Vice Media is a Canadian digital media and broadcast company. They used to be a magazine that focuses on young-adult. It now has several different channels including a new division Vice News and a film production studio. One of the founder's Shane Smith is praised for being the precursor of using digital media and videos in covering news stories.
Vice Media has a very stylish website with a clear emphasis on the type of stories it covers. The navigation is clear. The majority of traditional media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Boston Globe do not put the specific “LGBT,” “DRUG” “TRAVEL” buttons on their navigation menu. Instead, they will put buttons like “LIFE” or “HEALTHY,” and then their readers can find stories about LGBT and drug under these big divisions. However, Vice, with putting these up front, immediately tells the readers what they can expect on the website.
Vice also put their videos on the front page which will fill up the whole screen before the readers scroll down to read the actual news pieces. This directly shows Vice’s dependence on video reporting and its video production skill. The readers will be attracted by the well-made video and click to see more. This reflects that Vice has a very thoughtful design of its website that shows the strength and advantages of multimedia reporting.
Video on the Vice Media's front page. Captured by Catherine Zhang
One thing that could be designed better is Vice's news story pages. At the end of each story a relevant news article or video will jump out in full text, and then another relevant story will follow that news article. This is because Vice is trying to make the readers read more and stay longer on their website, but it is not a perfect choice. The whole page seems like a blog without a catalog while all the posts are presented in the full text. This makes it difficult for readers to find stories they want to read, and the endless scrolling down makes all information and stories cluttered in a single web page.
Vice Media's news story page. Captured by Catherine Zhang
Source:
Vice Media's front page: https://www.vice.com/en_us