social media networks the most as these people will be the most active. “As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking site”. This piece of data comes from the Pew Research Center which is a nonpartisan fact tank. It is clear to see that social media is very popular as ¾’s of those on the internet use social media and it is only expected that this percentage will continue to rise. The age range that uses social networking site most is that from the ages of 18 to 29 at 89% while the age group from 30-49 comes at a close second with 82%. This site will target specifically the age group from 18-29 but there will certainly be encouragement for those that are older as the whole goal of this site is to have people share from all different points of view. As for targeting a younger audience the reasoning behind this is to not only target the most active age group but also those that are still in higher education. People that are still in higher education will be much more likely contribute in an academic setting. Also as the Pew Research Center indicates those that are 49 and younger are more likely to post about social or political issues than those that are older than 50. The format and organization of the site will be very easy follow and use but the content that is posted will most likely be at a high level as it will be encourage for academic and intellectual discussions. This means that those with a lesser of an education may have a problem contributing but that certainly does not mean they are unable to do so. The understanding is that this site will at first have a very small niche of people contributing but the goal is to spread the idea of discussing and debating issues and current events among all people that it matters too. Also as this site is wholly based on UGC, the site must evolve with its user’s wants and needs. As the site grows there may need to be changes made to accommodate all the new users without

losing focus of the main goal of the site. This may prove to be difficult but it this may have the possibility of bringing people to the site that may have never visited a discussion based site on current issues and events. A site that is somewhat similar to the goals of this site is that of Reddit where its users post whatever it is they want and discuss it. There is no overall goal of the site but to create communities of likeminded people. Reddit users consist of only 6% of all internet users but it is clear to see that Reddit is always very active. The goal of WE is somewhat similar in that its goal is to create a community that posts and shares current events and issues and to discuss and debate the said issues. The difference is that there will be guidelines to discussions and debates in that they must be at least somewhat academic with sources, there must be mutual respect and there will be moderation against those who post but do not contribute to the community. The point of addressing Reddit’s similarity is to show that even with a small % of people using this social network it is still very active as a whole and even under more specific subreddits that can boost more than a million users alone.

It is important to note that there will be no discrimination between race, location, sex or income of those that will be encourage to share on WE. The goal of WE is to have as much diversity as possible so that all points of view can be shared and understood by all. The reason being is that many do not know the views or personal situations of others and the site WE will provide an outlet/medium for people to not see race, sex, or location but only read the opinions and stories of others.

The relationship that WE will have with the audience will be that of only a member of the community with the ability to moderate. As it is a UGC website all the activity and content should be from its users. There will have to be moderators from both those affiliated with WE and those users that are strongly interested in the goal of WE. There will have to be guidelines and rules to promote the overall goal and these will be overseen by the moderators.

Possible Audience Personas

Robert W.

1. Age 322. Male3. Single4. Contract Worker (landscape, home improvement, etc.)5. Hobbies include music, skiing, traveling, and political/social activism.

Robert is an active member of his community that is very passionate about contributing with his society. WE would provide an outlet for him to communicate with others around him and around the country to discuss that which he is passionate about.

Ronald M.

1. Age 242. Male3. Married4. 2 kids5. College Graduate; Communication Degree6. Real Estate and construction7. Hobbies include skiing, music, softball, and hockey

Ronald M. is a hardworking, blue collar American that enjoys his family and his work. He enjoys conversation and regularly goes to concerts with his friends and wife.

Ronald has just started to get involved in local activism within his community and wants to learn as much as he can. WE would provide a place where he can ask questions, post his ideas and read the ideas and thoughts of others to further the knowledge of whatever he is passionate about.

Content Outline

I. Homepage

A. Weekly Debate

1. Sources

2. Discussion Threads

B. Discussions

C. Opinions

D. Current Events/Issues

II. Current Events

A. Article and link

1. Discussion of article

III. Opinion

A. Opinion articles

1. Article

2. Discussion

B. Current Events

IV. Journals/Research

A. Journals and Research Articles

1. Article

2. Discussion

B. Current Events

V. Discussion

A. List of Popular Discussions

1. Specific Discussion

B. Current Events

VI. Weekly Debate

A. Main Debate

1. Sources

2. Discussion

B. Past Debates

1. Overview

2. Conclusion

3. Discussion

VII. About

A. Info

B. Current Events

C. Discussions

D. Opinion

VIII. Guide/FAQ

A. Guidelines and rules

B. FAQ

C. Discussion

D. Opinion

Schedule

Preproduction Documents- 10/29/15 Gather of Content- On going process Gather Users- On going process Wordpress Site- no later than 12/1/15 Promote on social media- after 12/1/15 on going process Revise Production Documents Accordingly- on going after site open on Wordpress Develop standalone site and move content from Wordpress-depends on amount of

content/success of wordpress site

Technology Analysis

To start all that is needed is a desktop or laptop with access to the internet to use WordPress to begin initial phases. Once Wordpress becomes obsolete than there will be a lot need to run a social network. A dedicated hosting company, dedicated server, a high specs server for RAM and CPU and a security hardware and firewall. There must also be high to unlimited bandwidth and disk space for users to communicate and post.

All the user will need is a desktop, laptop, or mobile device with an internet connection and a willingness to participate.

Flow Chart

WireFrames

BAND2 1