Obesity Website Ethos

February 8th 

     For today's blog post, I will compare the following websites listed below. 

1. http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en
2. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity
3. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-junk-food-can-end-obesity/309396
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/health/childhood-obesity-drops-in-new-york-and-philadelphia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=
5. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/03/living/overweight-pets/  

     All of the listed websites above focus on a common topic: obesity.  All of the websites agree that obesity has a negative effect on health and most of the websites agree that obesity is spreading (except the New York Times).  I noticed that the government sponsored websites such as WHO and CDC offer various facts about obesity and how the readers can get involved to slow the endemic.  On the other hand, the news websites tend to focus on a particular topic related to obesity rather than providing the readers with more general information about the social illness.  For instance, the Atlantic website discusses how junk food can end obesity and the CNN website emphasizes how the obesity endemic has affected domestic pets in the Unites States.  On the news websites, the articles about obesity are categorized under a "Health" or "Living" tab.  This implies that these websites are not solely focused on this particular social illness, but offer other news that may catch the readers' attention.    

     The five websites all employ a similar color scheme.  They use white backgrounds, dark print, and solid colored headings.  The sites also utilize tabs with different labels for organizational purposes.  Four of the five websites display images that are related to obesity; for instance, images of food, overweight animals, and weight scales are present.  Often times, the images are inserted under the title of the website with the text following afterwards.  In addition, the news websites tend to have many advertisements while the government websites do not.  As a result, the layout of the news websites sometimes shifts the attention of the readers away from the main topic.   

     After examining the five websites, I believe that my website will end up looking similar to the CDC website.  The website contains links to obesity related topics such as statistics, prevention programs, and resolutions and includes images that complement the topics.  I also want to include much of the information that is available on the CDC website about obesity.