Vannevar Bush in 1945 advocated for a new profession of curating and establishing useful trails through the vast amount of information being created and archived. The document provides guidance on best practices for linking in journalism, including only linking to accurate, relevant, and specific sources, and avoiding potentially offensive or illegal material. It discusses linking nouns and verbs as departure points from text, using inline, sidebar, and bottom links, and crafting clear and descriptive link text and labels.

1. Link
Journalism

2. Vannevar Bush: “As We May Think”
Atlantic Magazine, 1945

3. Link Journalism
“There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find
delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the
enormous mass of the common record.”
— Vannevar Bush

4. Link Journalism
In journalism, good links are
 Accurate
 Relevant
 Specific

5. Link Journalism

Watch out for …

Potentially offensive material


Potentially illegal material



Beheading video of journalist Daniel Pearl
Sarah Palin’s inbox on Wikileaks
Computer code for cracking DVDs
Links that might create a conflict of interest


Amazon associate site for a book review
One candidate, but not the other

6. Link Journalism
Relevant Links
o Only the primary subjects of the story
o Not every possible link
o Give readers manageable choices

7. Link Journalism
Specific Links
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/default.mspx
… NOT http://www.microsoft.com

8. Link Journalism
Link Destinations
o Source material
o Full details
o Background information

9. Link Journalism
Source Materials
o Documents (PDFs)
o Interviews
o Observations
o Increase transparency
o Help audience hold you accountable

10. Link Journalism
Departure Points
o Inline
o Sidebar
o Right
o Middle
o Bottom

11. Link Journalism
Departure Points = News Elements
 Who – Link people’s names to biographies.
 What – Link verbs to contemporaneous accounts of the event, or to
video showing the action.
 When – Dates are rarely linked in news stories. One prominent
exception is Wikipedia, which links dates to pages that contain
milestones that happened on a particular date. For example,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_8
 Where – Location nouns point to maps. Location names link to
encyclopedic profiles or demographic data about the location.
 Why and How – Rarely provide a noun you can use as link. Use
verb as departure point.

12. Link Journalism
Departure Points: Using Verbs
“The mayor spoke last month at the opening of the new cultural
center in downtown Ottumwa.”
“The mayor gave a speech last month at the opening of the new
cultural center in downtown Ottumwa. ”

13. Link Journalism
Inline Departure Points
o
o
o
o
o
No more than 3-5 words in a row
No consecutive links
Link nouns
Link only first instance …
… unless the first instance is in the lead. Then only
link the second.
o Avoid “sea of blue links”

14. Examples
 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/lux-dark-matter/
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/sean-hayes-gay-community-apology_n_4169745.html
 http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/10/29/william-lee-harvard-corporation/
 http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9901641/patrick-beverley-houston-rockets-set-start-jeremylin-opening-night
 http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/10/29/ambulance-contract-to-stay-private/
 http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/social-connection-makes-a-betterbrain/280934/
 http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/rand-paul-is-hosting-a-bipartisan-coffee-chat-on-thecapitol
 http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/30/brief-texas-political-news-oct-30-2013/

15. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links
o Good For...
o Pointing to previous coverage of the story
o Pointing to different angles on the same story
o Pointing to long lists of documents or related tools, such as
a database or calculator
o Or “unrelated” links…

16. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Story Related

18. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Story Related

19. Link Journalism
Types of Unrelated Links …
o Latest headlines
o about same general topic, such as sports, business or politics
o across all subjects
o Popular content
o most e-mailed
o most commented

20. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links:
Section Related

21. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links:
Section Related

22. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links:
Section Related

23. Link Journalism
Sidebar
Links:
Popular

24. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Link Text
o a label for the destination page
o about three to five words long, often without a verb

25. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Link Text
Sotomayor Overcame Obstacles
to Sit on Nation’s Highest Court
becomes
Biography of Sonja Sotomayor

26. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Labels
Related Coverage
• Obama’s Speech: Video | Text
• Reaction: Dionne | Brooks
• State of the Union Address History

27. Link Journalism
Sidebar Links: Labels
o Worst Label: “More Information”
o Better Label: “Related Links”
o Even Better Label: “From the Archives”
o Best Label: “Past News Articles”

28. “Find delight in the
“Find delight in the
task of establishing
task of trails through
useful establishing
usefulenormous through
the trails mass of
the enormous record.”
the common mass of
the common record.”