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By Timothy Guy
By Timothy Guy
Viewpoints is now coming directly to your home… sort of.
The Web site for the Riverside Community College student newspaper, Viewpoints, is now officially online and ready to be bookmarked on browsers everywhere.
The purpose of Viewpoints Online is to bring the community of RCC more than the print version can offer, things like interactivity and breaking news. One thing that will remain consistent between the online and print version is that the readers will still be able to see the same stories, but with a treat. With the online versions of stories color pictures will be included.
For example, the Features story on the secret koi pond that ran in the Nov. 4 issue had a black and white photo, but on the Web site there is a color photo to accompany the story that brings out everything in the pond.
There is also exclusive content only seen online. Stories and photos not seen the in the print version will be found there.
One feature in particular will open up Viewpoints to the community of RCC.
The Viewpoints Online message boards are a resource to talk about stories or photos, suggest ideas for future issues, announce or talk about events going on around campus or give your opinion on the current issues related to RCC.
In order to use the message board, users have to be registered through Viewpoints Online. The registration form can be found right under the “Message Board” button on the left side of the screen under the “Options” category. All that is required is a valid email address and an identification of who you are (student, staff etc.)
A member profile can be created after the registration process that can give other users more information about you like first and last name, major, gender and birth date. The member profile is not required, but helps give a better idea of the person.
Another feature found under the “Options” category that brings the community closer to Viewpoints is the “Letter to the Editor” option. Using this option a letter can be sent to the editor-in-chief that may be put in either the print or online editions.
The purpose of the Letter to the Editor is to get readers opinions of the issues that are covered in Viewpoints, but also issues that are not covered but affect the community.
Calendars are set up under the “Options” category to let readers know what is going on around the RCC campus. There are calendars for different areas of interest on campus including sports, arts and campus activities.
The sports calendar is an online version of the scoreboard page that appears in every print issue of Viewpoints. It has upcoming dates and times for every sporting event that involves RCC teams.
The arts calendar will spotlight concerts, plays, musicals and art exhibits that happen on campus.
The campus activities calendar will feature club activities, important meetings and other fun events that are planned oncampus.
In the print edition of the paper there is a page in the Opinions section called “Campus Conversations” that takes a question to the students of RCC and gets their thoughts on it.
With the online version, the poll question (on the right hand side of the site) will correspond to the current “Campus Conversations” question, giving everyone a chance to get their voices heard on the current issue.
There is also a “Back Issues” button that will bring up previous issues of Viewpoints to look at. At the time of press only a few of the back issues were available to browse through.
Other features of the Web Site are information on advertising with Viewpoints, publishing policy, the current weather forecast in Riverside, awards that Viewpoints has won, information on staff and contact information.