Anaylsis of a Website

Week Six

http://www.mixmag.net/

This website is a a remediation, from the magazine version of the text into an online format, with alot more addition information.This website is highly advertised in Mixmag itself, primarily it podcast which is eve mentioned on the front cover of the magazine. There is even a full page advert in the magazine advertising how "much more" the website has to offer.

The steretypical viewer of this website, I think, is lovers of dance music and clubbing (which includes me). These people, are archetypically, not into websites that contain overactive forums and user input. I use this website to find out up and coming songs and DJs, find out about different mixs, check out photos from clubs I attended and view club listings for all around the world.

The website is fairly structured. On many websites, the hyperlinks and the non-linear nature make it easy to "get lost", but this is not the case on this website. The website is clearly and simply laid out and includes "Clu listings", "Clubbing photos", "Downloads", "Technical Advice" and so on. And with the slogan "The World's Biggest Dance Magazine", we immediately know that the audience is quite niche.

The content of this website is primarilly submitted by Nick Stevenson, who is one of the editors of the magazine. He also writes his own personal blog which is submitted online about hs recent clubbing experiences and thoughts on new songs. The editors and"Mixmag News Team" of the magazine seem to control the content, and minus the forum, there is little room for produsage. Writing the news on the main page is a privilage which is given out. They choose and control what is written about; how their magazine/website comes across and what news is considered important. The language of the news is very informative, yet light-hearted and sometimes comical. As mentioned, there is little room for produsage and dispersal, however, there is a feeling of produsage with the blogs and the nature of the news, even if the "ordinary" people can not post. I believe this is to appear more down to earth, to appeal to the steretypically, laidback clubbers. I think that if more user input, it would devalue to clearly carefully selected news that the editors post.

We trust the news that is presented to us, because it is writen by the editors, who we trust because they have successful run the magazine since 1982. We have learnt to trust these people, and as a reader, I trust the news as well, because of the sources they use, such as dj's official webpages and emails sent to them from official sources. This increases the quality of the information-and we trust it. Thus, raising the debate of what information we consider to be important and relevevant. Why do we consider information given to us by "official" sources more important than word-of-mouth? and why do we tend to distrust much of the information online, until it is given the "official" tag.

As mentioned in a previous post, the forum is for information. Most people hid their identities through different screenames, avators and so on are not used. This is because the forum is not designed to "make friends", it is designed to gain information and music. The other information is not needed. On the forum, people seek information and often there is no need for extensive converstion. To be considered a "jerk", would be quite hard. On other forums-arrogance/spam and over-posting are frowned upon by other posters. I believe that this forum is not popular enough for people of that nature to frequent. The lack of general conversation and discussion is taught by the "virtual settlement", posters know how to by the layout, previous content and topics in general.

The forum is designed to simply gain information, and minus competetions and quizzes, the rest of the website seems to be designed for this as well, as there are lots of headings and links back and forth to other websites and sources of information.

On this website, the only advertising are for the podcats and the Mixmag text service, as well as selected (by the website) DJs and clubnights (showing favourtism). This reinstates the intended audience of the websites-profit is made from the adverts as well as the many downloads avaliable.

There is an idea of community on this website. Even without much produseage. The idea that dance music-clubbing-fashion-djing at home, are so closely linked, and the website deigners obviously know this. There are many articles in the (surprisingly extensive) archieve on drugs, particually in night club surroundings and reclassification. This creates a sense of community as the writers (somewhat successfully) use the stereotype of drug usegae being connected to dance music. There is common ground and with direct, intelligent but colliqual language appears to invite anyone with these interests to read and enjoy the content of this website.

Personally, I really enoy this webiste, and I go on it every few days. The daily updates of news keeps me goin until the next months magaine, I also enjoy the many links and easy headings, as they make the information digestable and even more easy to read.


I think this is all abit mixed up (see what I did there...) but hopefully I gave the website justice.

:)