Digital Journ Module

DIGITAL JOURNALISM
Erik Tenedero
Instructor
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Course Syllabus
UNIT I: OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Lesson 1: Introduction to journalism
Lesson 2: What makes digital journalism different
Lesson 3: Redefining the elements
Lesson 4: The digital audience
Lesson 5: Digital first
UNIT II: WRITING FOR DIGITAL MEDIA

Lesson 1: Why a different writing style
Lesson 2: Writing the headline
Lesson 3: Revving up your writing
Lesson 4: Story structures
UNIT III: DIGITAL REPORTING

Lesson 1: Understanding multimedia reporting
Lesson 2: Audio, photo, video, graphics
Lesson 3: Mobile journalism
Lesson 4: Citizen journalism
UNIT IV: JOURNALISM IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Lesson 1: Brief introduction to social media
Lesson 2: Journalism and social media
Lesson 3: Social media reporting
Lesson 4: 'Fake news'
UNIT V: DIGITAL TOOLS

Lesson 1: Content management system
Lesson 2: Overview of search engine optimization
Lesson 3: Analytics
UNIT VI: ETHICS IN CYBERLAND

Lesson 1: Traditional to digital standards
Lesson 2: 'Clickbait'
Lesson 3: Privacy
Lesson 4: Transparency and accuracy through honesty
References
Instructor's profile
Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE OF UNIVERSITY
City of Malolos
Tel/Fax (044) 791-0153
COURSE SYLLABUS
Digital Journalism
1st Semester, AY 2020-2021
COLLEGE: College of Arts and Letters

DEPARTMENT: Mass Communication and Performing Arts Division
COURSE TITLE: Digital Journalism
CREDIT UNITS: 3 units
FACULTY: Erik Tenedero
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides students with an understanding of digital

journalism, tackling the formats and skills for writing and producing news on the web as well as
the major theoretical debates around online news delivery. The course also exposes the
students to the social media landscape and how it is shaping the conduct of journalism.
Standards and ethical issues within the realm of online journalism will also be given emphasis in
this course.
University Vision
Bulacan State University is a progressive knowledge-generating institution, globally-recognized
for excellent instruction, pioneering research, and responsive community engagements.
University Mission
Bulacan State University exists to produce highly competent, ethical and service-oriented
professionals that contribute to the sustainable socio-economic growth and development of the
nation
Core Values: SOAR BulSU!
Service to God and Community

Order and Peace
Assurance of Quality and Accountability
Respect and Responsibility
The BulSU Ideal Graduates Attributes (BIG A) reflect the graduate’s capacity as:
a. highly and globally competent;
b. ethical and service-oriented citizen;
c. analytical and critical thinker; and
d. reflective life-long learner.
University Mission
Program Educational Objectives (PEO)
AIG-a AIG-b AIG-c AIG-d
Equip students with the requisite knowledge, skills and attitude
and a commitment to uphold professional ethics and standards
in the practice of journalism in line with MCPAD's goal to / / /
become the center of excellence in Mass Communication and
Performing Arts
Enhance the learner's capacity to anticipate and respond to the
needs of rapidly developing media and uphold the importance
of a formal education in Journalism to legitly address challenges
/ / / /
of the post-truth era such as fake news and establish
awareness and sensitivity to media, gender and sexuality
issues and other practices
Inculcate moral values of Journalism such as credibility,
integrity, accountability and responsibility and produce / /
graduates who are globally competitive
Maintain sustained political, economic, social, religious, cultural
and civic linkages thru involvement in the promotion of current,
/ / /
relevant community-sensitive projects using the power of the
pen
Program Educational Objectives

