This handout was created after a presentation "Orientation to Online Journalism" which was done as part of a UN Media Workshop in Georgetown Guyana on 12 September, 2015. The workshop was convened by Dr Paloma Mohammed.

1. “Orientation to online journalism”
UN Media Workshop –
12 September, 2015
Vidyaratha Kissoon
Email vidyak1 (at) gmail.com , Tel: 686-0835
This handout has been updated after the presentation
A note has been inserted about immersive journalism
23 October, 2015
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

2. Before we start..

I am NOT a journalist; I have some Information Technology skills

I do this because of “The Danger of a Single Story”

Thanks to Samantha Alleyne, Ravin Singh, Derwayne Wills, Jomo Paul,
Neketa Forde, Andre Haynes and others for ideas for the presentation

The mistakes are all mine

This handout is best read online so that persons could click on the links to
see the reference materials.

Please feel free to contact me for any more information

3. Things covered in this handout..
●
The scope of online journalism
●
The convergence of media
●
Blogging and role of personal blogs
●
Website design, responsive themes
●
Writing for mobile users – 'breaking news'
●
Addition of hyperlinks and embedded content
●
“Every journalist is a photographer”
●
Data journalism, data visualisation
●
Ethical considerations
●
Answers to all your questions
●
New slide : Virtual Reality – immersive journalism

4. In Guyana...
●
Print media online
●
Web based news
●
TV news clips online (Youtube channels)
●
Live streaming of radio
●
Social media
●
NGOs, other organisations sharing their own
stories on websites (Help & Shelter, SASOD,
IADB blogs, )

5. About online journalism
●
“The use of information and communication technologies, especially the
Internet, to collate, analyse and disseminate content for the purposes of
what ever you consider journalism to be... “ VK definition
●
ranges from tweets of 140 characters to long form features of 15,000 words
and over..
●
The increase in usage of mobile devices means a need for short, to the
point, news updates
●
Moving from just putting the text,images and videos from “traditional media”
on websites to creating content which mixes text, images, audio, video,
interactive graphics, maps , data visualisations
●
There is interactivity with the readers/users – sorting, commenting, clicking
for more information, giving feedback

6. Example of crowdsourcing data

7. Social media

8. Blogs

9. Blogs

10. Blog reference
“...When iNews Guyana reporter Jomo Paul
arrived, around 8:30 p.m., he found
himself stranded between police with riot shields
and a mob with petrol bombs. Over the next
three hours, Paul told me, he witnessed people
from outside Sophia fuel the mayhem... “
“CIA Meddling, Race Riots, and a Phantom Death
Squad” Gaiutra Bahadur Foreign Policy July 31
2015

11. Blogs – using creolese

12. Blogs – Youth voices

13. Blogs
●
Personal stories, opinions, behind the scenes, additional information not in the
'news'
●
Can journalists can have blogs?
●
Facebook, Twitter is 'microblogging'
●
Decide on your ethics (Poynter guidelines say no anonymous blogs for journalists)
●
Check with your editor/ manager – Do nothing to harm them
●
Platforms are Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, Tumblr.com, LinkedIn.com , YouTube
for vlogs
●
Good to build your personal profile especially if you are a free lancer
●
Decide – a post a day, every two days, once a week, once a month

14. IADB Blog
Please see this 'personal blog' from an IADB staff
member about the GT Recyclers. It has video,
text, links and images.
The stink of ignorance and the sweet smell of dignity”
by Dr Marcello Basani.

15. Examples of online multimedia
journalism
Video, text, sound, images “
Tiny Words ,Big Drama : Inside the world of the Birdmen of Queens” Emile S Rueb,Emily S Rueb, NY Times, 31
July, 2015
Video, text, music :
“In Guyana, Feeling stifled after needling Government in song”
Girish Gupta , 5 Dec, 2013
Audio, Text, Images, “
Meet the Harmonium king of Queen's New York(Guyana born
Mindra Sahadeo)
Bruce Wallace, 1 April 2015, Public Radio International
Video, text, images, animated maps, slideshows –
Snow Fall:The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, John Branch, NY
Times, 2012

16. Maps, Data Visualisations
Map : Chikungunya Cases confirmed in Trinidad & To
(TT Guardian)
LGBT Rights in the world (UK Guardian)
Declaracion Juradas(La Nacion, Argentina)

