The world is in an ever increasing manner moving online. We are more connected than ever before. Our phones sync with our tablets syncing with our pc's back home to turn on the kettle and make the coffee on top of that. With this move to digital, the world of journalism has also changed dramatically. Students studying the art of journalistic practice needs to be educated in how to write effectively not only for print, but also online.
And these differences are quite substantial. According to this website, there are eight distinguishable things any prospective writer for an online publication should remember:
1. Keep it short 'n sweet
Reading on your computer screen can become a strenuous activity to the eyes. It is therefore of the utmost importance that writers should keep their online stories nice and short. Much shorter than the print equivalent. People like to be able to read through a story quickly.
2. Break it up!
If you do need to include a long piece of copy, rather break it up into various pages than posting it all on one long page. Psychologically this might fool your reader into believing the copy is not that long.
3. Write in the active voice
This is the same as with print. Always write in the now with the Subject-Verb-Object format at hand.
4. Use the inverted pyramid
Like in general news writing this is also of importance for web. Give the most important news first. Follow on that with elaborations and detail.
5. Highlight key words
When used sparingly, highlighting certain pieces of text can accentuate important parts of the story and help a reader find information they are looking for.
6. Make use of bullets and numbered lists
Everybody loves lists. Make them. Use them wisely to tell a story in a creative way.
7. Use sub-headings
Sub-headings are another great way to help your reader to distinguish between sections of a story and letting them know where to find specific information they might be looking for.
8. Use hyperlinks whenever you can
Use hyperlinks to link the reader to other interesting sites about your topic that they might enjoy. This is probably the best part of web-writing that you can never do in print.
The important thing to remember if you are writing for online is that you can easily aggregate a large amount of information from various sources. Especially in news writing a journalist can find a story of various social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
The good thing about using these platforms is that they are usable in your own blog. Twitter allows embedded tweets straight into your blog, like this one, complete with its media intact:
This audio clip was posted on SoundCloud by a church group on how to write for the web. The same strategies apply for any publication online.
The important thing to remember if you are writing for online is that you can easily aggregate a large amount of information from various sources. Especially in news writing a journalist can find a story of various social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
The good thing about using these platforms is that they are usable in your own blog. Twitter allows embedded tweets straight into your blog, like this one, complete with its media intact:
Malema vows to teach legislature a lesson, shut down Johannesburg http://t.co/vxhQwbp7T2 pic.twitter.com/mh6Utw0qjd
— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) July 31, 2014
Being online also gives the writer the opportunity to employ various techniques in presenting his or her story. In stead of just writing about an event, a person can now also embed a video or a clip from SoundCloud into their posts to enhance the story. See for example the effective use of a timeline to tell this story of the life of Nelson Mandela.This audio clip was posted on SoundCloud by a church group on how to write for the web. The same strategies apply for any publication online.
Online is also a very visual medium. It is where you have free range to post anything from text to complex sites using both video's and text to tell the story. Most major news websites like the BBC, News24 and SkyNews use a mixture of elements to visually tell a story. This includes the use of a lot of video's. For example this story on SkyNews leads with a video followed by minimal text interspersed with many photo's.
After all is said and done, you can spread the love by tweeting and posting about your story to your followers online. This gets the news out much quicker than it ever would have in print.
So next time, try to get your news out in the most creative way possible. And that can only be done on the wonderful World Wide Web.
After all is said and done, you can spread the love by tweeting and posting about your story to your followers online. This gets the news out much quicker than it ever would have in print.
Time to make the move! Why #online writing differs from #print...and then some http://t.co/ViCUu4QPiM #BPhil2014 #media #news #future
— Petrus Malherbe (@PetrusMalherbe) July 31, 2014
So next time, try to get your news out in the most creative way possible. And that can only be done on the wonderful World Wide Web.