Bob Kaplitz is a consultant for Audience Research & Development. In a recent post, he produced an excellent 10 minute presentation on effective Web writing. He describes a new “prime time” for online news use. For example, use of computers, mobile devices and tablets jump up after about 6 a.m. Computers rule for much of [...]
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Seek truth and report it is the prime directive of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. And one of the basic conditions of reporting truth is to be sure you are accurate. For a multimedia journalist, producing a story on his or her own, getting it right is just as important, but tougher [...]
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The annual survey of journalism and mass communications graduates finds that most grads are using the Web skills they’ve learned in school and wishing they had more. The majority of 2010 bachelor’s degree recipients said they had the skill when they completed their studies to write for the Web, edit for the Web, use still photography [...]
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Digital marketer Chris Lake offers a round-up of advice on writing for social media that he’s culled from some of the world’s biggest companies. They all seem highly relevant to what journalists are trying to do as well. Here are a few favorites: INTEL Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments [...]
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Learning to write for the Web just got a little easier. Posting on the RTDNA site, reporter Lynn Walsh put together this terrific list of eight elements for online writing. 1. Keep it short and sweet. Keep sentences short. Omit unnecessary words. Only include one idea per paragraph. Keep paragraphs short: tell the reader to [...]
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When it comes to writing, what works on TV or in print doesn’t necessarily work on the Web. Stories that begin with an anecdotal lead may send online readers clicking away, if they can’t figure out quickly what the story is about. Many broadcast journalists have taken to rewriting their stories for the Web by [...]
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Well, it’s not surprising, but it may be a bit depressing. The Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communications Graduates confirms what we all expected – it’s harder to find a job these days. …only 60.4% of the 2008 bachelor degree recipients had landed full-time employment about a half year after graduation. That is not [...]
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Poynter recently hosted an online chat with NYU professor Jay Rosen and PressThink blogger on the subject of teaching people to blog. Advice: Break news, say something that hasn’t been said, collate what no one has collated, and then link to the biggies when you publish. So, why link to the “biggies,” as in popular [...]
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Most television Web sites have left the age of shovelware behind, thank goodness. It took a while, but stations finally figured out that simply posting TV scripts online wouldn’t entice anyone to visit a site twice. That said, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. TV stories don’t just need to be rewritten for the [...]
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If you aren’t already reading any of Jakob Nielsen’s work about online writing, you should start. Just recently he published his pick for the news organization with the best Web headlines. And the winner is….the BBC. According to Nielsen, good headlines should have these characteristics: short (because people don’t read much online); rich in information scent, clearly [...]
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