WGAL, the local news channel in Lancaster, PA, is the very example of how a broadcast medium has utilized multimedia to effectively market themselves and deliver accurate and up-to-date news. Right off the bat, the home page grabs users' attention by using a flash animation to deliver top news stories with catchy graphics, effectively telling us what we should be concerned about. This is actually very smart on the station's part, because oftentimes users log on to a website with no particular attention. With red lights flashing and convincing photos--the movement on a page-- WGAL hooks users in for another look.
The most impressive and user-friendly aspect of the site, in my opinion, was the uber-practical sidebar. Pragmatic and concise, WGAL had a skeletal map of the site laid out in a link format: "national news : local news : News in Pictures : Weather..." etc. There were no fancy taglines, nothing standing in the way of the user and the news itself. WGAL also showed evidence of tapping a younger target audience by adding "Prom 09" to its sidebar. It's mostly a plug for Seventeen magazine and its subsidiaries, but it's reaching out to teenagers nonetheless. A favorite section of mine was "Weird News", which today included the headline, "Men Accused of Smuggling Songbirds in Pants". I love that people will report on that stuff.
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