Things I Learned at CNN.com

1. What does CNN.com do well?
They provide a number of stories of varying interest as quick as they can. New stories are also being provided and updated as well as providing support through media and sources.

2. What does CNN.com not do well?
The design is a bit boring so it would not attract younger audiences due to the "blahness" of it all. Other than that it provides enough. The only other problem is the advertisements. When watching a video I had to see a commercial as well as a delay in the video beginning even at a school computer, which means if I still used the relic dial-up, like I was up until a month ago, I would never be able to see this video which would provide me with interesting back-up information.

3. Can you interact with CNN.com and how far can you interact?
The ability to interact with the majority of the content of the site is decent. There is no forum, or at least no signs of a forum to discuss news stories from a free viewing of the page. It may be possible as a member, but that is something I am unaware of. However, when it comes to weather, business and the occasional poll the site provides ways to personalize your news. You can get weather in terms of your area and not others, and you can get updates about the companies YOU have stock in getting rid of the hassle of looking through all the others first. There are also ways to get the news on your phone, RSS feed, and by podcast, so if this is considered interactivity, then CNN.com is a participant. A final way it allows interactivity is in the fact that you can change the font size to suit your needs.

4. Does it link to other sites?
Yes, CNN.com does link to other sites, but the majority of them are other sites under the same corporation that created CNN, such as Time and Sports Illustrated. There are also links to those who provide ads, and thus, money. There are also links that take you to the news story from main pages as well as full stories from those news articles at times. CNN.com also provides a search bar powered by Yahoo!. There are not many links to other sites beyond that, though they might appear at times.

5. To what extent are multimedia techniques used on CNN.com?
Multimedia is used heavily on CNN.com where they can. They provide video, usually of footage they shot for their TV station, as well as photos. In addition to photos, there are sometimes even galleries of images you can find through links to give more than one view on a scene. CNN also gives video podcasts to be seen with iPods or iTunes.