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Each news item sits in one area of the site. The story might belong in the technology section, the politics section, a world regional section, or some other area of the site. Wherever it is, this is its home. Every story needs a home.
Stories are often created in a specific template, or tagged as belonging to a certain area. However, each story might have several elements that will enable it to be used in other sections.
One of the skills of news website management is knowing how to exploit each story in all relevant sections, so that it appears on multiple section indices.
Take, for example, the hypothetical news story that a study has revealed that users of mobile phones are exposed to an increased risk of developing brain tumours. Where should that story sit?
If the story comes from a medical journal, it could have its main home in the health section. If it is written by a technology expert, it could have its main home in the technical section. What is clear is that this story can be used in more than one section of the site. You also need to think where the users might expect to find the material.
It is a health story, and users, concerned about brain tumours (and who bookmark your health section) will expect to find it there. It is a technology story. Many will want to know what is being done to deal with the problem, such as what hands-free devices are available, or whether there are any shields on the market to protect people from the dangers.
It is a business story. Those with an interest in the mobile phone industry might be concerned about the impact the story has on shares in the leading mobile phone manufacturers.
It is a general news story (of general as well as specialist interest), and as such will also populate the front page, and possibly the regional page of the country mentioned in the piece.
Therefore, we have established that this one story, about mobile phones being linked to brain tumours, can feature on the main page, in the country-specific regional page, in the health section, in the technology section, and in the business section.
However, it doesn’t end there.
The duty editor needs to be aware of what is available as far as audio and video is concerned. Is it likely to be the lead story in the multimedia section? Will people want to discuss it? If so, it might be worth creating a talking point forum on the subject. It could become the biggest interactive issue of the day. Are there enough images of phones, medical pictures, or even images of the people making the claims, to furnish a photo-gallery? What graphics are needed to illustrate the main points of the story?
Is it a big enough story to build a special section and pull all the available material together in one, easily navigated, chunk of information?
The role of the duty editor is to consider all these things. She or he has to maximise the impact of each story, exploit all the content to the full, and offer the user the fullest experience online. Deconstructing stories As mentioned in an earlier module, starting in online journalism, one of the arts of running a news website is knowing when to break a story into component parts.
Let’s consider again the hypothetical news story that a link has been found between the use of mobile phones and brain tumours. As explained in the previous module, there are many elements to this story, including health, business, and technology, to name just three.
It could be that the duty editor feels all this can be wrapped up in one story. However, the conversation during the morning news meeting might suggest that there is enough material for a piece on each element.
There will always need to be the one overview piece that weaves all the elements together, but the art of knowing when to break a story down into component parts (deconstructing a story) is one of the duty editor’s key skills.
Every journalist needs to be aware of this, but the duty editor is often the person who makes the final decision. The last thing you want to do is to try to pad out a few hundred words on one weak line. If it doesn’t make a separate story, then don’t try to write one.
However, it might be worth breaking the story down into easily digestible chunks, putting each story in its own section, and then providing internal links from the main piece to all aspects of the news item. If resources don’t exist to do this, then one well-written version should sit in all indices. However, if the expertise and resources are available, it is always preferable to break the story down. News specials Again, as mentioned in the module, starting in online journalism, the duty editor might decide that an issue is of such significance, and is likely to be around for so long, that she or he decides there is a need for a special section.
Try to think of these as a menu for a rich feast. The special section has specific groupings.
These are usually news (full coverage), guides (fact files, time lines, profiles), Q & A (the main questions being asked along with answers), and Interactivity (audio, video, graphics, and interactive features such as maps and models).
The duty editor, and his or her colleagues, need to decide together how many special sections they can manage, and which are beneficial to output. Regular forward-planning meetings help clarify this issue.
You might decide on half a dozen themed special sections a year to tie in with forward planning specials being covered by TV, radio, or your print version.
You might want to consider a few news specials highlighting big stories which are likely to crop up again and which you are likely to want to return to. Most news desks have a list of the main issues they are tackling in a given time period. For the online duty editor these might best be managed by building a special section.
The beauty of a well-crafted collection of special sections is that they can be linked to time and time again when a related news story breaks. Text boxes promoting the special section can be used as graphical images in the body text of a news story. This immediately gives the user the impression that you are on the case and you are fast.
They do not know, and probably don’t care, that the special section has existed all the time and you have just dusted it off and linked to it again. All they will care about is that the richness of your news operations has been presented to them in one easily navigated chunk of information. Data husbandry Special sections can be of immense benefit to users of content and producers alike, because they group all news items, background information, and context and analysis pieces in one place. The information is easy to find, easy to navigate, and easy to use. However, they can also be risky.
If you commission too many special sections, there is a real danger that you might not be able to maintain them properly and they could soon become out of date. This is particularly true with political specials.
Have you remembered to update every politician who has resigned, moved on to another department, or died? What about legal issues? Are there elements in your special section that refer to an incident which has since been thrown out of court? Does your special section still suggest someone is guilty of a crime they have been since been cleared of? Are you sitting on a legal minefield, which, although always active, will become particularly visible the next time you publish a related story and link to the special section again?
The best way round this is to treat your special sections as you would a garden. One day it looks beautiful, the next day weeds have grown and the flowers have gone to seed or died.
You need to keep tending to the garden to make it presentable. There is an element of data husbandry needed to ensure that the content in your special sections does not become out of date.
