NEW WAYS OF REPORTING
Online news is news just like television news is news or newspa-
per news is news. Online reporters write with a defined audience in
mind. They also choose their subjects and organization pattern on
the same characteristics of news described in Chapter 3—timeliness,
prominence, proximity, conflict, impact and human interest. Online
reporters, however, must approach the production of news differently
from media with set deadlines, such as traditionally defined morning
or afternoon newspapers or the morning, noon, late afternoon and
evening news blocks honored by network television.
The most important difference between writing online news and
writing news for traditional media is not the structure of the lead or
whether the story is organized in an inverted pyramid or in a “T”
structure. The key difference is the frequency with which information
is added to the original entry. Online reporters know people are check-
ing news sites often during the regular workday or school day. They
know that headlines, news blurbs, one-sentence summaries and leads
attract online readers’ attention. A short lead or an update to a story
that changes often satisfies online news users’ needs better than a fully
developed story held until all the details are in and the interviews
completed.
In section 2, you learned some basics of writing for the Web. In this
section, you’ll learn how to structure your story, keeping in mind that
frequent updates are an important aspect of online reporting.468 MIXED MEDIA
OutTake
Posters Beware
While anyone can post any-
thing on the Web and places
like MySpace, posters should
beware. Free speech may be a
Constitutional right, but it doesn’t
give posters the right to fabricate
facts or stories. Even on the Web,
writers are subject to the laws
that govern other media outlets.
Four former Pennsylvania
students learned that lesson the
hard way. In December 2005,
four students posted mock pro-
files of their principal Eric Trosch
on MySpace. Trosch sued the
students, claiming defamation
of character by posting “unsub-
stantial allegations, derogatory
comments and false statements.”
According to ABC News legal
contributor and Court TV News
anchor Lisa Bloom, Trosch “has
a pretty strong case. This is equiv-
alent to putting a giant billboard
over the school saying the principal
is a drunk, the principal is a drug
addict.... That’s clearly defama-
tion under the law if it’s not true.”
Trosch isn’t the first, nor will
he probably be the last, person to
be defamed on the Internet. But
cases like this might teach ama-
teurs a lesson that professional
journalists live by: Only print it if
it’s true.Journalists still use traditional
reporting techniques. Even journalists
who write for the Web must master tra-
ditional reporting skills, such as taking
good notes during press conferences.