ENG 351: Media Writing

Archive

Unit 1: Foundational Skills

Chapter 1: Writing for Digital Media--The Foundation

stereotype
widely-held, but oversimplified and often negative view of a particular group of people. Using such a view to draw specific conclusions about an individual who belongs to a particular group.
generalize
make a broad statement by inferring from specific cases. Generalizing can be inaccurate when broad ideas are drawn from very few specific cases.
plagiarize
representing someone else's original ideas as your own.
oversimplify
simplifying something to the point that it is distorted.

Chapters 2-4: Writing and Editing for Digital Media

headline
top line of a story, usually formatted in a larger font. Headlines attract attention, summarize the story, organize the page, convey mood/tone.
best practices for headlines include leaving out present tense forms of "to be," using present tense main verbs, including keywords, using "to" instead of forms of "will" for future events, using numerals rather than spelling out numbers, and including specifics.
deckhead
sentence under a headline that provides additiona context. Deckheads are in a font smaller than the headline, but larger than the body text. They are the part of a story most likely to be read, research shows.
pull quote
colorful, provocative, summative quotation that appears in a contrasting typface; often set off in a box with body text of the article wrapped around it. Pull quotes should be brief and not give away too much of the story (especially the ending).
SEO--Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the practice of writing content so that it will be prioritized in internet searches. Best practices for improving the SEO of web content include using properly formatted headings and subheadings; including keywords in headings, subheadings, and content, writing articles/content that is at least 300 words long, repeating keywords throughout a story.
ordered list
list that uses ordinals of some type (e.g., 1, 2, 3..., a, b, c... etc.). Ordered lists should be used for step-by-step instructions, ranked lists of items, anything where the order of terms matters.
unordered lists
lists that use symbols like bullet points or squares or icons rather than ordinals. These lists should be used when the ordering of items in the list doesn't matter or the items are all of equal weight.
visual style: best practices
consistent navigational scheme
each page/screen is clearly related to the site structure and has uniform navigation.
direct access
provides users what they are looking for in as few steps as possible.
direct but don't dictate
the preferred order for encountering content is clear, but users can access information in the order they wish.
simple, salient, and scannable
navigation is familar and logical; users don't have to explend too much energy figuring it out or thinking about it.

Chapter 6: Journalism in a Digital Age

Story Structures

Chronological Stories
Presentation of events in the order they occured.
Narratives
Descriptively setting the scene to draw readers in and using a structure with a discrete beginning, middle, and end. Narrative stories use vivid description and detail.
The Hourglass Structure
Stories that start with the inverted pyramid in the first half and then after a turn or pivot use a chronological structure to detail all of the events in the second half. This structure is common in reports on athletic events.
Thematic Approach
Organizing a complex story by topic; these stories will often have topical sub-heads to emphasize the organization.
Focus style or structure
Structure that combines news with narrative by reporting on a broad topic through focusing on a specific case or localized instance of the story.
The focus style story is composed of the following parts:
lead
The opening that lays out the who, what, when, where, and why (remember, all stories will have a lead). In this type of story, the lead will localize the broader story.
nut graph
states the central point or angle of the story in a nutshell
main body
the details of the broader story.
kicker
conclusion that brings the larger story back to the local focus.
sidebar
not a complete story structure, but a snippet story that is related to the main story and often run in close physical proximity on the page to the main story.

Unit 2: Filming the Show

Chapter 5: Whiteboarding--Generating Ideas and Publishing the Story

Definitions: News Values

Impact
value that expresses how a story will affect the target audience. Emphasizing impact can increase audience engagement.
Conflict
value that emphasizes two competing sides in a story. Common strategy for sports stories, politics, etc.
Proximity
location: how close geographically or metaphorically to the audience the story is.
timeliness
value based on what's trending or topical.
prominence
value based on the personality at the center of the story-- common for celebrity stories.
novelty
value based on what's different or bizarre. Also called "Man bites dog"
human interest
value that focuses on a human character who is personally affected by a story; pathos is an important component of this approach.
visual interest
story that lends itself to compelling visuals

All of these values can help localize a story, and multiple values can be used within a single story.