Transcript Online Journalism - Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU

JOUR 384 Online Journalism
Lesson 6: Online Story Construction
Metin Ersoy
FCMS
Online Story Construction



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.
Online Story Construction


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 invert pyramid shape, (ters piramit) from
the top down, reflects both the importance
and the amount that will be written.
Online Story Construction

The pyramid shape offers two benefits.


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.
Online Story Construction

How should we write news for the Web?


Linear and nonlinear defined
The distinguishing characteristic of the World Wide Web is
hypertext, clickable links to other information on the same
or other Web pages. Hypermedia adds audio, visual and
video.
The result is nonlinear information, a format that allows
users to read and access information in any order they
choose. In contrast, linear information is presented in a set
order from beginning to end like a straight line. If readers
want to understand the story, they must read it in the order
it is presented.
Online Story Construction

How should we write news for the Web?

Useful links needed
George Landow, a Brown University professor
and scholar of hypermedia, says hyperlinks must
be useful, coherent and purposeful. "When users
follow links and encounter materials that do not
appear to possess a significant relation to the
document from which the link pathway originated,
they feel confused and resentful," he writes in
Hypermedia and Literary Studies.
Online Story Construction

How should we write news for the Web?

Reader/writer relationship changing
Using these principles, an online news story
becomes more like a Sunday package with
related sidebars than a simple news story.
Whether the story contains links to other Web
pages or links to topics within the same page,
nonlinear structure changes the writer-reader
relationship. The writer relinquishes control over
the information to the reader.
Online Story Construction

Writing for Online…

Jakob Nielsen (1999) offers three rules for writing
on the Web.



Be succinct (özlü olmak) – use no more than 50% of the
text you would have written for the same story in print;
Write for scannability – use short paragraphs,
subheadings, and bulleted lists instead of long blocks of
text; and
Use hypertext - to split up long blocks of information into
multiple pages.
Online Story Construction

For example:


The core journalistic skills of spotting, sourcing
and developing a story are still essential, but the
methods of constructing a story, say for television,
can be different.
Television demands the primacy of pictures and
has a linear process of dissemination.
Online Story Construction


İnternet haberciliğinde ters piramit modeli
öne çıkmaktadır. Ters piramit yöntemi,
gazetecilerin 1850’lerde telgrafla haber
geçmek için geliştirdikleri bir tekniktir.
O yıllarda telgraf hatlarındaki kesilmeler
dolayısıyla, haberle ilgili en önemli unsurlar
ilk başta geçiliyordu. Daha sonra bu yöntem,
önemli haber yazım tekniklerinden biri
olmuştur.
Online Story Construction


Ters piramit yönteminde haber iki kısımdan
oluşur. Birinci bölüm olan giriş paragrafında
olayın ne olduğu ve sonucu özetlenmiş olarak
verilir.
Bu paragrafta, 5N+1K’yı oluşturan “ne”, “ne
zaman”, “nerede” ve “kim” sorularının
yanıtları verilir. ikinci bölüm ise haberin
gövdesidir. Burada olayın “neden” ve “nasıl”
olduğu kronolojik olarak açıklanır.
Online Story Construction


Haberle ilgili en önemli unsurların ve sonucu içeren
birkaç cümlenin girişte yer alması ve bundan sonra
haberin detaylarına geçilmesinden dolayı ters
piramit, İnternet gazeteciliğinde en çok tercih edilen
haber yazın tekniklerinden birisidir.
Çünkü İnternet kullanıcılarının web sayfalarını
kelime kelime okumadığı, sayfaya sadece göz attığı
bilinmektedir. Haberi monitörden okumanın
güçlükleri de eklendiğinde, ters piramit modelinin
İnternet gazeteleri için önemi ortaya çıkar.