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,…
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…
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…
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…
The problem with many news stories is that they’re not really stories at all. They’re a jumble of facts, often in no apparent logical order. What stories need, as we note in the book, is a focus and structure: beginning,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
