Afrik- News
http://www.afrik-news.com/mali
1) The accuracy of the information on the site is pretty accurate. One of the articles did not have any quotes or sources linked to it, paraphrased in the article, or quoted in the article. However, all of the other ones had sources that said facts about what they were talking about in the article. Such as, “A BBC’s report says the 15-member Security Council is giving the impression to be prepared in sponsoring an international intervention force in the country; under the right conditions.”
2) The layout is pretty organized. At the top it has subheads for Sports, Weather, News, etc. for more specific articles. Then it has one main article with a picture and below it more articles with links. It also has press releases to the right on the link and a weather forecast for Mali and advertisements. They credit themselves very well at the bottom in the About Us link. After you click on it, it says how Afrik.com is the leading site and many other facts about the website. I like how they lay everything out and give the audience facts about themselves right than and there.
3) It names off the columnists and their hobbies, but not their credentials. It does not state anything about the website’s service provider.
4) On Afrik’s website, it has a tab for Columnists. It names off all of the writers for the website, but it only mentions what they enjoy doing on their free time, not about their credentials, which makes the website less credible.
5) Yes, the website makes it easy for people to contact them. They have a link at the bottom of the website that says Contact Us which entails the address of where to mail comments into, their phone, fax, who the editor-in-chief is, and many more details. So they are quite credible when it comes to contacting them for questions.
6) The layout is pretty professional. It includes the colors blue, red, and white. The main article has a bigger font than the not as important ones. But they are all red colored which draws the attention towards them. The main article also has a picture with it, which draws attention to it even more. The layout is pretty good. It has the main articles on the left hand side and on the right is the Health Corner, the advertisements, the Opinion section, and more.
7) I think the website is pretty easy to manage. The user can scroll up and down on the right hand side. The most up-to-date article is the first one in the big font, which is easy to spot. But if people are looking for older news, they have to keep scrolling down.
8) The most up-to-date article was on November 1st, but that was not the main article with the big font. It would seem like they would put the most up-to-date article first, even if it’s not the hardest hitting news. The other articles are from the 30th of October. So as of now, November 2, they only had one article which was a day old. The other ones were two or more days old.
9) The ads are not pop up and are on the right hand side of the website. They are out of the way and are not seen too much. It did not make me think this site has no credibility anymore.
10) All of the typing was correct that I saw. Their English, grammar, etc. was very precise and clear and clean.
Evaluation: I think Arik-news. com deserves a 4 out of 5 scoring. The typography was great with colors that catches the audiences eye, the grammar and spelling were excellent, and the pictures catches the eye as well. The pictures were all very graphic and nice quality, so it makes the audience want to click on them and see what the article has to do with it. The website in general was very easy to work. The articles and links on the left side, and the ads were on the right. However, what made them get a 4 on my scale was because it did not show any of the credentials the columnists have. It only described their personalities and what they enjoy to do. The articles seemed credible though because of the quotes and the sources they used in them. Overall, I though Arik-news was pretty reliant and an overall good layout of content, but just wondering what the columnists education was makes it a little fishy.
allAfrica
1) allAfrica shows a lot of references and sources in their articles, especially quotes. One of the stories was about Hilary Clinton and how she went to visit Mali. They put a quote in their of hers saying how Mali needs to work with the U.N. Putting quotes in articles, especially from well- known people like Mrs. Clinton, makes the article seem so much more credible. For the most part, the website has good quotes and sources for each article.
2) I could not find a Contact Us link on the page nor could I find an address to reach them at. There was no membership for the Chamber of Commerce nor a photo of the office.
3) The contributors to the newspaper are government controlled papers. It also said the site gets articles from publications and news agencies all over Africa. They showed a list of sites where they get the articles from, and they all seemed pretty credible to me.
4) The website names all of the publishers involved with writing for the allAfrica.com website, and lists their contact information and their website address. It did not say anything in the bios about their families or their hobbies.
5) On allAfrica.com, I could not find any Contact Us link or any phone numbers or address to contact them at.
6) I think the website could be a little more professional and organized. At the top there is a big blue space and on the left of it it says Mali in very fine print. I believe they could have made the font bigger for Mali to cover up more of the blue horizontal space. However, I think the colors are really cool. The orange background when it talks about Mali, and again red and blue and white like the other website. The typography is great. The layout is a little off. It only has two articles for Mali and then underneath it is full of articles from Mali and a little from other other countries. The layout is a little whack.
7) The site is easy to use. You can scroll up and down on the right and it has the typical Sports, Entertainment, News, etc. links at the top of the website. It could be easier to explore the site if the links for Mali were all at the top, and then it was all of the other countries links below it.
8) The content of my website has been updated October 31, and then it goes back all the way to October 25th. Writing and publishing the article could make the website seem more credible as well.
9) I think the website did a great job with advertisements. It was out of the way of the articles that people would be clicking on. The ads were on the right side and the articles were on the eft side.
10) I saw no typing errors or grammar errors. All in all, punctuation, and the spelling part to it was done very well.
Analysis: I would give allAfrica.com a 2 out of 5. I could not find any place to contact any of the writers. Nor could I find the bios of the columnists, which leads me to think where is their credibility? The advertisements looked good on the right side while the left side were full with articles. I disliked how their was only one article from October 31, two days a go. THey need a lot more up-to-date articles. The typography looked great at the top of the main page with Mali written across it. Also, the articles had very good resources, quotes, etc. in them, that were very reliable. Overall, I think this website deserves a 2 because the writing is good and its visually attractive, but there is just not enough resources to contact the paper and they do not have any columnists credentials on the paper.
laurenb91 
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