Exploring Venues/Publications

     The two publications that I have decided to look at are The Huffington Post and TIME. I normally do not spend much time reading either of these online magazines, so much of my analysis is based off of my first impressions of the venues. After looking at the each homepage, what really jumped out at me were the differences in each sites "approaches". The Huffington Post's homepage consists mostly of large, glaring pictures with short captions over each. TIME, on the hand, seems to rely much more on the audience's ability to read text, as much of the homepage consists of words with much smaller pictures. This drastic change in the size of the pictures was very noticeable. TIME also, from my first impressions, seems to take a much more serious approach to the news. This was evident since each publication took an entirely different approach to the same top headline, the failure of the North Korean rocket test. The Huffington Post took a much lighter approach to the whole situation, as the title read "Weapon of Mass Dysfunction", followed by "FAIL: North Korean Missile Falls Into Sea Soon After Launch." TIME seemed to present the story in a much more serious manner, with the headline "Kim's Rocket Fails, But N. Korea's Space Threat Is Scarier Than You Think." After skimming through each article, I noticed that The Huffington Post's article was very short and very critical of North Korea, while TIME's version was much longer and much more careful with the stance that it took on the matter. An aspect of each magazine that further revealed the formality of each was the kinds of articles that were included. In The Huffington Post, it seemed like many of the articles were more focused on popular culture than TIME's were (The Huffington Post still included a lot about politics and other serious issues, but just with a much lighter approach). From the brief amount of time that I surveyed each venue, I noticed a slightly liberal tone to The Huffington Post (just by some of the ads and headlines), while I thought that TIME seemed relatively neutral. There were also many more advertisements in the Huffington Post (big pictures that were a little distracting), while it was hard to find any on TIME's homepage.
    Overall, based on these differences, I would say that The Huffington Post is directed to a much younger adult (not too young though) audience, while TIME is directed an older adult audience. In my opinion, from the time that I spent looking at each one, I would probably be more willing to rely on TIME for a good, reliable article than The Huffington Post, mainly due to the ways in which each present their content.