Writing for the Web-Fall 2013

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

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“laye

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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