Program Outcomes
PEO1 PEO2 PEO3
Identify newsworthy stories in a complex field of facts and
opinions, focusing on those of particular importance to the
/ / /
community they serve; community is interpreted broadly as
geographic, virtual, of shared interest or philosophy
Conduct journalistic research / / /
Write, illustrate, edit, produce and disseminate for various
/ / /
formats and platforms
In the case of graduates of universities, produce scholarly work
/ / /
that would add to the body of knowledge on journalism
Course outcomes Program Outcomes
After completing this course the student must be able to: a b c
Gain an understanding of what digital journalism is and how it
/
is different from traditional media
Acquire the basic skills necessary for an digital journalist, either
working in the / /
newsroom or from the field
Demonstrate the ability to write news stories for different online
/ /
platforms
Understand the role of social media in the conduct of
/
journalism
Apply ethical standards in online journalism /
LEARNING EPISODES:
LEARNING OUTCOMES TOPICS WEEK LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Gain and appreciation of what digital Discussion
Introduction to digital
journalism as opposed to common Viewing of relevant video
journalism
thinkings about it material
Be familiar with the elements that
What makes digital Discussion
separates journalism from other fields
journalism different Brainstorming
in the profession
Gain an understanding of how digital
journalism has redefined the elements Discussion
Redefining news elements 1-3
of news with the unique quality it Brainstorming
possesses
Develop an appreciation of the current
Discussion
audience landscape that digital Digital audience
Brainstorming
journalism serves
Gain an understanding of the concept
of digital first rule and why newsrooms Digital first Discussion Brainstorming
across the world have adopted this
Gain an understanding for the need for
a different writing style when it comes Why a different writing style Discussion
to digital media
Be able to write effective headlines for 4-6 Discussion
Writing the headline
digital media Writing workshop
Acquire necessary skills in writing a Discussion
Revving up your writing
strong piece for digital media Writing workshop
Be familiar with basic story structures
Discussion
that are commonly used in digital Story structures
Writing workshop
media
Gain an understanding of the basics of Understanding multimedia Discussion
multimedia reporting reporting Brainstorming
Be familiar with the capabilities of
Audio, video, photo,
multimedia components for an Discussion
graphics
effective digital reportage
7-9 Discussion
Brainstorming
Mobile journalism
Acquire the basic skills to become a Viewing of relevant video
mobile journalist material
Develop an appreciation for citizen
journalism and how it help augment Citizen journalism Discussion
newsrooms across the world
Gain an overview grasp of how social Discussion
Introduction to social media
media works Brainstorming
Develop an appreciation of how social Discussion
Journalism and social
media can be an effective tool for Viewing of relevant video
media
journalism material
Discussion
Acquire basic skills in able to report 10-12 Brainstorming
Social media reporting
using social media Viewing of relevant video
material
Gain an understanding of how fake
Discussion
news threatens the credibility of
Fake news Viewing of relevant video
journalism and the danger it poses to
material
the public
Be familiar with how digital journalists Content management
Discussion
use content management system system
Gain the ability to write a basic SEO Discussion
SEO
optimized news article 13-14 Writing workshop
Be familiar with some of the commonly
used analytics tool in digital journalism Analytics Discussion
and its role in story development
Develop an appreciation on how
Traditional to digital
traditional ethical standards evolve to Discussion
standards
remain relevant in the digital era
Gain an understanding of how clickbait
Clickbait Discussion
works
Apply established journalistics Discussion
standards on respecting people's Brainstorming
Privacy
privacy in the conduct of journalism Viewing of relevant video
especially in this digital era material
Develop an appreciation on how
transparency and acknowledging
errors can be more beneficial in Transparency and accuracy Discussion
maintaining public's trust towards
journalists and news organizations 15-16
FINAL COURSE OUTPUT: A comprehensive multimedia report on a relevant issue that the
student has chosen.
RUBRIC FOR ASSESSMENT:
Convergence - 30%
(The manner in which the report used multimedia elements to compliment the story.)
Story structure - 30%
(This refers to the cohesiveness of the entire story.)
Topic relevance - 20%
(This refers to the writer's way of proving the relevance of the story through the report itself.)
Overall style - 20%
(This refers to how the writer used creativity to make the report interesting and fit for a digital
platform.)
TOTAL: 100%
OTHER REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS:
1. A WordPress blog site containing all required activities and outputs for the subject.
2. Class participation and graded recitation
3. Quizzes
GRADING SYSTEM:
Term Examinations - 30%

Quizzes/Activities- 20%
Project- 30%
Participation/Recitation - 10%
Attendance/ Promptness - 10%
TOTAL 100%
CLASS POLICIES:
1. Deadlines are sacred. Extensions shall only be allowed in grave circumstances.

2. All work to be submitted in class must be original, not previously published by any media
organization or in blogs, and not submitted in any other class in Bulacan State University
or anywhere else.
3. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited.
4. All work to be submitted must follow the format prescribed by the instructor for easy
checking and uniformity.
5. Students are expected to bring their own instruments and tools like laptops,
smartphones, tablets, etc.
PREPARED BY:
Erik Tenedero
Instructor
Welcome to the digital era in journalism. There is good news and bad news to this. First, it’s an
exciting period for journalism, with various technological advancements making a more effective
gathering of information and storytelling techniques. However, challenges are steep. If
journalism wants to stay relevant amid this unprecedented barrage of information flow, not only
it must remain caught up with the latest technological advancements, it must also make sure
that it is ahead and prepared for what’s more to come.
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL JOURNALISM
Introduction: Journalism, like any other form of communication, must exist within the digital
sphere. Reluctant though some of the former gatekeepers at the beginning (a normal reaction to
any innovation) , the revolution is now in full blown is still rapidly changing. But what do we
really mean when we say digital journalism? Does it mean a different approach to journalism?
Does it mean a change in the function of journalism? We try to answer these questions in this
lesson.
Objective: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:
1. Gain an overview understanding of what digital journalism is

