Page 88 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

WRITING FOR THE WEB

small chunks, much like wire services have done for years. The Web
has put all reporters on a treadmill that doesn’t stop.
The learning curve for writers and reporters on the Web doesn’t
stop once they’ve learned to work together to smoothly move old-
media content onto the Web in a timely manner. The next role facing
journalists in the Internet age is one where talent crosses boundaries.
It is one in which writers can weave together the text, sound, video,
and images needed to create a modern multimedia story.
Writers in this new age need to be able to turn on a dime from laying
out the facts in a straightforward text story to entertaining the public
with the personality needed to carry story told through video.
Twenty years from now, the writing that will be used to produce
news will have morphed into a new form not yet defined in the first 10
years of the Web. Just as writing changed when the radio arrived, and
then again when the TV arrived, it will change over time as the Web
evolves into a mature media delivery system.
Your job is to learn the skills of today so that you can go out and
define the style of tomorrow.
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Web Sources

Andrew Sullivan: http://www.andrewsullivan.com/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/
Bloomberg News: http://www.bloomberg.com/
Cyberjournalist.net J-Blog List: http://www. cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.php/
Drudge Report: http://www. drudgereport.com/
Jakob Nielsen’s Web site: http://www.useit.com/
Movable Type: http://www.movabletype.org/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/
Online Journalism Review: http://www.ojr.org/
Online News Association: http://journalists.org/
Poynter Institute http://www.poynter.org/
PressThink: http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/