The Daily BEAST!

http://www.thedailybeast.com

Web Credibility Assignment

Website: TheDailyBeast.com
RTST, Inc. (Right Start, Inc.)

The website I chose is called The Daily Beast, and this site is a liberally-slanted news and information hub geared toward anyone from Generation X to present. The site is instantly pleasing to the eyes, full of pictures and organized graphics, with thoughtful uses of color and font. The site also uses easy-to-understand language, simple, to-the-point headlines. Here is a deeper look into my synopsis of The Daily Beast.

1. Content:
The site I chose to critique is called The Daily Beast, and it is a site that was linked off of TheDrudgeReport.com. It is a political news site much like the Drudge Report, naturally, and seems to be very professionally made and completed to the fullest. In fact, not much empty space exists at all.
The site was last updated this year sometime, as it does not specify an exact date. Major media site links such as popeater.com, ew.com, TMZ and The Cut are all listed at the bottom of the website. This tells me there may be more fiction than fact on this site, or at least with more information gathered upon “rumor.” News stories take a more serious tone, however.
The site seems to be geared toward the young and hip late twenty-something’s or early thirty-something’s, with high graphic appeal and clear, modern aesthetics and layout.

2. Authority:
RTST, Inc. created this website. An acronym for “Right Start,” RTST is part of the IAC family of businesses, which owns over 60 brands, including Citysearch.com, Ask.com, and Excite.com.
The site provides an avenue for responding via e-mail to various departments depending on your area of inquiry. This lets me know my question will be appropriately sent to a person from that department.
Sources are sited in the text if someone quoted something or if contributors were people to be recognized. However, no outside sources as I could see were quoted. Sources have naturally been pulled from news affiliates and the AP, since the site is corporately owned.
As professional as the site looks, I would have my doubts as to total truthfulness, simply because of their affiliation with TMZ. This would be a first impression.

3. Presentation:
The overall presentation of the site is excellent in my opinion. There are three columns, with two wide columns on the right and left, with one skinny column down the middle, known as the Cheat Sheet. While the site seems slightly cluttered at first glance, when closely observed, each section has a uniform heading and the site is surprisingly easy to navigate.
The site must be well edited, because I could not find any GSP errors, and all alignments of text are uniform. Headings are well contrasted with their associated text, and proportions, color and borders are used appropriately.
Finally, from looking at the source code, I recognized much of the basic tags and format, but also observed the hierarchic method of organization, which branched out from left to right. Much of the code was encrypted and highly complex, however.

The Daily Beast is definitely a unique and aesthetically inviting website, and one that would definitely target the younger more visually oriented crowds. I would recommend this site to anyone looking for humorous but truthful spins on the more important news of the day, ranging from politics to entertainment.