writing for the web-fall 2013
DESCRIPTION
Here are the slides from the presentation on writing for the Web used in class on Monday, September 16, 2013.TRANSCRIPT
WRITING FOR THE WEBThe Context, the Content and Conventions
JN 325
• News through the filter of the press to us with few other options.
The traditional model for journalism
Source: The Buzz Machine (Jeff Jarvis) The press becomes the press-sphere
WebJournalism:
THE CONTEXT
Journalism Ecosystem NOW• Jeff Jarvis: “There’s a
fundamentally new structure to media”
• Consumers are at the center of the universe
• You don’t have to get information from just the press
• You can search for it yourself• You can get a link to it in your
e-mail or on Facebook or Twitter
• YOU CONTROL the universe of news and information
Source: The press becomes press sphere (Jarvis)
WebJournalism:
THE CONTEXT
News organizations MONITOR
& LINK TO other online content
The New York Times now owns a tool that monitors blogs by checking links to its articles & creates “TOPIC Pages”
WebJournalism:
CONTEXT
Web-specific writing resources NOW
AVAILABLE
• Example: SEO writing guidelines
“Yahoo’s editors have giventhe rules of the writing road a smartand timely reboot. It’s Strunk andWhite for the online world” -Arianna Huffington
WebJournalism:
CONTENT
Web Journalism:Practice and Promise of a New Medium
Published in 2003
-distinguishing features of the Web -- capacity, immediacy, flexibility, permanency, and interactivity - offer new storytelling possibilities.
Key Terms for Web Journalism
• Layering
• Lateral Thinking
• Links
• Summaries
• Chunks
• Sub-heads
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
HEADLINE
Web Summary
Story Text
Sub-heading
Story Text
Link summary
Another website
Writ
ing &
editing a
s
“laye
ring”
info
rmatio
nWeb
Journalism:
CONVENTIONS
Lateral Thinking• Most important REPORTING difference
between web and other forms of journalism
• Reporters conceive, execute a story BEYOND the linear narrative (story text)
• Asks “How can the story expand?”• Brings in multimedia aspects of web
• Involves a new PATTERN OF THOUGHT second nature to the web journalist
• Uses text to explain, multimedia to show, interactive to demonstrate/engage Web
Journalism:CONVENTIONS
Web Reporting Means Links
• WHY– Adds content to story without interfering with flow of story
• WHAT– Research abstracts
– Consumer calculators
– Glossary/key terminologies
– Maps
– Forums for exchange
– E-mails to story sourcesWeb
Journalism:
CONVENTIONS
Web Reporting Means Links
• Two (2) types of links1) Links to other previously established web
sites
2) Links (link lists) to related content (i.e. resource page) created by the writer or reporter
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
Writing the Link Summary• Def: a few words used to introduce a web
link to another part of a story package or different web site
• Goal: to tell reader what he or she will get if he or she clicks the link
• Goes beyond the “click here” cue• May be “embedded” in the presentation of
the story
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
“Link text that reads click here is a missed opportunity. It is meaningless to users and doesn’t tell search engines what the page being linked to is about .” -- The YAHOO! Style Guide
Writing the Web Summary
• Def: one, two or three sentence paragraph that tells what the story is about (also called abstracts in academic writing)
• Should not duplicate/mimic the lead of story• Goal: to tell reader what story is about AND sell
him/her on reading further• Summaries may use literary techniques
(alliteration, puns) and break from newswriting style to draw reader into story
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
3 Reasons why inverted pyramid works
1) Organizes information in an efficient manner for the reader
2) Allows reader to get enough of the story whether he or she decides to continue or switch to another story
3) Nonchronological structure allows for most interesting, important first no matter where it occurred in sequence of events
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
Web Reporting Means Chunks
• Inverted pyramid is even more important on the web
• Web writers split writing into smaller, coherent pieces (chunks) to avoid long, scrolling pages
Headline
Summary
CHUNK
CHUNK
CHUNK
Sub-Heading
Sub-Heading
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
What’s in a sub-heading?• Def: Line of type within the body copy (of the
story) that informs the reader what is coming up next
• Should come at natural breaks/shifts in story• Goal: capture MOST IMPORTANT idea of the
paragraphs to follow• Usually no more than three or four words
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS
From newspaper story to web
• “Repurpose” does not mean rehash
• “Repurpose” requires rewriting, re-formatting to fit the needs of a different medium
• JN 325 Reporting and Writing Across Media focuses on mastering these web principles, learning broadcast principles and developing “lateral thinking”
WebJournalism:
CONVENTIONS