Lawrence.com Commentary

Lawrence.com

1 – How does the site attempt to appeal to a college audience?

I think the site does everything they can to appeal to a college audience. It’s a one-stop-shop of sorts, a place where a college student, or even someone from the surrounding area who is of a similar age, can go to find out what’s going on in the local music scene, the bar scene, and the “best bets” or things that the site things would be a good thing to go to. I really like that they list the bar specials, maps of where they can find the bars in the area, coupons for music events, and a great calendar of upcoming events that can be searched both by the type of event and even by the venue where the event is being held. In partnership with the calendar, they have “Distant Early Warnings,” or upcoming events that might be of interest to those viewing the site. Another section of the site I like are the “Timewasters.” This section of the site is the perfect draw for college students. It has a section for “Party Pics,” Sudoku, crossword puzzles, comics, and a section called “E pluribus internets” that holds interesting websites submitted by other users. Also, the site includes job openings, rental apartments, and even car advertisements, all things college students need. At the bottom of the page is a link to local videos, or videos made by college students on random topics.

Down the right side of the page, towards the bottom, are reviews of new movies (this week’s was “Pan’s Labyrinth”) and video games (NCAA March Madness 2007 on Xbox 360), both of which are of interest to college students. (Especially the March Madness. Go to any male college student’s room and you will find either this game from previous years or the even more popular John Madden Football.) At the very bottom of the column, is a review of local music groups and shows.

The site includes shows from the college’s television station, including a show called “The Turnpike,” which seems to be a live music show. Also, this is a page for the school’s radio station; and both pages give the user the ability to access past shows, so that if they watch or listen to it every week, or however often the shows air, and happen to miss a show, or are in class at the time it airs, they are able to go to this site and catch up with it. Included on the “Audio” and “Music” sections on the site are User created playlists, where any user can upload their favorite playlist from usually an iPod for other people to download.

The features are hard to all list here without this post becoming miles and miles long (I’m trying to cut them down because I’m tired of hearing the “oh man, I got her’s again,” when we do the reviews in class.) but I think everything about this site is geared for college students. If I were a student at Kansas University, I would use this site, and the magazine it is linked to, for everything because it offers everything I need, especially for the weekends, all in one place. Instead of having to go to this bar’s website to see their deals for a Thursday night, and then go off to another’s site, and another, and so on, to see where I can go to drink cheapest with my friends, I can just go to Lawrence.com, and have it all in one place.

2 – If you went to this school, what makes this site appealing and why?

It’s everything I need to have a good social life and be able to do the things I love. If there’s a local band that I really like and want to see, all I have to do is open the page, go to the calendar, and search for them. Or I can just search the page to see if there are any reviews of an upcoming show. If I’m bored after getting my work done for the night and looking for something to waste some time until my roommates get back from their late-night classes, I can go to this site and find a crossword puzzle or some interesting websites. If I had a great time at a party this weekend and had some pictures taken, I can go online and post them for the world (and future employers) to see. Like I said in the first answer, it’s a one stop shop. I can find everything I want and need to have a good time while I’m at school. I wish that Monmouth had something even vaguely resembling this site.

3 – Describe the target audience from looking at the content. Who lives and goes to the school?

The target audience is people in their 20s (there’s a lot of bar content, so I wouldn’t open it up to people who are underage and unable to drink) who like to go out and see a band play, or who like to be able to find a place to go out and drink for as cheap as possible. It’s mainly for people from that area, but some of the content, like the movie and game reviews, can be useful to people from other areas. I’d say the main target audience, judging by the content, is the average college student who goes to Kansas University and likes to go out, see a good band and get a few drinks.

4 – Address the writing style. Is it good or bad?

I think the writing style is perfect for college students, with the usual short attention span. They want the information, and nothing else, from the content on this type of site. The important pieces of information should be plainly listed, with little fluff or filler. Just the basics, whatever someone needs to know, and nothing else. I think that’s exactly what the site needs to have. If the site went into long-winded descriptions of an upcoming event or concert, people wouldn’t bother reading it, so there’s no point spending the time to write it. This kind of site is where someone goes to get the information about what’s going on in the area, so that’s all the site needs. Just the facts, and the site, I think, understands that and writes to what the audience wants.

5 – Address the site’s use of media.

There’s media everywhere on this site. They have locally made videos, radio and television programs from the university, user-submitted pictures, band pictures, and even maps of local restaurants and bars. Under the “Music” tabs, they have music videos, mp3 downloads, and under the “Audio” tab, they also have audio interviews and podcasts. Under the “Video” tab, they have links to news videos from the school’s television station and “Q’time with Randy,” another program from the television station. The site uses all of the media they can to give the college students something to watch and do that will keep them on the site and also keep them coming back to see what new things are posted under each of the above categories. I think it is a great idea for the site to use that much media and I think they don’t just throw things on there to have media on the site. All of the media on the site is related to their content and to their target audience.

6 – Is there a community of users? How about interactivity?

The only things that link the community of users together is the link under “Timewasters” that links users to a page where they can see the entire list of users that have registered with the site. They can see when they joined, what their user and real names are, and the last time they posted a comment. I really don’t agree with this idea. I think that they should have made it something where you could search for someone within the list, but without listing every user. This really doesn’t help bring those users together, so what’s the point? If people want to see if their friends are on the site, they can either ask the person, or search with their username, but I really don’t agree with posting the entire list where the entire world can see it.

There are a lot of blogs on the site, but the only way to make them interactive is by using the comment section. I don’t think that counts as interactivity because someone can comment, but the blogger really only is able to respond through their blog and not really to each individual comment.

Users are able to post comments throughout the entire site, but these comments don’t appear to be listed in most places and they don’t seem to be answered, so the communication is only one way.

The calendar on the website and the bar and restaurant listings are all classically interactive features. The calendar allows the user to change the calendar to suit their needs by only showing the events they want to see on the calendar and leaving out all of the rest. The bar and restaurant listings include a way to search bars and restaurants by any term the user wants, like location, type of food, price, and any other feature they might want. The site allows users to search the entire site, or just certain sections of the site, like the videos, songs, photos, or even events.

The site also allows users to submit events for the calendar, links for the interesting links section, videos and films, and pictures. Users can also create their own playlists and upload them to the site.

The site makes some effort at interactivity, but it doesn’t really create a community. There are no message boards or chat rooms where the users can communicate directly to one another. There are ways to email the staff of the site, but those emails aren’t listed anywhere on the site, and there’s no promise of an answer. I think this is the area of the site that is most lacking. The rest of the site is great, but I think they could do a lot better to try and connect people with others with similar interests.