The objective of this study is to determine how IHEs portray or show diversity on their online web pages, and to see how institutions with different racial demographics choose to display diversity. For this study the researcher compares four IHEs in the state of Virginia, which include The College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), and Virginia State University. For each collegiate website the researcher looked at four specific pages. These pages included the Homepage, the Admission Information Page (AIP), Financial Aid Page, and the Student Life Page (SL). To assess how institutions go about portraying diversity, the textual and visual information were focused upon.

The results of this study are significant because the information found on these web pages is the same information that potential students will find. During the search phase, students will be trying to locate certain information about IHEs. Something that is important to students is their perceived social life; students want to find others like themselves, people who they feel like they can relate to (Capraro, 2004). For a student of color, diversity portrayal on institutional websites is very important as it could be the deciding factor when deciding where to attend. From the readings of Hossler, Jack, and Schmit it becomes evident that the information IHEs show on their websites plays a role in the college selection process. Specifically, the portrayal of diversity on these websites has an influence on the decisions students make. This study is not to determine the accuracy of the portrayals of diversity; it is to compare how different IHEs choose to portray diversity on their websites.