From the unit guide:
Your online journalism should be uploaded to Buzz in house style.
- This will be an online package, displaying SEO and good navigation as follows:
- Main story with SEO headline, text must have links, pictures with captions.
- Embed links to your other stories as series of hyperlinked headlines (online story, video, audio and and value added story) at the bottom of the story. You can also embed these links, where appropriate, throughout the story.
- ALL of the other stories should also follow this format eg linking back to other stories in the package.
NB USE of MUSIC: Take advice from your supervisor on the use of music in broadcast pieces. It is possible to use copyright sensitive music in your main piece of radio work as long as it is not uploaded to the Buzz website (hand in on CD). Any online work must only use music which is original and not copyright sensitive. Technical tutor, Alan Brown can also give advice on generic music beds which are available on Burli.
[divide]Layout & design of the multimedia projects is something that is discussed every year and whilst every project will have different requirements of how it should look on the page – there are few rules you can follow to make sure you have an effective piece of work:
- RESEARCH – News websites like The Guardian are leading lights in looking at ways to present stories online – check out what other organisations are doing and if you see something that inspires you, think about how you could incorporate something similar into your work.
- SCROLLING – By default, as this article is supposed to be fairly in-depth, it is going to include a lot of text/media and there’s nothing worse online than having to scrolling through an endless flow of text/media. Think about how you can section/separate your piece so your readers never feel over-loaded with information.
- INTERACTIVITY – The internet is made with interactivity in mind, if your article doesn’t at least have hyperlinks to click on, your readers are going to struggle to engage with it online (it might as well be a printed piece). By providing your readers with some form of interactivity (video/audio to play, maps to browse, slideshows to watch etc), they are more likely to become engaged with your article.
- INNOVATION – Try to think of ways to make your multimedia project fresh and original. There are a wealth of tools available online for creating multimedia material – a little research and experimentation can provide some interesting ideas on presentation.
- SEO – Ensuring your article adheres to SEO Guidelines – will hopefully see your potential audience discovering your Post.
- PROMOTION – Once you’ve completed your article and published it on BUzz, you want to make sure you get as many reader/hits as possible and this can be achieved not only by SEO, but also through promotion. Make sure to share your work on social media channels: tagging and hashtagging in Twitter can promote your article to the right audience, whilst sharing on relevant Facebook groups/walls/pages etc can bring your work to the attention of those who may be interested. You might also think about promoting your work on relevant websites/blogs/forums – again sharing your work with an audience that has an interest in the subject of your article.