2. Be able to define digital journalism their own words based on their understanding
3. Know the basic elements of digital journalism
Activity: Answer the following questions:
1. How do you consume news nowadays? Is it mainly through a newspaper, radio, TV, or
the internet?
2. What makes you choose this platform of news? How effective and convenient is it for
you to gain access to news using this platform?
3. What do you think are the disadvantages of using this platform in accessing news?
Discussion:
“It won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.”
This was how Jones and Salter (2012) began their introduction for their book Digital Journalism.
Reading these words, one could easily jump into conclusion that it was a reference to the
skepticism towards digital technology as a tool for journalism. But the truth is Jones and Salter
were quoting US newspaper editors when television was first introduced as a platform for
journalism. Time Magazine writers were also quoted as saying that television programs have
added little to the technique of reporting compared to radio and all the more to newspapers.
When digital technology, especially social media, was starting to gain momentum among the
public, the same notion echoed across various newsrooms all over the world. While editors and
news managers took a glance at this new entity in information distribution, many did not take it
seriously and considered it as a fad that would soon be replaced and forgotten due to another
fad that would come in.
History will tell us that this skepticism has always been present if you put technological
advancements and journalism together, which is a clear irony seeing how the history of
technology and developments in journalism have always been in parallel all throughout. Many
concerns about digital technology as a platform for journalism have already emerged, like
dividing people further as opposed to truly engaging them by bringing ideas and people
together.
But whether the naysayers and doom-mongers agree or not, the possibilities emerging from
digital journalism is reshaping the broader picture of what journalism can look like and what it
can do for the public (Craig, 2011). No amount of crystal ball gazing would tell us how profound
these changes will be or which direction it would take. But Jones and Salter were clear about
one thing: “The practice of journalism does not exist in isolation. Rather it takes solace in
symbiotic relation to political, legal, economic and technological structures. Just as journalism
changes, responding to its environment, so too do the structures within which it is situated.”
Digital journalism posed a huge challenge to journalists and those who were not too quick to
respond to it are now facing the hurdles harder than those who willingly adapted. This new form
of journalism is still evolving and we are still seeing its repercussions unfold in everyday life in
the newsroom. Journalists' use of technologies for news gathering has historically strengthened
journalistic practice. Rather than ridicule or ignore new technological innovations, journalists
must face them and consider not just current common uses but also how to use them to best
develop journalistic practices.
They say in this digital era, everyone becomes a journalist. With the democratization of
producing and distributing information, some would argue that spells the death of journalism.
And true enough, no one needs to be Rupert Murdoch or establish a Conde Nast-like empire
nowadays in order to publish your content. With just one click using the power of a smartphone,
anyone can be a communication mogul.
In the Philippines, a quick look at Facebook would reveal this reality. Comments vilifying
journalists and news organizations abound, easily dismissing them as “fake news” or
propaganda machines, while hailing so-called bloggers with zero credentials to back their
“brand of journalism” or even a hint of transparency to the information they are propagating.
In this sense, it’s best to always go back to our roots and understand the fundamental concepts
of journalism. In its bare form, G. Stuart Adam suggests that: “Journalism is an invention, or a
form of expression used to report and comment in the public media on the events and ideas of
the here and now.”
Notice that there are at least five elements to such definition:
1. A form of expression that is invention

2. Reports of ideas and events
3. Comments
4. Public circulation
5. Here and now
Here, Adam was explaining how journalism is a cultural practice driven but what he called
“journalistic imagination,” which is the main method of framing experience and forming the
public consciousness of the here and now.
At the end, it is the public that zeroes in with these elements presented in Adam’s definition. The
first clarification lies with the fact that journalism is not just a style of reporting but a mode of
address to the citizens that make up a public. And here’s where Kovach and Rosentiel
(Elements of Journalism) took it up a notch. They insisted that this notion of public is why
journalism aims to provide independent, reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information that
citizens require to be free. To do this, they propose “concrete commitments of journalists to the
truth, the citizens, to verification, to independence from those they cover, to monitor power, to
provide a forum for public criticism, to be interesting and relevant, to be comprehensive and
proportional and to exercise their personal conscience.”
And this is what separates journalism from the other forms of communication within the digital
sphere. It may be a new platform, but the core of its practice remains there. Ergo, digital
journalism is simply a contemporary form of journalism using digital technologies to develop and
distribute editorial contents.
It may be a different medium, but it is still the same journalism with the same demand for quality
and excellence. As such, journalists who produce digital content operate with the same
challenges though in different context (Craig, 2011):
● Maintaining standards of fairness, completeness and accuracy in the face of competition

from other news sites and people’s expectation of fast and immediate information
through digital means;
● Making the most of digital media’s capacity for depth and breadth in storytelling with
limited time and staff and the challenge of unifying disparate parts of a story including
video, audio, photos, graphics and text;
● Developing excellent stories that meld the contributions of journalists and users;
● Fostering conversations and community of thinkers
It’s no secret how journalists and perhaps the very practice of journalism itself takes a beating
everyday, especially in this digital era. It is also easy to get lost within the bells and whistles of
digital reportage in competing for content supremacy. But remember at its core, even in the
vastness of the digital sphere, journalistic excellence is strong reporting and storytelling.
Finally, as Craig had put it: “[Digital] journalism continues to develop as technology changes and
creative journalists experiment with new ways of communicating and as the public takes a more
central place in storytelling and discussion through tools such as social media. The possibilities
emerging for online journalism reshape the broader picture of what journalism can look like and
what it can do for the public.
Suggested reading(s):
How has digital journalism changed your work day?

https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/how-has-digital-journalism-changed-your-work-day/
So what is “digital journalism studies,” anyway? Is it its own thing?

https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/05/so-what-is-digital-journalism-studies-anyway-is-it-its-own-thi
ng/
Application:
1. In your own words, compose a definition of digital journalism.

