Radio One & TV One try their hand at online communities
Take a look for yourself…
I really don’t know what to say about this one. Don’t get me wrong, Radio One’s corporate site is much better then it was but honestly I was just expecting much more from this “Urban Media Specialist.”
TV One, on the other hand, is much better then its parent site. However, when I come across a website that targets African-Americans and the color scheme is one of the many typical “afro-centric” color schemes used for this demographic I become disappoint. My disappointment is only because I know that there is no specific color scheme that can limit the culture. We are all colors.
I will say there are many, many things that I loved about TV One’s website, one being the integration of community. While not as “robust” as MySpace it offers many of the same features such as member profiles, member blogs, member groups called “Clubs” and a “Friend List” which is displayed on your profile. While you can’t customize your profile with themes or embed video and music, users can share clips from TV One’s programming and link to WMV from their blog (some even link off of the site to YouTube). They also seem to have a fairly active message board.
Overall I think TV One’s online community is a step in the right direction but I think Radio One’s corporate web site needs work.
