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ONLINE WRITING

ONLINE WRITING. Tricks of the trade. HOW DO PEOPLE READ ON THE WEB?. Eyetracking video of a google page Usability researcher Jakob Nielsen says its F for fast. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html Implications according to Nielsen: Users will not read material exhaustively

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ONLINE WRITING

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  1. ONLINE WRITING Tricks of the trade

  2. HOW DO PEOPLE READ ON THE WEB? • Eyetracking video of a google page • Usability researcher Jakob Nielsen says its F for fast. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html • Implications according to Nielsen: • Users will not read material exhaustively • First two paragraphs must state important information • Start subheads, paragraphs and bullet-points with information carrying words

  3. NIELSEN’S ADVICE FOR WEBSITES • http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html • One idea per paragraph • Half the word count of conventional writing • Employ scannable text because people don’t read on the web • Highlighted keywords • Bulleted lists • Increase credibility by high quality writing, graphics and use of outbound hyperlinks

  4. NOT JUST NIELSEN • Poynter conducted an eyetracking study in 2006 • Results showed: • Participants read deep into stories in print and online but reading decreased as length increased • Online participants read more of the story text than broadsheet and tabloid readers. • There were methodical and scanner readers- online readers could be both, paper readers likely to be former • Short text and visual elements more accessible and attractive to readers • Headlines and photos first visual stop for paper readers; navigation for online readers • Big color photos received more attention in print. Maps and explanatory graphics were viewed more than charts in print and online.

  5. BOTTOMLINE FROM BOTH STUDIES • Scanning across news stories online more likely than in print (even though online readers may read more) • Infographics more engaging and attractive • Short text, photos and highlighted words more attractive • Easy navigation makes a site more attractive to an online user given it is the first visual stop

  6. THE BIG MOVE FROM PRINT TO ONLINE • Change in news processes • More interaction with the audience • Shift in mindset when it comes to storytelling skills. (think multiplatform, multimedia) • Entrepreneurial journalism on the rise • 24-hour news cycle • More emphasis on graphics, and using data to better explain a story • The Daily Telegraph explains their process of converging the newsroom

  7. WHAT ONLINE JOURNALISM OFFERS Post by Jay Rosen, media professor at NYU (great supporter of new media) http://pressthink.org/2011/04/what-i-think-i-know-about-journalism/ • The more people who participate in the press the stronger it will be. • The profession of journalism went awry when it began to adopt the View from Nowhere. • The news system will improve when it is made more useful to people. • Making facts public does not a public make; information alone will not inform us.

  8. PLANNING AN ONLINE STORY

  9. MODERN MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST: RAVAN?

  10. ONLINE WRITING: HOW IT IS DIFFERENT • Inverted pyramid style still rules supreme. • Sentences are shorter, as are paragraphs. Especially the lead • Text almost always accompanied by photos or a graphic or a bullet box or videos. For example • Important to study the audience, understand how people are using what you are doing. • Basic tips on online writing- a natural summary

  11. ONLINE WRITING: HOW IS IT DIFFERENT • Multimedia expertise is not an exception in the newsroom, it has become the norm- especially for online publications. • Tools used by amateurs before now adopted by professionals to give the impression of closely relating to their audiences • Jeff Jarvis on newspapers adopting video quite unlike the bigger tv networks such as CNN • Use of Hipstamatic by a NYT photographer • Trend encouraging for young students who can use accessible technology to create multimedia pieces

  12. A Gizmodo blog entry: “I can see how the photographer– the person who was there, documenting a moment in time – can reasonably argue that his Hipstamatic print more accurately depicts the feeling of what it was like to be there.” He added, “Winter might be the first photojournalist to win an award using a slick photo app to document an event but he won’t be the last.”

  13. MOVING ONLINE- NOW WHAT? • Experience with Reporting Texas • Design • CMS system /logo/color scheme/format • Sections (which ones and what to call them) • Planning for a steady stream of news content from within the school • Collaborations with other reporting classes, getting other teachers on board • Making it prominent and promoting it throughout the school

  14. TRICKS USED FOR CONTENT EXPANSION: RT • Collaborations with other media outlets so that news published on the site can be used by them- granting the student greater exposure • Establishing internships with local media where both RT and the outlet use the content • Establishing a class that focused on creating content exclusively for the site- making it attractive by providing class credit for what is effectively an internship

  15. WHEN CREATING A WEBSITE, ASK: • What purpose will your website serve? • Would you like it to be a daily or a weekly? Or even a monthly? • Design design design. NPR shows how. • How can you build a product that would help with collaborations with local media?

  16. KEEPING UP WITH NEW MEDIA TOOLS • There are blogs available that constantly update you with the new technologies that are being released in the market, for instance: http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/ ; www.gigaom.com • It helps to follow scholars like Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky- who are constantly debating and writing (in favor) of the changing news media • One of our own, Amy Schmitz Weiss is really clued in to the applications that are useful for multimedia journalism. Follow her blog

  17. CONTENT CREATION AND MANAGEMENT- ADVICE FROM CASEY AT AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN How the Austin-American Statesman maintains its site: • Twitter- news tips and often times tapping into the followers to build up photogalleries (a great way of getting the community involved in the school newspaper?) • Setting up a network of contributors outside of the regular writers to have a wider base • Setting up RSS feeds to keep track of what is being covered by other media for story ideas

  18. TRICKS OF AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN • Have a design in which the centerpiece changes out often- giving the impression of new content even if it has not been changed • Have blogs in which comment updates would mean new content • Have time stamps on stories which provide visual cues to the story being updated or changed • BBC does minute-rants: a correspondent stands in front of a camera and speaks about an issue for a minute. An easy way of adding new video to the site • Replace the picture on the home page every day to give a sense of newness to the site

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