17. Web platform considerations
●
Customised design for agencies? Or use software like Wordpress, Drupal
●
A separate team for the online presence of the agency
●
Technical team for interactive graphics.
●
Black text on white background
●
Layout is important for ease of loading and navigation
●
Search engine optimised (use of text, etc.)
●
Accessibility – text for screen readers, font size adjustment
●
Mobile Use
●
Decide on separate sites for mobile devices
●
One site using a responsive theme (layout changes when the screen size changes so
persons do not have to scroll across too much)
●
Free(almost) – Youtube, Vimeo, Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, Podomatic,
Soundcloud

18. Writing for mobile users
●
BBC Academy – Writing for mobile
●
Different from Writing for paper, and writing features
●
Short headlines 55 chars, up to 70 chars - SEO
●
Use images –
●
450 to 625 pixels wide,
●
width to height ratio maintained
●
Use Cross-heads
●
Use Lists
●
Use links for depth
●
Get to the point quickly
●
Tight writing, use every word

19. Images
“Every (online) journalist is a photographer” (BBC Academy)
Learn photography – light, composition, etc.
Learn to use your camera.
Capture many images
●
Detail is nice, but could be lost when reduced for a mobile user
Use Relevant Images (Example below of pretty image not really connected to the story)

20. Images
●
Decide on how much post processing
●
Do not use the same image files which are being
used for the print version of the newspaper. They
should be edited to reduce file size, resolution,
dimensions, etc.
●
Maintain width to height ratio
●
Verify images which are not your own
●
Check on attribution, COPYRIGHT
●

21. Links
Links give readers choice to get more information
Links allow fact checking and validation
Links allow attribution
Decision is based on ethics
You can store your “expose” documents, files in
Dropbox, Google Drive etc. and link to those

22. Decision about links

Link to articles,reports, images and other
multimedia content from credible sources

Do not link to

criminal or offensive content,

content which will disappear,

content which violates your ethics

Content which cannot be verified

23. Embedding video and other content
You can embed video and other content in your
story by pasting embed codes in the HTML of
the story. Many sites generate the embed code.
Youtube Example below

24. Data Visualisation
Google forms, Google spreadsheets
Google Maps, Open Street Maps, etc
IBM's Many Eyes Generates data visualisations
DevInfohas development statistics and generates charts
and graphs maps which can be embedded
How to make Infographics: A beginners Guide to data visualisation : Rachel Banning-Lover
28 August, 2014 UK Guardian
Please feel free to contact me for details

25. Ethics
Poynter Guidelines
Journalists have a duty to explore new technologies
Limited time, resources – no excuse for bad work, mistakes. Harm
could be easily caused by “viral mistakes”. Quickly correct what is
wrong and acknowledge this.
Understand difference between news and opinion
Transparency to avoid conflict of interest
Digital Media Ethics by Stephen J Ward from
Uni. Of Wisconsin Centre for Journalism Ethics

26. Ethics – Guyana concerns
- (GMPA & others are working on a draft media code of conduct for consideration
to take into account Guyana's situation and global journalism standards )
- Journalists on social media getting into arguments and reflecting biases – the
difficulty of separating the professional from the personal on social media
- The need to moderate comments on posts, and on news websites to not cause
further harm from users
- Journalists using Facebook posts, etc. as sources for their reporting . This issue
is addressed in t his Poynter Guidance paper. “How to decide what can be published, what’s private on Twitter and Facebook”

27. Some resources
Many online resources eg.
Online Journalism Blog
Data Journalism Handbook
Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas
There are also many how-tos and online courses
available

28. Immersive journalism
Inspired by Nonny de la Peña
“Journalism meets Virtual Reality”
Using 3D cameras and software to create visuals of
news events
Users need 3D lens and appropriate viewing software
to access the content
ABC News – VR Inside Syria
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fullpage?id=33768357

29. Thanks for reading
There were many positive responses to the workshop presentation
which was done in 90 minutes.
I willl be happy to voluntarily conduct any orientation or specific
training sessions – 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes with no
obligation to (any) participant(s). We would need a space with
good Internet access. (With speed so that a youtube video can
be viewed without any problems)
All work will be done according to my code of ethics.
Please feel free to contact me on vidyak1@gmail.com or tel
6860835 to arrange
.