The Radio Free

The Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (RFERL) in Central Asia Essay News-provider websites are considered to be of great significance in the modern age. Socio-cultural news provider websites, specifically, are deemed to be more adeptly serving the news searchers as it is more accessible in the modern age. Also, due to a more globalized world, news is now regionalized and integrated covers are available in these internet sites. However, there are underlying considerations as to how effective a socio-cultural website given its content, timeliness, design and format. This review is an evaluation of the Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (RFERL) in Central Asia website; an internet news provider which tackles socio-cultural issues from different parts of Central Asia. The website Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty is a form of free media which covers up-to-date news in several regions of the world. It contains news feeds from different countries. Although common news-providers such as those in broadcast television or print includes a variety of sections such as the top news, weather, science, technology, entertainment, lifestyle, etc, this website focus solely on the top socio-cultural stories. These Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty stories are a variety of news and features in social/cultural issues, and international/domestic politics. In the Central Asia section of the website, being the section evaluated in this review, the countries covered are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. All of which contribute to this integrated news website with a variety and up-to-date content. The website’s content can be viewed as somehow very elaborate as different links and sections are made available within the webpage. The most important website links in the page is the navigation bars (subdivided into the standard navigation and the countries navigation bars) which contains an easy-access to all the other parts of the website aside from the Central Asia Region news feed alone. Also, the ten most recent news and features are presented within the webpage in a very neat layout, containing the title of the article, a brief summary, and an image related to the news. This is helpful as it becomes easier for the reader to scan and assess which articles he/she is interested in reading. Also another feature which is quite functional and helpful is the variety of available languages the articles can be read in. These are available at one section of the page which provides website links to pages which are written in the languages of English, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek. Furthermore, the website’s design conforms to news-provider pages standards. By and large, news feed website backgrounds are divided into sections and has a white background. The section divisions help the visitors to locate and identify what they are in search of. The white background, on the other hand, makes it easier for the readers to identify it as news articles as news is always associated in black text with a clean-colored background. This is true even in print such as magazines and newspapers. However, the articles posted in the webpage lack information needed to establish authorship’s credibility and timeliness. The news articles, although posted in summarized versions for viewers convenience, still needs to make the posting time available to make the summarized version more concrete. The readers need to know which time these summarized articles are posted so as not to misconceive it as outdated news or insignificant as of the current time. Also, authorship is very important as it raises the credibility of the article. As a socio-cultural website, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty in Central Asia conforms to news feeding website standards in the quality of the content and design of the website. Also, features made available such as language translation and RSS Feed (a feature which makes it possible for readers to get news in a manner most convenient to them) are highly useful and functional. Succinctly, even if there are insufficiency in providing some information, such as time and author, required in news-providing mediums, the website, still, is successful in providing up-to-date socio-cultural news in Central Asia. Reference News and Features from Central Asia. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (2009) February 10, 2009 from http://www. rferl. org/section/Central+Asia/172. html.