Seeing & Writing 2

The World Wide Web is often heralded as a great equalizer, a virtual reality free of color and class consciousness. Yet research institutions and journalists have recently called attention to the disproportionately low use of the web by minority and low-income Americans as well as their lack of representation on the web.

Concurrently an increasing number of sites are addressed to particular ethnic groups. Black Voices aims "to be the #1 Black interactive online community in the world" by providing a space for black-oriented news, social interaction, and links to black businesses. LatinoWeb promises a Latino Cyber Space Community in order to "empower the Latino community."

Choose a web site devoted to an ethnic or racial group. What are its announced–or implied–aims? How does it cater to a particular audience? What visual and verbal techniques does it use to address this audience? Comment on its effectiveness.

Now consider the ways in which you can compare entering this ethnic web site to the experience of entering an ethnic neighborhood in a city or a town. Describe the experience of entering an ethnic neighborhood–as either an insider or an outsider. Compare and contrast the ways in which entering a web site devoted to a particular ethnic group is similar to–or different from–actually walking into an ethnic neighborhood.

Chapter 5. Producing America
	Visual Exercises for Chapter 5

	Research Links for Chapter 5

	Re:Searching the Web

Use the boxes below to work both exercises and e–mail your response to yourself and/or your instructor.

Before beginning your assignments, you may want to look at a web community that is not identified with any specific ethnic group in order to get a sense of the standard conventions of such communities; try a generic Internet gateway such as Alta Vista or Netscape Home. In this way, you will have a better sense of what elements appeal to an ethnic audience when they visit either the web sites suggested by the text or other sites. You might spend some time at Africana. What is the mission statement of this site? (Look for an "About Us" link.) To what extent do you think it achieves its goals? What are Africana's strategies for creating a sense of an ethnic community online?

Use a search engine to find a museum devoted to the art and culture of a specific ethnic group. Two excellent examples are the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Heard Museum devoted to showcasing Native American culture. Write an essay that compares and contrasts the construction and focus of each site. What messages does each one send about the culture it features? Does the site assume that the visitor holds any preconceptions about this culture? How does it incorporate into the site the imagery and design associated with the culture?

To e–mail your work to yourself and/or your instructor, enter the e–mail addresses below. You can then print a copy from your e–mail program.
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