Writing for the Web—Exercise One

The websites I have chosen for this exercise are:
The Australian Red Cross
Oxfam Australia
Department of Families, Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Telstra
Optus

The main language differences between the charity websites and the mobile phone company sites is that the charity websites both tell a story on various projects they support. They contain a lot more textual information which is short, sharp and categorised in blocks of information. The mobile phone websites are more geared towards certain products, not much textual information is provided initially and a lot of hyperlinks have been used for the reader to drill into the website further. The language is quite informal and mostly contains short and sharp one line quotes.

Australian Government websites usually include links to other departments websites where as phone companies would never lead the customer to another phone company. Other topics that appear on Gov websites and do not on phone companies are: budgetary information, legislation information, fraud control information, parliamentary information and details of portfolio ministers.

The three different organisations all have differing purposes for the intent of use of their respective websites. Example, Gov websites are used to inform the public of services on offer to tem and to advise the broader Australian community about policy and program information. Mobile phone company websites sole intent is to gain a broader share of the market and to sell their products. Charity websites aim to raise their organisations profile and to gain support from the community in ways of funding and or volunteering.

The two Gov websites do differ in purpose as the two departments chosen are so diverse.

The sites tend to keep the readers attention by starting out with the most important information first and only offering a short statement on the topic. The reader is then tempted top go further into particular topics by following the links provided.

Gov audiences: ministers, Australian public, community organisations, service delivery agencies, Program Delivery Agencies, international gov departments, university students, future employees.

Charity audiences: business entities, crisis affected communities, international aid organisations, potential volunteers, sponsors, Australian public, sporting and community groups.

Overall, I think both the government websites use the most professional language.