2. What do you think is the core concept of journalism that will never change no matter the
future technological innovations? Explain your answer.
3. Do you think that journalism would die and become irrelevant if it refuses to respond to
the call of technological innovations? Why?
4. How would you rate journalism’s use of present technological innovations? Do you think
journalists are doing a good job of harnessing the available technologies to provide
better reporting? Explain your answer.
LESSON 2: WHAT MAKES DIGITAL JOURNALISM DIFFERENT
Introduction: It’s somehow unthinkable to have a look back and see how the news industry has
gone through a lot of changes in less than a decade. A lot of things are different now with
respect to journalism. But while some things essentially remain the same, its form and the way
we approach it has also gone through some changes. But if news remains the sole trade of
journalism, shouldn’t that mean the new digital platform should provide no difference at all?
Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:
1. Understand what makes digital journalism different

2. Identify different kinds of multimedia formats
3. Learn the role of interactivity in journalism
4. Gain an understanding of why on-demand delivery is putting the audience in control
Activity:
1. List down at least five things mostly associated with the delivery of traditional media
(either newspaper, radio, or TV) which you think are applicable as well to digital media.
For example, live reporting.
2. Browsing the internet, you’ve probably read contents from bloggers. Do you think they
are journalists as well? Why?
Discussion:
What does it mean to be a journalist in a world where anyone can publish? Thornburg (2010) in
Producing Online News the principle of understanding what news is and why it matters remain
the same. This means understanding what the audience wants and needs to know, figuring out
where to get the facts and sorting through all the options for presenting a story so that the
audience feels its impact.
It is easy to misconstrue digital journalism as a simple montage of existing media. First, the
technology that forms its core is different, as well as the time, manner and place that people use
it. Also, its capabilities to fashion the stories as more relevant and more enticing to the audience
are different. And this is why a study of this particular field is in order.
Thornburg cited three pillars of digital journalism that have taken news from something that
people passively consume to something that people actively experience: multimedia, interactive,
on-demand.
Multimedia
In digital journalism, journalists have a variety of techniques to combine to give the audience a
different experience of the news reportage. One way to achieve this is by employing a
multimedia way of storytelling.
Multimedia in digital journalism means the use of more than one technique to tell a single story.
It could be a text, audio, still images, or videos. A multimedia news story then is any piece with a
combined two or more elements of media to it.
Media (the plural form of medium) is the channel through which information is stored and
transmitted. In journalism, we think more of a medium as storytelling technique rather than the
actual substance on which a story is conveyed. Notice how we refer to newspapers and
magazines as the print media because they are presented in print. Video and audio are also
examples of media, which are broadcasted or distributed in various ways like satellite, cable,
internet and even through DVDs or flash drives.
The degree of this multimedia integration in a way of storytelling is called convergence. When
journalists successfully use one medium to tell a certain element of the story and use another
medium to present another component of the same narrative, he is achieving high levels of
media convergence.
An example is a sports story about a recent basketball game. A text may be used to summarize
the story, while a montage of video can be used to give the highlights of the games, like a
game-changing fastbreak or a buzzer-beater shot that didn’t make it and could’ve potentially
altered the outcome of the match. An infographic, meanwhile, could be used to present
statistics, like comparing a key player's dismal numbers compared to how he fared in his
previous matches. In this sense, every aspect of the story was told in a different manner at the
same time pushing a single narrative. Without one element of the story, the narrative would not
be complete. This is the core nature of multimedia storytelling in journalism.
Nowadays, reporters are compelled to be multimedia journalists. But often, several journalists
would simply file a single story but fashioned for various channels. For example, a report might
work on a story about an alleged corruption scandal concerning a government agency. In this
instance, he may file a story for TV and the network’s digital platform like its news website or
even post details of his story on social media. While the story is being distributed in different
media, the reportage does not come hand-in-hand to form a single storytelling. The story,
distributed through different media, are intended for different audiences. Essentially, the media
that were used have nothing to do with one another except for having a similar story. This is an
example of parallel reporting and presentation and is not considered as multimedia storytelling.
But the concept of multimedia reporting has been present in the older form of journalism.
Newspapers have been using both text and static photos to present their stories. Thornburg
cited how in the 19th century, the combination of text and photos was so innovative that
newspapers used it as their selling point, that P.T. Burnam called his publication the “Illustrated
News.” Television also uses multimedia, with the combination of videos and audios as well as
text to further its stories.
In the digital era, journalists have more multimedia categories to use in their reporting such as
live video streaming, archived or packaged audio-video materials, podcast or vodcast, photo
gallery or animated graphics.
Interactivity
Media has always been dominated by one flow of information. Always the medium in which the
information was carried through stood between the journalist and the audience. But today,
interactivity or the multidirectional flow of information gave rise to possibilities of creating instant
connection between the reporter and the audience and sometimes even with the subject of the
story.
In this sense, news is becoming more of a conversation and less of a lecture. The flow of the
story goes in various directions, adding more elements and context to the former simple
structure of reportage. Thornburg further clarified that interactivity is more than just getting a
television to respond to a viewer’s remote control. It is about creating connections between
people in pursuit of a more complete and accurate view of the world.
To the more traditional media, the concept of interactivity was the audience sending letters or in
the case of radio and television, calling in listeners for reaction and opinion on the news or
matters which were discussed in the program. But nowadays, other modes of interactivity
include the following
Tip line - Where reporters use the internet to find sources who have first hand knowledge of
specific topics that he may cover
Article comments - Some news websites have this as a feature although still with respective
guidelines and standards. In some cases, journalists can even find a lead to certain stories.
Discussion board - Here, readers are given a more free space to interact with one another to
create a common conversation.
Live chat - Either the journalist itself, an editor or anyone from the newsroom is assigned as
moderator to directly answer questions from the audience or engage people to get into
conversations. This type of interactivity is usually restricted to a specific period of time.
User-generated content - The audience is given the chance to submit their own stories through
various media like text, photos or videos. Sometimes, these user-generated contents are used
to augment a certain story from the news organization itself. But sometimes, several
submissions become the main story itself.
On-demand delivery
The demand for news has never been this intense and the internet with its 24/7 capabilities
further fueled this. Once again, this capability reshaped the public’s behavior on how they
consume news. On-demand delivery allows the audience to control the time, place, and topic of
the news they consume.
People who want to read news about certain topics no longer have to wait for the delivery of
newspapers every morning or the evening newscast on the television. They want it whenever
and wherever they demand it so. There are those who read their news while having coffee,
while ordering for their breakfast and even while commuting on their way to work. They can
even customize the types of news that they want to consume, excluding topics they are not
interested in using news apps, social media customization or through online newsletters.
This idea of on-demand delivery in news came from cable news. And with the arrival of digital
video recorders (DVRs), people gained the ability to watch TV news whenever they wanted. If
they are expecting to miss the airing of the program, they would simply set their DVRs to record
it, and they can already watch it later on at a time most convenient to them.
Presently, here are some common tools of on-demand delivery of news:
Hyperlinks - Contents of online news articles are connected to other pieces of contents thus
creating a web of information that gives the audience vast choice on which of the presented
topics he wants to explore further. Thornburg said this ability of users to choose their own path
results in a nonlinear experience.
Complete uptime - News websites don’t go off-air unlike radio or television stations, making the
news readily available anytime the reader wants to access it.
Search tools - News websites also employ a feature where its reader can easily search for
previously published content. This is accomplished through an archive system or the use of tags
and keywords.
Multimedia newsroom: BBC London

