College Sports: The Most Exciting of all
How does the National Collegiate Athletic Association or
NCAA gain interest on their website? Well, they do this in multiple ways. Media
used on the page include text, photos, videos, and links opening up other
pages. I think the target audience of the NCAA webpage is college students and
even their parents. The audience may also include sports fans in general
anywhere from children to adults. Anyway, students at certain colleges
typically want their respective school to succeed in athletics, as do their
parents. Using this website is an easy way to stay updated on sports,
especially because it is accessible at any time. The arrangement is simple.
There is an eye-catching picture in the middle of the page where the viewer
first looks. After seeing that, the eye goes in a clockwise motion to the top
of the page, followed by the right hand side of the page. When it comes down to
the use of rhetorical strategies, the NCAA effectively used the ones that apply
to a website for sports. The overall purpose of this website is to keep the
world up to date on the events occurring in college sports. The way the NCAA
designed the homepage of their website grabs the attention of the audience and
provides the latest sports news and information to them.
The NCAA website is the best source for collegiate sports
information, considering the fact that college athletics are the NCAA. Some of
the most recent scores of games are listed on the top of the page with a link
allowing the viewer to see all of the scores. Above that, there are several
drop-down menus where specific sports or schools can be searched. In addition, a
menu allows anyone to purchase tickets to athletic events, or even apparel
representing the desired school. An aspect that many websites have is
advertisements that the audience is forced to look at on the homepage.
Nonetheless, this website does not include advertisements on the homepage for
apparel and tickets. I think this is a huge positive because it does not
pressure you right away to give them money. Continuing, for all of the social
media users, there are links to follow the NCAA and share information to
Facebook or Twitter for example. Along the right hand side of the home page,
there are links to view the latest news from around the country. Perhaps the
most noticeable and intriguing aspect of the site is the large clickable picture
headlines. There is one picture that is larger than the other pictures at the
top, implying it is currently the most notable headline in college sports. As
one scrolls down the page, there are several more pictures containing other
important stories. Then, toward the bottom of the page, there are current
rankings for different sports.
I think the NCAA does a respectable job encouraging
interest in college level athletics. Though there is some text present, the
visual portion of the page seems to be the main emphasis. Actually, I do not
believe they could operate a successful website without major usage of visuals.
This photograph was the
largest picture on the home page of the NCAA website on February 17, 2014. It
influences the viewer to feel excited about this particular event. The story
behind the picture is that Minnesota won their third straight duals
championship for wrestling. However, much of the story can be interpreted
without even reading the actual article about it. The individual wrestler is
seen with his hand raised as if he is waving to the crowd in victorious
fashion, while his opponent remains on his knees in disappointment. The fans in
the background are clapping and apparently screaming out of excitement. When
viewing this on the front page of the website, it immediately draws interest.
In fact, the visual is essential to the story because it really brings out the
importance of this victory for Minnesota. Without it, the audience cannot
easily put into perspective the emotions that this specific moment withheld.
With that being said, the homepage mostly focuses on an ethos appeal by
inducing emotions typically including excitement.
Although the visual portion of this page is overwhelming,
the little text that is included sums up the entire story. The above image was
captured during a basketball game between the number one ranked Syracuse and
the unranked Boston College. The headline on this picture included, “Down goes
No. 1.” Just these few words sums up what happened in this faceoff. Syracuse had
previously been unbeaten thus far in the season with a record of 25-0, though
they are now 25-1. Boston College, with a mediocre record, managed to defeat
the best team in all of college basketball. The simple headline supplements the
photo extremely well as it makes the audience want to read what happened. Even
if basketball is not your sport of choice, this combination immediately
triggers curiosity.
http://www.ncaa.com/video/basketball-men/2014-02-15/dennis-miller-march-madness-image-campaign-promo
For the 2014 NCAA March Madness tournament, the
well-known billionaire Warren Buffet is offering one billions dollars to anyone
that can create the perfect. This would consist of predicting every single
winning team out of 64 total throughout every round in the entire tournament
without getting any wrong. The odds of successfully doing this are next to
impossible. Getting to my point, the thought of winning one billion dollars for
filling out a bracket sounds incredible. The above video is a humorous way that
the NCAA is attracting more attention to the tournament. The video is displayed
on the homepage where it can be viewed easily. This video evokes thoughts of
being very wealthy, which results in people that normally do not watch the
March Madness tournament, to watch it. I think having this video on the
homepage does a superb job of attracting more attention to the NCAA.
In
conclusion, I think this is a very successful website. It informs the audience
of different things going on in sports around the country in college with
mainly photos supplemented by text. Even if one is not interested in a certain
sport that made headlines, it is hard not to read about it due to the
electrifying way the NCAA displays it. Nevertheless, a logos appeal does not
apply too much to this type of website. The homepage is very strong considering
there is not much in depth information on it. Instead, you get multiple
captivating headlines that direct you to full articles if more information is
desired. After all, this website engages the audience very effectively
No comments:
Post a Comment