Internet presence and historically black colleges and universities: Protecting their images on the World Wide Web?☆

Abstract This study examines how historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) use their home pages to present images of themselves. The home pages of 96 institutions were examined using content analysis. The findings suggest that HBCUs are not using their home pages to project a strong image. For example, less than 10% of these institutional home pages made mention of institutional rankings, and less than 20% made mention of students, athletics or faculty. The authors make suggestions for how HBCUs can better project institutional image with changes to home page content and design.