https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20140305121733049
Application:
1. Find an online news report which you think best captures the concept of multimedia in
digital news reportage. What are the aspects of the news report that used multimedia
components? Explain why you think each of those elements in the news report were told
through that specific multimedia aspect.
2. Using the same instructions, apply them to the concept of interactivity and on-demand
delivery in digital news reportage.
3. Which among the three pillars of digital journalism you think is widely used on the
delivery of news on the internet nowadays?
LESSON 3: REDEFINING THE ELEMENTS
Introduction: Admittedly, journalists may have a hard time if you ask them to define what news
is. Ask 10 journalists this question and you’d probably get about 6 to 8 different answers. But
there’s no doubt that when a journalist sees something newsworthy, they’ll recognize it right
away as fast as the lightning. But what does it mean to have the elements that make news what
it is when you bring them to a whole new space like the digital sphere?
1. Identify the characteristics of information that gives it news value

2. Understand the new approach to these characteristics when it comes to digital
journalism
3. Gain knowledge on how to harness the capacity of digital platforms in presenting key
elements of a news story
Activity:
1. Let’s say you are now a practicing journalist and your editor just asked you to provide a
topic for a news story that you would like to pursue. What would it be?
2. Why do you think this is newsworthy?
3. If this is going to be a digital news report, do you think your topic of choice would be a
potentially good material for the medium? Why?
Discussion:
Make a quick check of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and surely you’ll get this overwhelming
sense of information overload. The digital age has become this massive explosion of contents
coming from all corners of the internet. And with so many things that we need to go through in
our daily access to the digital world, what news are talking about here?
To make it clear early this point, news is still the same whatever platform or type of technology it
was brought in. It remains a valuable information about a recent event or ideas which is relevant
to the public in their quest to make sense of their environment and contextualize their decisions
as part of the society. But to be able to cut through this massive bombardment of information in
the digital sphere, those who deliver news must take a second look at how they are reporting for
today’s platform.
What is it that you look for a story that would make you want to repost it on your social media
accounts, or perhaps email it to a friend, or send a link of it to your relatives on Viber of
WeChat? The answer is still news value -- distinct characteristics that separates news from
other information. Traditionally, there are eight of these elements and they are as follows:
Timeliness - How recently did the news event happen?

