Online Journalism: How To Write Great Copy For Online Media

Hello and welcome to this course on writing for online media!

As you know, there are different text types. There are news, features, and opinion writing. There are also different ways to compose texts. Now, there are not only different kinds of journalistic copies in general. It also depends on the medium you’re writing for. Online journalism isn’t just print journalism brought to the screen.

First, the internet offers technical possibilities that go beyond what print can do. Second, the reading habits of your online readers are quite different from those of print readers.

There is no doubt that journalists are required to be able to write for online media. Cross media skills are needed if you want to work as a professional journalist.

Let me explain to you what we’re going to cover in this course:

1. First, we will cover the basics of writing for the web. How do online readers read? You have to know that to be able to write for them properly.
2. Second, we will look at the technical possibilities of the internet, namely multimedia elements in online journalism. What is possible and how should it be used?
3. Third, you will learn why and how to present data. Especially, we will cover visualization techniques.
4. Fourth, we will talk about participatory journalism. The great thing about online media is that this is the first time in journalism history when a real dialogue and a collaboration between journalists and readers are possible. Sure, in print newspapers, there are readers’ letters. But the concepts of participatory journalism go much, much further.
5. Fifth, you’re going to learn how to build your audience. The great thing about online journalism is that you can establish your own online magazine or blog. But how do you get your readers? We’re going to talk about this in detail.

See you in the course!

This course is based on a module script by Megan Knight and Andrew Duffy.

Megan Knight is senior lecturer in International Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. She is the author of Social Media for Journalists: Principles and Practice (Sage: 2013) and teaches interactive and data journalism, as well as theory and practice of news. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Rhodes University in South Africa, and a BGS from Simon Fraser University, Canada. She has worked extensively as a journalist and webmaster for news organizations ranging from alternative weeklies in Vancouver to the Daily Star, the Sunday Independent and the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Johannesburg.

Andrew Duffy is an assistant professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was a practicing journalist and editor on newspapers and magazines in the UK and Singapore for 15 years, before moving into academia in 2005. His research areas include travel journalism, user-generated content in tourism, and how the next generation of journalists are re-imagining the profession. He teaches courses in public affairs reporting, online journalism, travel journalism and magazine publishing.