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Teaching Online Journalism

Choices for how you present the news

Even though a recent graduate of our journalism program wrote a fine story for the Associated Press about the tornadoes that swept across Florida early this morning, I liked the BBC story better.

Why? Because of the links in the right rail. Please take a look and see if you agree. This is better.

I especially liked the animation of how tornadoes are formed, even though it was two clicks out. It is really marvelous — especially Frame 9.

(By the way, the damage was south of our part of the state.)

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2 Comments

  1. John Bonnar says:

    I too prefer the BBC story.

    BBC stories are written for the web. Other stories are print stories uploaded online.

    The BBC structure is better for the web.

    Their headlines are five words or less. Their subheadings (in bold) are leads. Opening paragraphs expand on their leads.

    The writing is very tight. One sentence (sometimes two) predominate. And they keep the stories short and to the point.

    The BBC is probably the finest example of online writing on the web.

    John

  2. Mindy McAdams says:

    I agree with that — I always tell everyone that the BBC online has the BEST online writing of any journalism or news Web site, from any source. Not only the body text but the links and the headlines as well. They are superb!

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