Page 79 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

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Writing for the Web

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The great thing about writing for the World Wide Web, or Web for
short, is that it makes everyone a publisher with global reach. The kid
in his bedroom on the computer after dinner is on par with the multi-
national company in many ways. People from California to Taiwan to
Poland can read whatever a formerly unknown student has to say.
The Web is a medley of news and information produced by everyone
from that kid all the way on up to award-winning professional journal-
ists and the international companies that employ them. Because the
Web is a pool that everyone can jump into, it is also a place where the
rules of writing are relative to what is being said and who is saying it.
From the early days of the Web, the most common style of writing
has been standard wire or newspaper style. That’s because many tra-
ditional news outlets shoveled their old-media content onto the Web.
That’s still the case, so, in many places, the rules for writing on the
Web are just the same as they are for writing in print, or only a shade
different.
Slowly, however, three forces are pushing writing on the Web away
from its old-media roots. The first and most powerful force is the abil-
ity to self-publish with unlimited reach. People who think they have
something to report or say can do so without having to worry about