When creating a new web page, there are four important terms and skills you should acquire first. The first is deciding what you should name it. This step sounds easy, but it could perhaps be one of the more difficult to do. Your web pages name can dictate the kind of following you obtain once you go live. Once you’ve decided what you want to call your web page, you can create a URL, or the uniform resource locator. This will be your web address, and it is synonymous to your physical home address. A URL is a web resource that specifies the location of your web page on computer networks and is how others will be able to find and view it. For example, the name of my blog is “The A Word.” It’s a play on my favorite show “The L Word,” but with an A, which is the first initial of my name. I also wanted something general so that my blog is not subjected to be about one particular topic. Since I however am using a free blogging service through Word Press, I did not have much leeway on the actual naming of my URL, but my blog can be found using the URL: theaword.politics.blog. My URL is a little misleading only because it insinuates that I will be blogging about politics.
Word Press is a great example for the next term, which is abbreviated as CMS. CMS stands for content management system, and it is simply a software using a database system to manage content. Word Press operates most of the web. But if you wanted to be really tech-savy and build a webpage from scratch, you really need to learn more about HTML and CSS. HTML or hypertext markup language controls how information is displayed and distributed on a web page. This is done by compiling numerous codes or “tags” to tell the web browser how to display the content. This includes creating fonts, colors, graphics and working with hyperlinks. HTML is the basic step, to take your web page up another notch and make it look cool and unique you need to incorporate CSS or cascading style sheets. CSS is what takes a web page from just text displayed on the screen to an interactive experience. If this all sound like too much, there is no need to worry, there are many tutorials available on the internet to teach you web design.
- Building an Online Story:
Now that your web page is up and running, you can begin to upload content and stories to it. When writing a story online, there are some key elements you should include. First, you want to have a catchy headline, which is a heading at the top of a written work, especially an article. The headline should give readers enough information about what the story is going to be about and intrigue them to want to learn more. Equally important is the byline which is a line naming the writer of the written piece and is simply taking credit for your work. It may also help to include subheads which are headings given to subsections of a piece of writing. This is important to include throughout the writing, especially in longer pieces, because it can help make the reading more pleasurable for readers, as well as keep you organized. Subheads essentially break up the story.
Above are the basics for laying out your story, some ways to spice up your work can include inserting a hyperlink, which is a word or phrase that your readers can click on and it will jump to a new document or a new section within the current document. One way I have incorporated hyperlinks is by paraphrasing an article I found online into my writing and giving my readers the option to view the original interview by clicking “here.” You can also include photographs within your story, this usually adds a special touch to your writing and is especially important to include when posting stories online. When adding photographs, you should try to use pictures you’ve taken yourself, but if you absolutely must use someone else’s photographs, always give credit. Photographs should also always have a short caption underneath which describes the picture and explains how it is relevant to what you have written.
One more thing that is important when writing stories is to obtain your credibility and refrain from being biased. One way to do this is to follow the 2+2 rule. This means speak with and include 2 experts on your topic and 2 “people on the street,” which are simply people who are not experts. For instance, if you are writing about healthy food inequality, your experts can be a nutritionist and the person who runs your local food pantry. Your people on the street can be someone shopping at your local supermarket and maybe find someone who has lived through the effects of not having healthy options. Good story tellers let the people they’ve spoken with tell the story through their words. This can be done by use of direct quotes which means you are including the exact words the person told you, or by indirect quotes which is a way of paraphrasing what the person said with out supplying it word for word.
- Digital News Stories:
Using the internet has a lot of advantages, allowing writers many creative options to tell their stories. For instance, two online stories we analyzed this semester include Kowloon and Snowfall which both show the best of internet-based story telling. Kowloon, which is a project by The Wall Street Journal, tells the story of this overcrowded community in Hong Kong through clickable graphics and slide show images with informative captions. Snowfall, an article found on The New York Times website, is a feature piece which incorporates graphics, videos, and slideshows. These articles highlight the freedom of creativity the internet provides to writers. However, while creativity has pros, it is also important to remain professional with your design and look. If your blog is about serious political topics, make sure to keep that look in your design; One way to do this is to not have pictures of puppies in the background. Although the internet has opened many opportunities to story tell, journalism as a whole has had a hard time adjusting. Two major threats to journalism are Facebook and Google. The long-term revenue outlet for newspapers have been advertising. Facebook and Google now get most of that revenue because advertisers rather be on social media than in print. As a new generation of journalist, I say embrace the changes, and use social media such as twitter and Instagram to your advantage. On Instagram, you can post a few pictures with a long caption and if done efficiently, can tell your story. Twitter can also be used to give a snippet of your story, maybe a good quote or an intriguing fact, along with the link to the story. Hashtags can also be used on both platforms. A hashtag is a metadata tag used on social networks allowing users to apply user-generated tags to help other users easily find messages with a specific theme or content. For example, if you are writing a piece about the current coronavirus pandemic on Instagram, include the hashtag #covid19 or #quarantine and anyone looking for content on the pandemic will be able to view your work.
The A Word 