What Should a Youth Website Look Like?

The Public Fund for the Support and Development of Independent Print Media and News Agencies of Uzbekistan held a Republican scientific-practical workshop “Acute issues of development of web-sites of the youth printed information mass media” in the capital city.

The main objective of holding this event is to analyze the activities of operating web-sites of the youth printed information mass media in the Republic. It presented detailed information on the successes achieved, promising tasks and unresolved issues.

Taking part in the event were deputies of the Legislative chamber of the parliament, officials of the government bodies of power and administration, representatives of public organization, editorials of printed publications, on-line mass media and information agencies.

The current age of accelerated development of ICT, in the first place, Internet turns into an important factor in shaping the minds of and bringing up the youth. Nowadays, more than 3,4 billion people make use of the “world wide web” globally. The number of Internet users in our country make up more than 10,2 million people, among them more than 90% - the youth.

Following the registration of domain .uz in 1995 the number of web-sites organized on its base has been growing with every passing year, today their number exceeded 26,000. Over 330 websites were registered by January 2016 as media sites; the majority of them cover children’s and the youth themes. Efficient results are being achieved on the improvement of the system of modern ICT through their large-scale introduction into daily life activities and attracting young qualified specialists into this sphere.

The results of monitoring the activities of youth printed mass media web-sites have revealed such positive aspects as attractive design, efficient search system, active use of photo galleries, consideration of world outlook and the age of the target audience, compact and laconic volume of lodged materials without application of compound words and expressions, and effective utilization of information graphics’ potential.

Tangible work is being carried out on the improvement of the subject-matter and the content of materials prepared by printed and on-line publications for the youth audience. This can be observed not only in the growing number of websites, but also in the improved quality of analytical materials. More than 820 thousand people make use of our mass media web-sites in the Republic on a monthly basis. The difference between data lodged in the Internet as opposed to other mass media is in the concise nature of its volume.

Along with those visible positive changes, observed in the activities of websites, the seminar participants also admitted some shortcomings – these, in particular, include the inability to login to some sites and lack of timely renovation of materials. The results of conducted monitoring revealed some methodological disadvantages in the published materials - selection of fine print, absence of archiving systems, and others.

Specialists and experts of different media structures expressed their opinions in the course of the seminar. Proposals have been elaborated on improving the youth websites; also have been noted certain trends and aspects that the personnel of online publications will have to pay their attention to in their publications.

Source: Jahonnews.uz