Text

Wow!! I can’t believe we’re already three weeks into the course!! I must say, I’m not really looking forward to it ending.  So far it doesn’t seem like we have learnt all that much, but when you actually look back to where we were three weeks ago, we really have come a long way.

This week our lecture was on Text.  We also had a fabulous guest lecturer, Skye Doherty.  We started by identifying text, basically what it is and how we use it. Text is fast, it’s flexible and it’s portable, especially now with the technology that we have.  Text is searchable (Google has to have something to use), it’s controlled and it dominates online.  This is so true, sure a picture can give you insight to a story, or take you in so you feel like you’re really there; but it can’t describe the emotion, it can’t give you the facts in one quick simple sentence and it can’t give you the full story.  Speaking of ‘full stories’, this leads me into the next part we discussed – The ‘Inverted Pyramid’.  I swear, I have been seeing this thing around everywhere recently, and I must say, at first it made me think of the food pyramid.  But no… it is not.

The Pyramid looks a little something like this

Basically, you have to provide the most important information first.  So in the opening sentence, you have to mention who, what when, where, why and how – the’ 5W’s and H’.  This provides the reader with enough information to know what the story about, and know what happens even if they don’t want to read the whole thing.  That been said however, this line should try to capture the readers interest to lure them in to the rest of the story.  A nice interview with a politician, a victim or someone who would add importance and interest to the story can be added here.  The following paragraph should provide further information about the story, still important information – but not critical.

The paragraph after that will again have information that will add to the story, but not as important as the previous paragraph.  This is the part that they may want to include a nice eye-witness account, or interview someone who was present.   

Then the last very small paragraph, sentence-long almost, is where they make any comments such as “If you would like to help the cause, visit…” or “Investigations are continuing”.

Basically, this one can be very easily cut from a report if need be.

Hypertext.  A beautiful thing as far as online newspapers should be concerned.  Hyperlinks can be added basically anywhere and they can take you to recommended stories, similar stories or pages providing further information on a particular topic.

I love the BBC News website, I’ll admit it.  Maybe it’s that they have a slightly different perspective on things in the UK than we do in Australia, I don’t know.  But, something that I have always noticed about the BBC is that they have a million hyperlinks to go along with their stories.  Here’s a quick print of a story about the controversial mining tax the Government has just introduced.

Note it has links to other stories that may interest the reader of a riveting tale of mining, politics and finance.  For example one link – to the story about the Sydney Harbour Bridge turning 80 another about Australia’s booming economy or relations with the US, a tale about Gotye’s No. 1 hit or even the increase of sharks on Australian beaches, the country profile and the latest antics of our beloved politicians.

Headlines are probably the most important part of a text story – especially in print.  When a good headline is made, remember three things

1.  It must be true – You don’t want to tell a lie, otherwise it puts doubt into the rest of the story, not to mention it is greatly frowned upon in the news world

2.  It should contain a verb – The riveting stuff you learnt in grade 7 grammar class is being put to good use

3.  You don’t need a pun.  Seriously, if every news headline had a cheesy pun, do you think anything would be taken seriously?

After coming up with a magnificent headline, you will need to understand just exactly how to set up your article. The basic set-up looks like this:

‘Poynter Eyetrack’ states that the best stories should be placed in the upper left of the page, followed by the upper right.  Photos, contrary to popular belief, are not usually the entry point to the page. 

Finally, we have reached the end of yet another week.  This is the final slide i am going to show you, it's basically everything that text is, will be, can be and is hoped to be :)
Byee!!