writing for online - journalism skills
DESCRIPTION
Find out the important details about writing for online when it comes to newspapers and magazines. This lecture was originally written for second year students at the Lincoln School of Journalism.TRANSCRIPT
Writing for online
Charlotte Reid | [email protected]
Homepages
• Welcome page for websites• Contains main points of website/brand• Should encourage people to stay on the site
Homepages
• Not as popular as used to be – readers are coming in the side door
• Every page now acts like a homepage• Homepage still important to attract readers
and keep them interested
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/08/coming-in-the-side-door-the-value-of-homepages-is-shifting-from-traffic-driver-to-brand/
Homepages
• Important for advertisers – Mullet strategy• “Business up front, party in the back”
http://www.businessinsider.com/jonah-perettis-awesome-viral-media-presentation-explained-2010-8?op=1
What makes a good website?
• Clear to read and use• Most important part of website – make it big
and obvious• What do readers want?• How will you show that to them?• Sharing content• Technical – website need to cope with traffic
for big stories
Easy to read
• Hard to keep people’s attention online• Some visitors will read articles properly • Others scan to what they want to read
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/mar/19/attention-span-internet-consumer
Easy to read
• Keep people interested• Good writing – short and
punchy• Subheadings, pictures,
videos, audio• Audience – Buzzfeed use
images and gifs• Best way to cover story
Easy to read - experimentation
• New York Times – Snowfall
Easy to read - experimentation
• http://martinbelam.com/2013/hacks_hackers_usvsth3m/
Mobile websites
• One in five UK digital news readers access news exclusively on mobiles
• Mobile websites are optimised to look good on smaller screens
• Mobile apps – tend to be downloaded if you are already loyal to that site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/bbc-sport-handheld.html
Mobile websites
Mobile website Smartphone app
SEO
• Help people find your website– Tagging– Strong headlines– Useful links– Good content– Updated regularly
Registration
• Needed for comments, email newsletters and paywalls
• Consider how you will protect this information• Privacy issues and legal issues• Learn information from visitors to your site• Cookies – files on the user side which is
helpful for advertisement
Interactivity
• Reader comments• Voter polls• Social media
Helps get readers talking on your site and allows them to contribute to your coverage
Interactivity
Interactivity
Polls•Invite reader to respond to stories•Wordpress plugins, Google forms, Facebook polls•Think about question – make sure not taken advantage of•Results can be written into a new story
Interactivity
Interactivity
Comments•Invite readers to have their say•Get reaction/more information•Emotive subject – are comments worth it?
• Upset people• Legal complications
Interactivity
Interactivity
Social media•Use to promote stories•Use to get reaction and comments
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/01/if-a-tweet-worked-once-send-it-again-and-other-lessons-from-the-new-york-times-social-media-desk/
Interactivity
Social media•Useful to source stories•Contacts•Fact check and accuracy•Have permission
Verification handbook http://verificationhandbook.com/
News is consumed differently
• Need to be able to write your story in different ways– Short article and longer articles– Tweet/Facebook– Audio and video
• Be able to make them all strong and make people want to read
News is consumed differently
Also competing with•Facebook and social media•Blogs•Hyperlocal websites•Radio stations•Local TVAll are very different but will have an online profile