Proximity - How geographically close is the audience to where the news event happened?
Impact - What direct effect will the news event have on the audience and how many people are
involved?
Prominence - How familiar is the audience to the people involved in the news story?
Conflict - Was there a dispute involved in the news event?
Novelty - How unusual is the news event?
Human interest - How does the news event make the audience feel?
Mastering these concepts would better a journalist’s editorial judgment. Aside from a clearer
understanding of whether an event or idea is newsworthy, this may also help in deciding the
manner of storytelling to effectively bring it forward to the public. As Thornburg said, certain
storytelling techniques of digital journalism are more appropriate for stories that emphasize
certain news values.
Timeliness
Journalists have always worked with blood, sweat and tears in order to bring the latest news to
the audience as fast as possible. In fact, a lot of news organizations use this as their battlecry.
Traditionally, timeliness works depending on the medium. For newspapers, most news stories
are what occur the day before it was published and delivered in newsstands. For TV, most news
events that develop in a day makes it to the primetime evening newscast. Radio, on the other
hand, has more flexibility when it comes to delivery, but once it airs, those who are not tuned in
to the station already missed their chance of getting the news.
This is where on-demand delivery comes in. Unlike other media, there is no news cycle in digital
journalism. News websites, social media, and other digital platforms are always available and
up to date. In fact, people no longer need to be online to be able to receive the latest news. In
cases of live video and live text, don’t even have to wait for the news to be processed as they
can be delivered right as it happens.
Below is an example of a series of tweets from Channel News Asia journalist Saksith
Saiyasombut who is based in Thailand. The reporter was live tweeting as Thailand’s ministry of
health gave details on a football player who tested positive for the novel coronavirus just days
before the planned reopening of the league.
Proximity
They say we are global citizens in this digital age. For journalism, this means the element of
proximity gets narrower as more people are getting interested with what’s happening elsewhere
regardless of great distance. But when the news can reach anyone, anywhere, and at any time,
the definition of proximity becomes more dynamic.
For on-demand delivery, this means having to access news even those that are far away from
you. And using the element of proximity does not mean only making it clear how the story is
about “right here.” It really means creating information that is relevant ro “right here” and “right
now.”
With being multimedia, an example would be the hyper-local delivery of news nowadays, where
a simple access to a map would pinpoint you to various information on specific locations. With
heavy reliance on smartphones, consumers use tools that give them information not only about
the city or region they are in, but as well as with the exact road they are driving in or the exact
floor in a shopping mall where they are looking for something.
Impact
Traditionally, it is a journalist’s goal to present news that is relevant to the broadest possible
audience. But whether we admit it or not, always our question when presented with a story is
“how does this affect me?”
This question is more often asked these days due to what we earlier noted of the explosion of
information within the digital sphere. With so many distractions, the public no longer want to be
bothered by things that they perceive as something that does not concern them.
But with digital technology, the audience is now given the power to customize the news that they
want to reach them and here they will most likely prioritize information that will have the most
impact on them. The challenge for journalists now is to deliver news that is not only available to
a specific demographic or make a seemingly not so impactful story appear relevant to people
and push them to realize the importance of such information.
Prominence
Faces and names command a high level of newsworthiness. That’s why in digital journalism, the
demand for photos and videos of people who are subjects of news events has skyrocketed. But
the public mostly are not content with merely having a closer look at these prominent people.
They want access. They want interaction.
And this is where the interactivity pillar of digital journalism comes into play. Part of a journalist’s
job is to connect people with another that in several ways, journalists become the medium of
conversations. But even in this age when direct interaction between prominent personalities and
the general public is made possible by social media and other digital means, journalists still play
a crucial role of guiding a conversation to create a fruitful discussion that hopefully would add
value to the story.
Conflict
Conflict attracts people to be curious. But this element of news does not mean that journalists
report on such issues just to lure the audience or for dramatic effects. This element of news, in
fact, drives the journalist’s role to make those in power accountable for their actions and
improve chances for resolution.
But because of the sensitivity that comes with conflict, journalists must make sure that they are
careful in highlighting certain elements of the story. Photos and videos must remain within the
ethical boundaries of news reportage no matter how impactful the conflict in it -- be it a fist fight
or a verbal confrontation. Meanwhile, conflict can be heightened or resolved through interactivity
depending on how the conversation is framed and moderated.
Novelty
Anytime the world does not behave as we expect it to, it becomes news. Peculiarity always
breeds interest. And what better medium is most suited for this oddity than the internet.
Novelties thrive in the digital world, as evidenced by the number of hits and interactions for
stories even as mundane as a cow giving birth to a calf with two heads or curious stories such
as thieves who stole pairs of underwear of their victims and even ate the food in the fridge. Most
of the time, these types of stories are best told through photos and videos. And with the offer of
interactivity, the audience will ask throw in more questions to satisfy their curiosity.
Emotional appeal
Emotions know no bounds. No matter the race, no matter the language, no matter the cultural
background, stories that evoke people’s emotion are gold standards to journalism as people
hugely navigate towards it. It’s human nature to respond to stories of heroism, of fears and
hope. Not only do these types of stories illicit much discussion, they echo way beyond the
sustainability of usual news stories.
Here, visual journalism is at an advantage. With captured photos and videos of emotional
moments, the audience can somehow relive the experience and be part of such events.
Meanwhile, aside from looking at these news values on a different lens, we can also look at how
today’s digital platforms are redefining the basic elements of a news story. All news stories, one
way or another, must contain answers to these questions: who? What? Where? When? Where?
Why? And how? Together, the information corresponding to these questions make up a good
news story.
In digital reportage, these same elements are still essential. In the case of online news, these
elements are often used in determining which tools to use for a more effective storytelling. In
print and other more traditional media, leads that attempt to carry tons of information at once
often crumble under its sheer weight. It becomes too complicated that the message of the story
gets lost amid the clutter. The same goes for digital news. Stories that try to use all the tools
dilute the message and lose focus. It is the job of a digital journalist to make these crucial
decisions: Should the story be told through an interactive map? Should there be a slideshow of
photos? Are videos necessary? Is a live streaming of this certain news event appropriate?
Journalists today have an unprecedented arsenal of storytelling techniques from which to
choose for a more effective delivery of the story. But alongside this comes an unprecedented
burden to choose among these techniques wisely. (Thornburg, 2010)
Who
Putting a face on a story is always one the main concerns for a journalist. It is this face that will
create that instant connection to the people. Most of the time, these faces are used to tell more
complicated stories and provide more context. For example, a story about the healthcare
system could be told through the eyes of a father who’s a minimum wage-earner with a
chronically sick child. Likewise, a story about financial crisis could be seen through a college
degree holder who is still struggling to land himself a job and is now forced to sleep in a friend’s
garage after getting kicked out by his apartment’s landlord.
In this case, people would want to talk to the subject. This means the audience would want to
hear the story straight from the face of whoever is talking in that narrative. Hence an audio,
video or perhaps photos of the subject are crucial. Interviews of the subject bring the story to
life. In more traditional media like radio and print, journalists have struggled to perfectly capture
small details from the subject like mannerisms and the slightest hint of emotion just to bring
justice to the story and relay that to the public. But being multimedia, the task is made easy.
Of course, aside from this, there is that mode of literal conversation with the subject or the
reporter through interactivity. Stories that are driven by human drama or prominent personalities
are always bound to create conversations. In this case, discussion boards and live chats are
also helpful.
Below is a screenshot from ABS-CBN’s special multimedia report about Whang-ud, Kalinga’s
oldest practicing “mambabatok.” The face of this tattoo artist has been an icon, not just for
Filipinos, but as well as from people all over the world.
What
You know how people would often say a picture is worth a thousand words? Still and moving
images thrive on the internet especially on social media to the point that sometimes the material
alone already speaks volume. This directly answers the most common question uttered in
newsrooms across the world: “what’s the story” or “what’s the story about.”
A story needs to have action in order to move forward. Even the most prominent personalities in
the world need to do something to gain attention. In this sense, a photo or a video is very
important as they without any doubt display the “what” element in its fullness. Some news
editors would actually ignore a story if it's not supported by a photo or a video.
Although in some cases, the “what” of a story isn’t always the action. Sometimes, they are
objects or other creatures. For example, a story can be about a newly discovered species of
butterfly or a robot serving as a nurse for coronavirus patients. Even in this situation, directly
showing the “what” of the story would actually even get a response like “what is that.”
Thornburg (2010) also noted that for stories published online, the “what”of the story holds a
special importance because it is often the descriptor or the key word that people use on search
engines when they want on demand delivery of news on a specific topic of interest.
The example below shows how in 2016 the image of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh became a
symbol of the violence that engulfed Syria. Photos and videos of the bloodied young boy, who
was pulled from a damaged building after an airstrike in the northern city of Aleppo, spread like
wildfire on the internet and brought new attention to thousands of children suffering in the fury of
years of war.
When
In digital journalism, the “when” is always the “now.” There’s no schedule of demand for news in
digital platforms and subscribers of news on online media want it right at that moment. As soon
as a news event broke, people would expect it to be up on your platform right away.
That’s why live video streaming is very important nowadays. People want it raw, as if they are
somehow experiencing the event themselves instead of being mere spectators. And with
on-demand delivery, one common tool journalists often use is a live interactive timeline. This
kind of timeline graphics put events in relationship to one another. Not only does the audience
get the whole picture unfolding before him, he can also get to choose a portion of that narrative
he wants to focus on.
Below is a screenshot of an interactive timeline for an Al Jazeera report on how COVID-19

