In relation to the communication aspects of the website, there isn’t really a major part of the website dedicated to users communicating with one another. The main reason behind this is that it is not a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace, it is a site meant to guide you through planning your journey. The only form of communication that I have found on the website is the Travel Blogs sections of the site. This is where you can read other peoples blogs from when they have been travelling, and you can also respond and comment on their blogs. I think that this is a major negative aspect of the STA website because a forum would be extremely useful on a site of this nature because you can discuss better with people what route they took and you can ask them questions to help you plan your own route. (http://blogs.statravel.co.uk/)
If any of you have been on this website yourself, do you think a forum would be a good idea too?
A major positive aspect of the website is that the information found there is extremely relevant and very useful in helping you plan your trip. The site does make planning your trip a lot easier and it gives you info so you can contact the STA operators so you can get even more information.
My final thoughts on my analysis of the STA Travel website are that it is a successful new media form of website because the user can interact with the website at I feel, an effective level. It is therefore taking on the requirements of the interactive culture that is popular in today’s society. I however, don’t think it is taking on the communication aspect of today’s new media society because there is not forum available on the website so the users cannot interact with one another as greatly as they could do.
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4 comments:
rincy
rincy
Hey Emma, I thought you picked a really interesting site. In relation to what you said about the forum, I do think a forum is a good idea but I also think the blogs are more appropriate for a travel site. I think when sharing experience the users will need more than a forum to go into full details and elaborate on their experience. If people can comment they can probably ask questions on there. Both would probably be a good idea though :)
Maybe you could have gone into a little more detail about which features of a forum would have been particularly relevant in this individual case? Maybe blogging serves a slightly different purpose?
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