Transcript Online Journalism - Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU

JOUR 384 Online Journalism
Lesson 5: Online reporting
Metin Ersoy
FCMS
Online reporting
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Brock N. Meakes is Chief Washington
Correspondent for MSNBC. He believes ‘If
you’re a good writer and you have a good
story to tell, people will read all the way
through to the end, whether it’s on the Web,
in a newspaper or written on the ceiling of
your hotel room. They will scroll if you write
well.’
Online reporting
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The first step to effective writing is
widespread, critical reading.
You should read many different newspapers.
SENTENCES
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You should always try to write directly.
The basic structure of subject (özne), verb (fiil)
and then object (nesne) + yüklem.
Doğru örnek: “Çocuk topu yakaladı”
Yanlış örnek: “Top çocuk tarafından yakalandı”
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Keep your sentences short and to the point.
A good rule to avoid convoluted (kıvrık)
sentences is to limit each to communicating
one basic thought or piece of information.
But avoid making all your sentences short
and snappy (canlı, şık).
A mix of sentence lengths can improve the
rhythm of your writing.
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Do not be afraid of breaking the basic rules of
grammar if it enhances (geliştirmek) the
effectiveness of your message.
This is the syntax of their readers and makes
the journalist’s message more acceptable
and easily understood.
Use punctuation (noktalama) correctly.
Commas should be used where there is a
mental pause in the sentence.
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If you’re using a lot of commas, this again
may suggest that your sentence needs
splitting into several smaller ones.
WORDS
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Don’t use more words than you need;
Avoid long words if shorter alternatives are
available;
Avoid words with complex meanings if simpler
alternatives are available;
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Use words with a concrete, rather than an abstract,
meaning whenever possible;
Be specific rather than use generalities;
Give words their correct meaning;
You should filter out all jargon and ‘officialese’;
Use quotes appropriately. Do not use a direct quote
to impart mundane (sıradan) information. You can
summarize that more effectively in your general text.
When possible, use quotes to convey emotion,
feeling, drama or information that is pivotal (esas) to
the story development.
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STORY STRUCTURE
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Two things fill a journalist’s mind when they are
writing: ideas and language.
Language, as we’ve seen, is critically important
and shapes the structure of the sentence and the
paragraph.
But ideas shape the structure of the story. And
story structure is fundamental to your readers’
understanding of your message.
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In traditional news writing, the structure of the
story, in particular the introduction or lead,
can be heavily influenced by the imperative
(zorunlu) of delivering maximum news value
to your readers quickly.
This is particular true in action or event driven
stories such as incidents of crime or
accidents.
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In newspapers and broadcasting this usually
means producing a single story with a carefully
constructed beginning, middle and end. This is
linear construction.
The beginnings leads to the middle, which leads
to the end.
If you break this relationship, for example by
starting to read, views or hear the piece halfway
through, you cannot expect to understand fully
what they follows.
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Quite simply the essence of a story should be
placed at the top of the pyramid, with further
development and amplification (genişletme)
of the main points below, before finally
tapering out (sivri) to a base of background
material.
The pyramid shape, from the top down,
reflects both the importance and the amount
that will be written.
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The pyramid shape offers two benefits.
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First, the reader can get the essence of the story
by reading just the introduction.
Second, newspaper sub-editors, pressed for
space and time, can cut pyramid shaped stories
from the bottom up and not destroy their sense.
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INTROS
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Writing good intros is not easy. As Waterhouse
(1989) points out: “The first paragraph has to
contain the essence of the story in perhaps 25
words.”
People often scan stories on web pages. They
want to get to the point quickly.
As much vital information as possible should go
into the first four paragraphs of a story, including
context and background.
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Each paragraph should have a clear purpose and
simple structure. Journalists should limit themselves
to one idea per paragraph.
As The Online Journalist explains: “All stories should
be written in a clear and accessible manner – we
are writing for a general audience and a global one.
We must not assume too much knowledge. The
importance of the story – why we should care –
needs to flagged up early on, as should the impact
on ordinary people. Spell it out every time!”
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When you constructing your intro, you should
took for information that is new (revelation) to
your reader and will also grab their interest
through being unusual or dramatic (arousal).
Another imperative for the intro is that it
should be short. There is always a tension
(gerilim) between what you want to say and
the space available.
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Your choice of words is critically important, as
an examination of even the most
straightforward (doğru söyleyen) trigger,
location reference, illustrates.
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HEADLINES
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Harold Evans (2000) is in no doubt about the
importance of headline writing: “Writing good
headlines is 50% of text editors’ skills.”
As Evans (2000) explains, the headline serves
two main purposes: “First, to attract as many
readers as possible into the text of the story.
Second, for those who do not read the story none
the less retain an impression from scanning the
headline”
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Leslie Sellers (1968) offers a number of basic
rules that every headline writer would do well
to remember:
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Use the active voice and the present tense (şimdiki
zaman) whenever possible. Örnek: Milletvekilleri,
Başbakanı göreve çağırıyor.
Avoid punctuation (noktalama) in headlines.
Avoid the anonymous he, she or they, specify
occupation, age etc. and personalize whenever
appropriate. Örnek: KKTC Başbakanı yerine Ferdi
Sabit Soyer.
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Avoid cramming (hızlı) in too much information.
In the case of a double-line heading, try to make
the first line make sense on its own because it
represents a complete thought on its own.
Sellers advises against specific place names in
headlines unless they have a specific purpose.
This is a particular danger for online journalists,
given the global readership of sites.
It’s vitally important that you both read and
understand the whole story submitted to you.
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CAPTIONS
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Captions should not just describe what you can
already see or state the obvious. Often you do
need to impart basic information, for example
someone’s name, to identify that person’s picture
from the other half a dozen names in the story.
But you will usually want to add other details
explaining the person’s relevance to the story.
Remember, people may read a caption before the
main text of a story.
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LINKS
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Internal links (linking you to other pages within
your own site) are often the most challenging
(düşünmeye itekleyen).
You must think carefully how to summarize these
in a way that makes sense to your user.
A good check on this is to periodically show your
links to someone unfamiliar with the previous
coverage and see if they can understand them.