Reaction Post #3

June 12, 2009 Amber

I agreed with everything that Paul Bradshaw wrote. These are very good tips for the emerging journalist.

I remember learning so much about BREVITY in my MCOM 257 and 258 class. It is especially important in online stories. I feel like most people read online stories because they may not have the time to pick up a newspaper, so you want to get the most important information out quick and fast. I especially remember editing multimedia and how hard it was to keep it brief. As a writer, you think your whole story is important. But, you don’t want to bore your viewer with long video and audio, so it’s best to edit it down. 

Print is now moving to media. So it is extremely important for the journalist to ADAPT. The average journalist now needs to become familiar with HTML and needs to know how to make the information being displayed adaptable. Scannability is another important technique. Online readers are in a rush, so it is important that they find the information they are looking for immediately.  Bradshaw says to include, “Clear, unambiguous headlines, subheadings, bullet or number lists, indented quotes, hyperlinks and emboldened or highlighted words.

Interactivity makes the user feel like they are in control. Interactivity is not all about multimedia. Hyperlinks allows users to dictate, user can control video, RSS allows users to combine various feeds and output is shaped based on user input. Journalist must think about how they will give that control to users.

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One Comment Add your own

• 1. TL  |  June 15, 2009 at 9:59 pm

  Good summary. Now how can you use these tips in your project?

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