The B.A.S.I.C.(C's) of Online Journalism
The B.A.S.I.C Principles of Online Journalism series by Paul Bradshaw had a lot of very insightful information and provided a good amount of clarity to the somewhat muddled idea of what online journalism is all about. The only thing I think he could have improved was the navigation of the stories. I understand that most people would be reading it straight through from beginning to end, but it is hard to get to the individual components or the main page listing each section (although I think he did try at the top of the stories; the link goes to a WP search).
Bradshaw put his explanations and thoughts on the topic into a succinct and engaging format, and highlights some ideas that I think will really help me as I move forward in my online writing endeavors.
Having brief, one-concept paragraphs (as I am trying to do here) seems like a very logical and effective way of organizing stories or blog posts in the online domain. Breaking things down into constituent parts allows the reader to get more out of things and retain more of what they have read.
This breakdown also allows people to link to specific parts of your posts. For example, as I am pointing out Bradshaw’s examples of brevity, it would be a lot more useful for my readers if they can click a link to that page of the story, rather than the entire B.A.S.I.C series.
Bradshaw brings up the advantages of providing and subscribing to RSS feeds to create one’s own personalized news gathering platform. While I agree that RSS feeds can be a great alternative to scouring the web for what news you are interested in, I also think that the reason many people don’t use them is that they can quickly become overloaded just as the web can.
A few months ago I decided to try to set up some RSS feeds on my laptop so that I could consolidate what information that I wanted to see. For the first few days, I loved it, and found that it saved time and effort and I felt satisfyingly informed. After about a week, I had collected too many feeds and the information overload set in again, and I found myself sifting through thousands of stories on my RSS application; which didn’t seem useful.
It may just be my lack of customization of the setting to get what parts of the feeds that I want, but I think that the idea of feeds and consolidation of information still has a long way to come before it will be used in a mainstream fashion. When is the last time a news organization on TV or radio asked you to follow their RSS feed?
Another good point that Bradshaw addressed was scanning, including headlines, summary blurbs, and SEO when writing online. I never really thought about how the word order affected the reader as well as the search engines.
Moving on to linking (I already feel I am breaking the “brevity” rules), Bradshaw explains how important linking effectively is in the online community. I found one of his links about the affect of literacy in online writing and reading to be an eye-opening post. It is important to remember that while much of your audience might be well-educated and literate, there are also those that will be turned away if the words are too lofty or academic.
Also being that roughly 80% of online users scan websites rather than thoroughly read them, in some cases it seems better to have more simplified, clear, concise information.
Finally the author talks about community and conversation as the last part of the B.A.S.I.C series. His quote from blogger and journalist David Cohn really put things into perspective as to the future definition of a “journalist”.
“What they do is organize communities – and while it might not FEEL like media, it is. We may not call them “journalists” but they are helping to inform citizens so they can make decisions in a healthy democracy. They collect, filter and distribute information. Sounds like journalism to me.”
This sense of involving the community, rather than simply reporting what the journalist or news outlet has deemed important is the way that journalism seems to be headed.
The final point I wanted to touch on was Bradshaw’s “Conversation Loop”, which seems simple, but is crucial for those publishing on the web to consider and ultimately practice if they want to be successful in the online medium. They need to be the ideal mix of party guest and host, by facilitating conversation and connecting people; as well as staying engaged and active themselves.
See how the loop includes listening and feedback from the journalist? This is much different from the days of the daily paper or nightly news; and can really help to engage people and communities as functioning members of a democracy.
Great posts Paul, keep up the good work!
Very thoughtful and deep post, Josh. Looks like you got a lot out of it.
I agree with RSS feeds, and the same problem can quickly occur with Twitter.