Web 2.0 and Interactivity

Flew defines interactivity as “the capacity to easily connect interactions across different networks” (Flew 2008, p.29). Our web feature will encourage users to interact, engage, learn and discuss the content on the site and also through links to our social media pages. Interaction channels will allow users to write opinions and foster debate, similar to this “comments” section below. This will seek to drive more users to our feature. In Flew’s context of the ‘new’ media he believes that interactivity “stands for a more powerful sense of user engagement with media texts, a more independent relation to sources of knowledge, individualised media use, and greater user choice” (Flew 2008, p.28.) This definition is very much applicable to us as we are essentially designing our web feature within this context that is the ‘new’ media with competition against other journalistic and feature based sites that have already covered the Tahrir Sqaure protests. In this “greater user choice” context, we must make our web feature unique and different, taking a new investigative stance on the story.

Comments section from a existing documentary feature website “Go Back To Where You Came From”

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/goback/

The target audience is quite specific (a niche market); educated, up-to-date and informed citizens who have a particular interest in the Arab Spring and Egyptian context or even those who are new to the story where interest has stemmed from another angle – the social media revolution that underpins our focus. SBS online receives regular and qualitative feedback from its online users through live web chats, forums, guest books and message boards; 80% of all SBS websites have highly active opinion pages that provide feedback to producers (SBS). Our web feature will aim to also be interactive and encourage debate on the topic, through the use of links to our established Facebook page, Twitter account and Youtube channel, featuring topic specific videos. In a Web 2.0 context the internet is viewed as a platform; uploading photos and streaming video is simple and cost effective. Our feature will also seek to engage with users through the use of audio-visuals; images, statistics, data, videos, screenshots.

References:

Flew, T, 2008, “New media an introduction,” 3^rd ed., Oxford University Press, Australia.

http://media.sbs.com.au/sbscorporate/documents/240104_online.pdf