cases across the world quickly went up to five million in just a span of four months.
Where
When an important news event unfolds, it’s automatic for people to check how close it was to
his location. Especially now that hyperlocal delivery of news is gaining massive push within the
digital reportage, the demand of the people for specificity gets narrower than ever.
By taking the multimedia route, you are not just pinpointing the location of the news event. You
are already attempting to bring the audience right at the heart of the story. You can do this with
interactive maps supported by photos or videos showing the full setting of the event. As for
on-demand delivery, some news apps are now customizable so that news that is nearest to him
gets prioritized. With the use of GPS on mobile devices, information-seeking users can
automatically receive the news that is geographically relevant.
Below is a screenshot of a report from Channel News Asia about a police chase of a driver who
refused to submit himself to a checkpoint. Through cameras scattered all over Singapore, areas
where the hot pursuit occurred were easily plotted in news reports.
Why
A good reportage doesn’t just simply answer the basic details of a story. It should provide
context, explanation, and sometimes even simplification to benefit the public. And this is where
the “why” element comes in.
Always there is more to a story than meets the eye. Answering this is what sets quality
journalism from poorly-constructed ones. Texts are most often employed in delivering such
crucial details. Sometimes, to make it easier and more attractive to the audience, journalists
would use motion graphics. Interactivity can also help as it directly provides answers to an
inquiring audience.
The example below shows how BBC’s “The Hong Kong protests explained in 100 and 500
words” provides a quick explanatory report on how the protests in Hong Kong escalated and the
key events that took place since it began.
How
It is unusual for a story’s focus to be on the “how” element of a narrative. Most often, the “how”
is just a supporting detail dealing with the process. As such, text is most appropriate to use
because “unusual causes or processes are often hidden, or unfold over time in a way that is
difficult to capture on camera.”
The example below shows how USA Today’s report used the stunning image of a helicopter
bearing retired pope Benedict XVI as it circled around the Eternal City, signalling the end of his
short-lived papacy. Although the story’s main focus was the emeritus pope’s historic abdication,
the manner in which he left the Vatican became a center of attention with such astonishing sight
of the ancient city and all the symbolisms that came with the pope’s stepping down from his
throne.
Application:
1. Pick up a newspaper story of any topic of your choice.

