The website I have chosen to analyse is http://www.liverpoolfc.tv. This website is very close to my heart and I feel it has a lot of interesting points to look at when assessing it critically.
This is the official website for the club and as such has been specifically designed by people employed by the club. This in itself could be seen as quite an interesting point. If the club has made a website for itself, the content must show the clubs thoughts and ideologies.
It is a very fan based site, that gives out a lot of information to do with absolutely everything to do with the club, from the clubs evidential money crisis to the latest news regarding the under 16's team. This shows that openness from the club is high. This allows a degree of trust which I will address a little later on. It is a free site so allows for anyone to look at it if they so wish. If you are a Liverpool fan, this is the first place you will go for information about your club. This however brings up a slight sociodeterministic viewpoint. Does this site exist because it has to, with Liverpool being a big club and to maintain its technological reputation as being at the front of the online class. Or does this site exist because of the need for it from the fans, and the need for a constant update of information for people like me. I know I sit on this side of the fence. That and facebook are the first two websites I check when I switch my computer on! And I'm sure I'm not the only one to admit that.
This therefore creates an online community to go onto its sister forum site www.koptalk.com. This allows for fans to vent about anything they may have seen on the site and to interact with other fans about their point of views also.
There is also an idea of censorship on this site. In many cases there is no need for the information to be censored. Most football information is suitable for all ages, even if it is as disturbing as a Liverpool loss! The only censorship on information, is that of internal affairs going on within the club. For example, there is no real information on the internal power struggle going on within the club, only the rumours that are circulating round on other websites, such as Koptalk.com. There is a censorship on this information to protect the club from many things. Possibly embarrassment at the shambolic way our club is being run, or to prevent the clubs reputation to be tarnished. [Sorry I've turned this into my own rant that I should be plotting on Koptalk.com.]
There is only a slight copyright issue when looking at liverpoolfc.tv. At the bottom of the page, there is extracts from other sources such as the BBC, The Liverpool Echo, Sky Sports, Setanta etc. The quotations taken from the sources have to all have copyright to be allowed to be put on the liverpool website. This therefore means that most of the information supplied on this website is produced by the liverpoolfc.tv team. Things such as first team information, and the status updates on the building of the new stadium, for example, all come from Liverpool themselves, so no copyright issues will be incurred.
The idea that everything has come straight from Liverpool Football Club again brings up the idea of trust. The fact that everything is straight from the horses mouth as it were, with no middle man involved really, could be seen as a very trustworthy thing. If you are told something directly then you are more likely to believe it. This website has the same feeling about it. Another way this website builds up a trust with the customers is the very helpful tech support service. I have had a few problems with my account to this website [the same account I use to get into Koptalk] and the creator of the site has emailed me personally to get everything sorted out, which I found very good. This is just a personal trust thing I have built up with the website that not everyone will have incurred but I thought it was a relevant one.
Overall I feel this website is a very effective one. It is extremely informative with up to date news involving the club. It is very interactive, and allows the people passionate enough to pay, rant on its sister site. However I may be slightly biased toward the success of the site due to my affiliation with the club, so if anyone would want to disagree with my findings on the site as a whole, then feel free to comment.
C.Johnson, (1945) 'You'll Never Walk Alone', Carousel, Rodgers And Hammerstein.
[this is the origins of the famous Liverpool Football Club song 'You'll Never Walk Alone' ironically clad in the harvard referencing style]
To be really critical, you do have to stand back a bit. Think of how this website visually meets the requirements of the target audience, branding,navigation etc. This work is more like a review than an analysis.
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