OSMA presentation: Web sites for high school journalism

1. Coyau/WikimediaCommons/CC-BY-SA-3.0
So you’re online
OHIO SCHOOL MEDIA
ASSOCIATION
APRIL 2016

2. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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The Big 5
• Timeliness
• Depth
• Responsiveness
• The Big Box of Crayons
• Interaction

3. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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TIMELINESS
• Scores before stories: AMAP ASAP
• Live tweeting
• Adjust design to your capabilities
• No zombies
Daniel Hollister | CC 2.0

4. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t do this

5. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Do this

6. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Every day
• Did anything unexpected happen?
• Did stories post?
• Do links / images / video work?
• Do stories need updates?

7. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Every week
• Does the homepage reflect fresh content?
• Does the site reflect what students are
talking about?

8. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t do this

9. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Every month
• Are regular features being updated?
• What should we preview?
• What should we follow up on?
• What are users looking at? What can we
learn from that?

10. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Every semester
• Move dead features off homepage
• Compare year-on-year traffic
• Re-evaluate site design

11. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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DEPTH
• Links
• Aggregation
Conspiritech

12. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Links
• Have we reported about this topic / person
/ place before?
• Can we direct readers to original
documents?
• Have other sites added information we
don’t have?

13. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Do this

14. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Aggregation
• Don’t write about what you don’t report
about
• Staying legal: Credit and link to original
source; directly quote no more than a few
paragraphs
• bit.ly/osma-aggregation
• bit.ly/osma-aggregation2

15. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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RESPONSIVENESS
• What are your users reading?
• What are they avoiding?

16. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Measurement
• At a minimum, you need a count of views
for every individual page
• Google.com/analytics
• Sitemeter.com
• Talk to your site host

17. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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OMG, no one’s looking
• Is print making online redundant?
• Are headlines boring / vague / labels?
• Are you promoting stories? Print: Promote
fresher news & more depth online.

18. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t do this

19. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Social media promotion
• Match promotions to audience (Facebook
for parents?)
• Go where the audience is
• Do personalized promos, hoping for
retweets

20. USABILITY
BREAKTIME!

21. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Scrolls, rolls & seasickness
• Do you really need sliding images or text?
• From journoproblems.tumblr.com: “When
the website homepage is full of
slideshows”

22. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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What’s most important?

23. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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What’s most important?

24. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Bad design fits

25. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Do this: Responsive design

26. BACK TO THE SHOW
BREAK OVER!

27. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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BIG BOX OF CRAYONS
• Text
• Static images
• Moving images
• Audio
• Infographics
• Widgets
Johnine Byrne

28. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Proper tools
• Don’t repeat the same story just using
different tools
• Use each tool to tell the part of the story
it’s best suited to

29. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Do this

30. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Text
• Keep it short
• Captions: Identify and explain

31. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Static images
• Provide clickable images so users can see
them large
• Don’t steal

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Don’t steal
• Google Image Search:

33. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t steal

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Don’t steal
• Creative Commons: Usually requires
attribution and indication of license: John
Kroll CC 4.0
• Wikipedia: Images housed on Wikimedia
Commons; still must check for individual
use license

35. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t do this

36. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Don’t do this

37. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Multiple images
• “Red carpet” galleries: OK to have similar
shots, but MUST be fully ID’d.
• Storytelling: Vary images, put in a specific
order, AND fully ID.

38. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Life magazine formula
• Overall: Usually wide-angle or high-angle shot to
establish the scene.
• Medium: Focuses on one activity or one group.
• Close-up: Zeroes in on one element, like person's hands
or intricate detail of building.
• Portrait: Usually either dramatic, tight head shot or
person in his environment.
• Interaction: People conversing or in action.
• Signature: Summarizes situation with all key elements
in one photo.
• Sequence: How-to, before and after, or series with
beginning, middle, and end.
• Clincher: Closer that would end the story.

39. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Moving images
• Don’t miss the obvious (dancer)
• Everyone takes video; ask
• Capture key moments with Vines or
animated GIFs: giphy.com
Eadweard Muybridge, via Wikimedia Commons

40. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Audio
• Short soundbites: 20-60 seconds
• Full audio of interviews

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Infographics
• Maps: Google.com/mymaps
• Charts: developers.google.com/chart or
www.jonwinstanley.com/charts/

42. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Widgets
• Twitter aggregation: Storify.com
• Annotation: Genius.com
• What does your site host offer?
• What are your students using?

43. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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INTERACTION
• User submissions
• User-driven interviews
• Polls: Have a point; connect to a story
• Comments: Are they worth it?
• Twitter questions
• What’s in it for the users?

44. AprilKillingsworth/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
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Do these!
• Use links to add depth
• Credit and caption every photo
• Learn your site’s capabilities
• Try out one new tool each month
• Use the Big Box of Crayons
• Go where your readers are