Anime Central 2001

ACen 2001: Anime Online

Ryan Matthews teamed up with Tim Georgi (@anime publisher and editor) to talk about online journalism.

The audience consisted of Luis Reyes (Akadot Editor), a Staffer from EX, myself, and a few others interested in online reporting. Needless to say, we had an informal discussion about the good and bad points of online publishing.

With the Internet, we are able to provide information and services a printed publication simply could not do. If an error is made, it can be corrected at a moments notice instead of "waiting for the next publication". The Internet also allows for multimedia content not available any other way; see our exclusive Big O trailers, for example.

We also discussed problems with online publishing. While a newspaper can print articles in a fairly straightforward manner, websites tend to be limited in both vertical and horizontal dimensions. Difficulties arise when graphics and text are placed in constricted spaces. In addition, a clean, slick website design is important, one that loads quickly under most browsers. Use of animated gifs, Flash and Java also need to be used sparingly; although all three technologies can enhance a website's presentation, in most cases this simply makes the site bloated and difficult to navigate.

One important point was raised, concerning the future of EX. The staffer from EX said that "stuff is being worked on", and the famous online anime magazine should be returning in the near future. The site was scheduled to be revamped earlier this year, but hasn't been updated since the change began.