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CONVENTIONS OF ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
NEWS OF THE FUTURE
by Katrina Wong and Kristy Gerrard
There are immense amounts of information regarding the comparison
of online news to its antecedent, print. On all accounts, online
news is now the way to go. The advantages are endless, however,
worthwhile information exists documenting the move from print
to hypertext. Certain conventions
have to be preserved in order to make the transition smooth, to
be user friendly, and to sustain the essence of the message.
Conventions such as layout, format of website/articles, style
and usability (relations to the audience) are integral to the
genre of newspapers and are transferred to hypertext and have
been preserved through the evolution
of the genre.
| Print |
Online
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| Content: 5 W’s and H |
Skimming/scanning, hunting, browsing, grazing
- types of reading a webpage;
mode of retrieving information online instead of reading the
paper
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| inverted pyramid (style of writing) |
style of text - simple; concise; manageable;
in chunks instead of paragraphs like a paper story |
| limited space: columns are narrower |
space is unlimited in terms of content and content
retrieval
keep in mind the first point about reading style is to minimize
words and provide ease of information |
puffs and blurbs - at the top; byline; journalist’s name/source
masthead; headline; images are prominent to draw reader’s
attention |
text should fit into screen - not much scrolling
and navigation
indexes; search engines; links - no more than 5 per node |
| bold type; byline; date line; captions; single
to double column story; colour; pointer |
dateline, captions pointers turn into links, headlines turn
into hypertext |
main photo in colour - large and above the fold - designed
to grab reader’s attention |
entire article takes up the entire space |
To further our investigation of this internet genre,
and to demonstrate the conventional differences of online newspapers,
we compared two versions of a popular Toronto newspaper, the Toronto
Star, both online and in print. We took the homepage of www.torontostar.com
and compared it to the front page of its print counterpart to
clearly illustrate which conventions
are preserved and which change in the transferrence from print
to hypertext. We discovered certain consistencies between layout
structures (masthead, date line) as well as differences in form,
content and space.
Analysis
of a Print newspaper compared to its Online version
An interesting site and good example of the transference
of print to hypertext is NewYorkTimes.com,
which is compared to the Toronto
Sun online in terms of the functions
of Internet genres. We found the layout of online sites
remained faithful to print versions, as keeping with the accustomed
norm of newspaper conventions makes the transition from print
to hypertext easier and more welcome for the reader.
References
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/frontpage.html
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