Send me a Text;

Lecture 3;

Fast...

         Flexible...
                        Complete Control...
                                                            Portable...
                                                                            Searchable....
                                                                                                    Dominates online...


Text plays a major part in everyone's life. It can take many forms, has an exponential amount of uses and we use it everyday. As we entered the 21st century, text became to quickly evolve and adapt to enter the technological and demanding world in which we live. This lecture by guest speaker Skye delved into this, discussing the role that text currently plays in the lives of both journalists and society. 


The inverted pyramid was the focus, and how we manipulate text in order to create an article. She then went further and how the same story can provide the same information, but through various forms of text. Now the topic of 'Text', you would think that would instantly put anyone to sleep after 10minutes of listening, but it quickly became apparent that to learn the uses of text is integral part of the journalism course. The use of short, sharp, catching text is important for the headline. The inverted pyramid is then utilised. The Five Ws and H are used in the lead/first paragraph. Then additional 'body' information follows. This is the method in which text should be utilised when writing a story, of any kind really. 


Then the whole concept of text for different modes was touched on. The use of text in a print article is pretty simple, the typical headline and inverted pyramid style writing. However, it's a whole new world when it comes to online text. Hypertext is what Skye called it. From one story, there are five hyperlinks that will take you to all facets of the story, covering different angles, opinions and sides of the story. Online, you need much more than just one journalist to write one article. Furthermore, with online publications, journalists must be aware that with one article, it can be shared around the internet. The headline and lead of the story can be shared around other sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and because of this the manipulation of text when writing these pieces must be used in the formulation of the headline and lead. Short, sharp and catchy; or else it fails. No pressure or anything. There is a whole wide world of journalism that exists on the internet, and text must be manipulated specifically to this.


When entering this course I took interest in mainly online and television journalism. But after this lecture I've realised there's a lot more to online Journalism than I first thought. It's not just writing a story online any more, it has become a whole Hypertextual web of information that must be kept updated and deliver all aspects of one story. I guess that means there are more journalists constantly working online in order to set up the stories within the story, and therefore, there would be more jobs. However, print right now seems a lot more simpler and easier and it's sort of opened my eyes a little bit to what would be in store for me, depending which mode of journalism I wish to pursue. At the moment I'll remain open minded, I've only been here for a month, but online journalism looks rather daunting.