Accuracy and clarity are two of the most important principles of journalism, but at times the effort to achieve one of these goals can get in the way of the other. What does it take to accomplish both? Critical thinking…
Watch your words
Category: 07. Writing the Story: Digital
Writing wisdom from a prize-winner
You can learn a lot about writing from people who do it well. In fact, I don’t think you can ever stop learning about writing if you want to keep improving your craft. So I thought I’d share a few…
How Twitter feeds the web in local TV
Facebook may be the big dog when it comes to driving traffic to local TV news sites, but Twitter is an essential tool now for creating online content. Mark Becker has been a part of the reporting team at WSOC-TV…
Books for writers
Writers read. Good writers read voraciously. That’s because the best way to improve your craft is to study it, learning from great practitioners. I’ve had a list of favorite books about writing on the NewsLab site for years now and I…
Remember the reader
When you produce a story, are you thinking of how people are going to consume it? Mick Côté, digital news editor at The Canadian Press, says that in most newsrooms the answer is typically, “No.” And that’s a shame. “We’re so…
How to write a mobile news story
According to research from the Nielsen Norman Group, it may be nearly twice as hard to comprehend information you consume on a smartphone-sized mobile device. The limited amount of information displayed on the screen requires users to remember more as…
How TV journalists write for social media
Kristen Wilson spent her college career working on design and magazine projects, but her first job out of school put her on the front lines of WTVA’s social media presence. Wilson is a Web producer for the NBC affiliate in…
Top 5 social media writing tips
It’s not hard to find a slew of articles on best practices for social media tweets and posts, but if you can only focus on five things, here’s where to start! 1. Share “news.” Before you say, “Duh!” — let…
Top journalism skills in 2012
So, it may seen a little arrogant to assume that our blog can act as a barometer of the journalism industry, but what the heck. If you look at the five most viewed posts of 2012, it seems reasonable to…
Better blogging made easy
If blogging is just writing, why is it so hard to do well? Maybe because it’s not just writing, or at least it shouldn’t be. Journalism students who ought to know the basics seem to struggle with blogging as much…