This guide to online journalism covers aspects of writing for the web and designing web pages. It also covers trends and issues related to New Media. This is not a one-time guide but will be updated as and when we feel changes are required to reflect the latest happenings in New Media.
Chapters include:
Introduction to Online Journalism
Writing for the Web
Designing web pages
Trends and Issues
Resources
Introduction
What is online Journalism?
Online journalism refers to news content produced and disseminated on the Internet. The content may include some or all of the following: text, images, links and multimedia.
The most important characteristic features of online medium are interactivity, customized content, accessibility and community building.
Interactivity means that as a reader you will be able to respond to a news item immediately by clicking on the links provided in the website. For instance, you will be able to voice your opinion on a topic by going to the poll section of the web site. The reader is thus instantly empowered and assumes complete control over his thoughts.
Community development: In addition to interacting to a specific news item, new media also enables you to build community groups. There are millions of specific interest groups listed in almost all the major portals and news organizations. For instance, if you are an animal rights activist, you will be able to interact with people who share the same interests as you and you will be able to get in touch with them by enrolling in the group list.
Customized content: In traditional media, news comes filtered to you. It tells you what is news and what isn`t. But in New Media, you will not only be able to get news that specifically interests you but also in any form you want. Because there are so many independent publishers on the web, you can get both, information that is raw and in edited version. In fact, you can get a custom made newspaper based entirely on your interests. Which means, you don`t have to pay for news you don`t read.
Accessibility refers to getting information at your fingertips without having to leave the comfort of your home or office. Also, thanks to the new medium, you don`t have to wait on news being served to you, you can get it as and when you want to. All you need is a PC and an Internet connection.
Online writing is different from writing for the print medium because we as readers respond to each medium in a different way. We do not like to read lengthy reports on the computer for too long because reading on the PC monitor strains the eye.
We don`t read word to word but scan for news on the web. Therefore, the presentation of the news on the PC monitor is catered in a different way than that of a newspaper.
News online is presented with chunks, summaries and links, in addition to headlines and images. Sometimes an audio and video file may also be linked to the story.
What is chunking? On the web, news is broken into `chunks` or bits of specific information. Because users access the web from remote corners of the world looking for specific information, news is broken into what the Usability guru Jakob Nielsen calls as `manageable bits of information`.
This allows the user to delve either deeply or superficially as he or she may want to into specific aspects of the topic. If the user is interested in knowing more about a specific topic, all they have to do is follow the related links to the story.
Also, the structure of the story is different while writing a story online. While writing an online story, you will have to structure every chunk individually. This means that you will have to plan `potential paths` or do a storyboard so that each part is understandable in and of itself; there is no need to maintain the sequential order of events.
Next week: More on writing for the web