Again, using the analogy of the garden, some of the news features might need to be pruned, or scrapped altogether. Cuttings might need to be taken of key elements, and then reworked. Perhaps the whole special section needs digging over completely and a new design and arrangement offered.
What is clear is that specials can rarely be left unattended. That is a recipe for disaster. The easiest way to manage this is not to have too many in the first place. You should also make one of your journalists responsible for ensuring the specials are always in tiptop condition.
If a related news story breaks, you will want to link to the special section immediately, not wait for a few hours while it is checked and given a makeover. Special front page There will be news stories that deserve a special front page. This is when the usual news site is taken over by something so major and so important that no other stories deserve to make it through to the front page. Such stories will be all too clear when they happen.
They will relate to a monumental event that causes everyone to stop in their tracks. The attack on the twin towers on 9/11 might be considered such a news story. Special front pages might only contain one image, one headline, and one summary linking to one story. The reason for this is two-fold.
A scaled-down front page, linking to one big story, is less likely to crash at times of great user demand. It also sets out clearly that this is the most important single news event happening at this time.
Just as important as knowing when to use a special front page, is knowing when to take it down. A special front page limits the users’ ability to navigate the site. Although interested in the big story, they might be as interested in other material on the site.
You might want to start thinking about removing the special front page and returning to normality after a couple of hours. Legal issues Be extremely careful when covering legal cases where somebody has been arrested, faces charges, or is appearing in court. There will be a good chance that, somewhere on your news site, you have covered the original incident, perhaps in some detail.
The story containing the background to the case might have been archived, but it will still be accessible through a word search. The user might also piece together the details and look up the case.
Your site will probably have material stored somewhere that could possibly influence a jury and perhaps lead to a contempt of court. Never link to background material in an active legal case. Never let linked stories appear on the same page, if their presence could be seen as legally dangerous.
Take care about where stories are positioned so that the geography of the site doesn’t make suggestions that are legally dangerous.
There was a case in England where two young school girls were reported missing. The newspapers, radio, TV, and online news organisations published their names. The parents made heart-felt pleas for their return. Everybody knew who they were, which school they went to, and where they lived.
The next day there was a reconstruction of their last known movements. Two look-alikes, dressed in similar clothes, walked the same road as police tried to jog the memories of potential witnesses. Prayers were said in the school the girls attended.
A week later two girls were found imprisoned in a flat above a shop in the town’s high street. They had been abducted. Again the newspapers, radio, TV, and online news organisations carried tearful scenes of the girls being reunited with their families.
Some months later a story appeared on the news wires reporting that a man, who lived in the same flat where the girls were found, had been arrested, charged, and was to appear in court accused of abducting and sexually assaulting two young girls.
The dangers of the jigsaw effect (piecing together bits to form a fuller picture) is all too clear.
Not only could the girls be identified (and then face the stigma of being associated with being victims of a sexual offence), but the defendant’s trial could also be prejudiced by the piecing together of the various parts of the story.
In a newspaper, on radio, and on TV, it is easier. You don’t mention the past incidents and if someone happens to put two and two together, it is not necessarily your responsibility.
However, as a duty editor managing a news website, you are considered to have published a story every time someone requests it by clicking on the link. You are the publisher.
If someone does search back and find the earlier stories (or even worse, if one of your journalists foolishly links to them and you miss it), then you could be responsible for damaging the girls’ reputations, and either influencing whether a guilty man gets off free, or an innocent man is considered guilty before he has a fair trial. Exploiting content The duty editor should be fully aware of all the content that is either already gathered, currently being created, or in the process of being commissioned. Their role is to bring all this together for the benefit of the user. Depending on the resources available to you, it is always worth considering making full use of what is already prepared and in the pipeline before working on fresh Web-only material.
You will need to be talking to all outlets of your news operation to find out what material they have which you can use online. You need to be in regular contact with the news organisation's forward planning desk so that you know what is coming up, and when it is likely to be available.
A well-managed news website must reflect the news brand's strengths, whether they be its in-depth analysis, its TV footage, its radio interviews, or its comment columns. The website is a showcase for these strengths and these should be displayed around and promoted through the stories presented online.
You might find that a particularly searching radio or TV interview can be cut into question-and-answer component parts. Perhaps you can make a text box for the front page highlighting the main questions being asked. Those questions could link through to the answers in either audio, video, or text, or perhaps all three.
Knowing what material is available to you means that you can exploit it online. You could have quote, film clip, image, and sound of the day. Everything you have can be cut up and used again in some other form.
The founder of CNN, Ted Turner, once said that his news organisation used “every part of the pig, including the squeal.”
This is important where you have different audiences tuning in at different times of the day to different programmes with different agendas. A news website presents an excellent opportunity to bring all the various elements together in one meaningful news offering.
Think of every element as presenting you with another opportunity to help your users better understand an issue. Clips or quotes from an interview could form the basis for an interactive forum discussion.
A guest, in the newsroom for a print, TV, or radio interview, might agree to stay on for another hour to do a live online chat. If you know the day before that they are coming in, you can set up a chat room and flag this up with your online users so that they prepare.
If your news organisation has broken some news, or uncovered facts and figures, perhaps you could organise a vote or a poll online. The findings might become a news story in their own right. You might find that these can then feed into other areas of your news organisation's output. Next module: Newsroom convergence
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