The two readings, Chapter 4 on Hyperlinks and Hypertext and the article on Journalism of Verification, may not seem to relate at first, but with further studying, they both focus on points crucial to the success of journalism. Taking advice from the two articles, I am going to keep this blog concise and do my best to use the information I learned in these readings to contribute to my thoughts.
As a frequent and dedicated user of the internet, I have come across websites that I enjoy and find useful, such as jcrew.com, and ones that I despise, like Target.com. I have clicked on links when skimming webpages, had trouble understanding what the author was trying to get across when reading articles, and become overwhelmed when a website gives me too much to digest at once. Chapter 4 offers great advice on how to successfully hyperlink, use headlines, create lists, and "chunk" your words so your followers aren't lost in a deep sea of thoughts.
When it comes to hyperlinking, I never knew things such as color, size, and length could play such a vital role in directing the audience to the right place and allowing them to know what is coming next. Being more of a creative writer/thinker, I would think it best to create a cutesy, catchy headline followed by content that is littered with lengthy, wordy hyperlinks. I now know that to get my point across and keep my readers focused and clued in, I have to remain concise and clear, not only with the set up of my blog, but also with my language and tone. Before reading this, I never once thought that what I might say with my own cultural style might not translate properly to readers around the world.
In the case of "chunking text", I knew that wordy webpages bogged down the reader but I never had clear advice on how to fix this problem. Starting now, I plan to display my thoughts in a way that is both visually appealing and easy to comprehend, giving my audience the opportunity to experience the information on my page as well as on linked outside sources. What sites do you feel best utilize hyperlinking and offer a clean, concise layout?
While the textbook dealt more with the layout and attention-getting aspect of writing on the internet, the article on Journalism of Verification addressed the important aspects of any writing that must be followed to gain the trust of readers. Whether it is an author writing for The New York Times or a stay at home mom blogging about raising children, it is important for any author to be seen as reliable and trustworthy. After all, we do get all of our information from other people, right?
I agreed totally with the articles thought that research for journalism needs to be somewhat more like the scientific method, in which facts are researched, checked, and double-checked until they are accepted to be fact. I think the internet, and the race for journalist to be the first to not get the right information across, but any information across at all, contributes to the lack of reliable information on the web. If there were a method in which to be followed, there could be less mistakes made in journalism and less false information produced. One of my favorite quotes from the article was "Facts have become a commodity." It is my belief that just because facts are a commodity, they shouldn't be false commodities. In the world we live in today, I can't help but ask, do you think method of verification is able to exist? If so, can it be mastered in the world of the internet?
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