theguardian Website Analysis

The Guardian website decides for us what we want to read through its layout. The logo is the first thing we see along with the weather for London; this is where they believe the majority of their audience is situated. Not only that but the stories that the creators consider most important fill the top of the page. The most attention grabbing article of today being “Qatar’s accidental vaginal stadium is most gratifying’, the colour of the titles are red and black which are different to those around them in the blue. The red scattered around the web page draws our eyes to the stories, for example the red of the main article, the red that proclaims ‘Breaking News’, but also the less obvious red that separates the adverts. The adverts have their own side bar, because the website is paid by external companies to promote their products, however they have prioritised aspects on their own website such as the online dating and the jobs, this is done in attempt to gain more views to the lesser looked areas of the website, which could be down to the fact that the links to these pages are on the far right of the sidebar. This is significant because we generally read left to right, so the most important links will be put on the left.

                The advert for the ‘guardianjobs’ had been placed at the top of the page, because there is a job crisis, it makes the audience think that the Guardian are looking out for their best interests by advertising jobs described as the ‘best jobs’. However it is on the right side so the priority has been shifted, this indicates that although jobs is as important part of the layout the Guardian doesn’t think it’s as important as the sexual architecture.

In contrast the left sidebar is full of new stories, such as ‘Woman admits to ditch murders’ and the top one being; ‘Denis MacShane pleads guilty to expenses fraud.’ People want to know the more controversial new stories, mainly the ones with risqué or sensitive topic material, like murders and fraud. It’s likely that the audience of this website, regardless of age, will want to know more about scandal and criminal activity over other topics.

The article about women: ‘Sorry, but being a mother isn’t the most important job in the world’ has been placed in the centre of the page, because it is a controversial topic that a lot of people will have an opinion on, this will invoke more audience participation, and boost the view count on their other articles to do with the same topic. The front page attracts the attention of readers of all different ages; this article in particular is probably aimed at women in their thirties and forties – the most common age bracket for mothers. This is compensated by having the Sport section’s headline in larger section to attend to the male audience. The sport headline is to do with football, one of the most popular sports in the UK, this will gain the attention of the largest audience compared to a little known sport or a less televised sport.