2. If you are to transform this news report to a digital piece, how would you present each
element (5 Ws and 1 H) with respect to the three pillars of digital journalism? Explain
your choice for each element. For example, if a story is about a woman who grew up
being a performer in a circus, the “who” of the story is probably the very same woman.
How then would you present this element? Should it be multimedia (explain specifically if
it’s going to be a photo or series of photos or videos, etc.) interactive, or on-demand?
LESSON 4: THE DIGITAL AUDIENCE
Introduction: As communication technologies evolve, so too do audiences. And because the

audience is at the front seat of journalism, it is crucial that we get an idea of how the digital
platforms have altered the way news is being consumed now. Of course, this is not to
completely pander to the whims of what’s trendy, but part of the endless attempt to effectively
tell our stories.
1. Gain an overview of the current landscape of digital news audience

2. Understand the importance of audience analysis for effective storytelling
3. Know the common behavior of the people who consume news on digital platforms
1. Observe yourself when you browse things on the internet.

2. What makes you stop reading an online article?
3. What are the types of videos that make you watch until the end and why?
4. What turns you off on digital content?
5. What makes you recommend an article or anything you see on the internet?
Discussion:
Perhaps, it is easy to conclude that the digital space is mainly populated by the younger
audience. In this case, digital news must be packaged with the mindset that its target audience
are the youth. But the truth is defining, or even simply trying to make sense of the digital
audience is so much more than that.
Journalists without an audience are just diarists, solitary scribblers of their own thoughts
(Thornburg, 2010). That’s why it is important to get an idea of who you are reporting for. As
humans, we all have varying tastes and interests. While this reality makes a journalist’s job
tougher, an understanding of the changing nature of audience habits is crucial to good
journalism. In fact, content creators including news organizations all over the world are investing
a good amount of resources just to study audience behavior and how they consume
information. As journalists, we must always put the audience's needs above anything and
anyone else.
So how many people subscribe to digital news? The exact numbers are still difficult to determine
but we can draw conclusions from some of the available figures.
For its Digital 2020 reports released in January, We Are Social stated that there are now more
than 4.5 billion people who are using the internet, which means nearly 60 percent of the world's
population is already online. From this, more than 3.8 billion are social media users.
Other important figures:
● Globally, more than 5.19 billion people now use mobile phones, with user numbers up by
124 million over the past year
● Average internet user worldwide spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online each day
● In the Philippines, internet users spend an average of 9 hours and 45 minutes per day
online, compared to just 4 hours and 22 minutes per day in Japan
● More than 1 billion of those who are still unconnected to the internet live in Southern
Asia (31 percent) while countries in Africa account for 27 percent of the total, with 870
million people yet to come online across the continent
● 92 percent of world's internet users are connecting via mobile phones
Meanwhile, among mobile users, here's a ranking of percentage pertaining to mobile apps
usage by category.
89 percent - Chat apps

89 percent - Social networking apps
66 percent - Shopping apps
65 percent - Entertainment or video apps
65 percent - Map apps
52 percent - Music apps
47 percent - Games
26 percent - Health and fitness apps
35 percent - Banking apps
11 percent - Dating apps
When it comes to social media, Facebook still dominates despite various challenges including
criticisms of misinformation and security concerns. Trends in user numbers reported in the
company's earning announcements suggests that the platform should have already passed the
historic 2.5 billion monthly active users mark.
Meanwhile, in its latest list, Alexa places Google.com as still the world's most visited website
followed by YouTube. In the Philippines, these two are also the top viewed websites followed by
ABS-CBN.com which includes its news site news.abs-cbn.com. In fourth place is Inquirer.net
followed by Facebook.com.
But what do these numbers mean for digital journalism? While the news industry is on the right
track making its presence felt within the digital sphere, there is still a lot to work about,
especially seeing how fast technology develops as well as the changes in audience behavior. In
its previous report in 2018, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted how the digital
revolution is full of contradictions and exceptions.
For one, mobile news consumption should be carefully studied by news organizations
considering the large percentage of user penetration for mobile devices. But while news
producers are now having their own mobile apps, they are still far from being popular and so
demand remains low. But of course, this doesn’t mean journalists should just wait for the people
to come to them.
As Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa recently said in an interview, Facebook is perhaps the world’s
biggest source of news online nowadays. And with this comes all the exciting prospects as well
as tons of dangers when it comes to handling and consumption of information. But setting that
aside, Facebook, without any doubt, has been a go-to platform for news-seeking users.
News organizations nowadays are also tapping chat apps to deliver information, such as Viber
and Telegram. Even Facebook’s My Day and IG stories are now being used in news reportage
seeing its popularity among millennials and Gen Z users.
In the Philippine context, traditional TV is still the undisputed king. But legacy media (those that
started with print, radio or TV) have long gone digital. Still based on Reuters Institute for the
Study of Journalism's digital news report this year, 85 percent of the respondents among urban
samples go online to consume news, with the majority using smartphones at 75 percent.
ABS-CBN, GMA and the online platform of the country's leading daily broadsheet Philippine
Daily Inquirer are the most visited news sites. Their social media accounts are also the biggest
among news providers with ABS-CBN leading the charge.
However, Filipinos are still reluctant to pay for news (19 percent) thus digital news contents are
still mostly free and per subscription basic remains relatively low.
Generally speaking, there are about 73 million internet users in the Philippines with an internet
penetration of 67 percent. Interestingly, the number of social media users in the country are also
around the same number as with internet users. This is an increase of 5.8 million between April
2019 and January 2020.
How people consume digital news
Have you tried observing your habits when browsing news online? How long do you stay on a
video before clicking next or accessing another suggested clip? When reading an online article,
do you get to the bottom of it or you barely make it through halfway?
One thing sure when it comes to the digital audience is that they are fickle. These users hop
from one site to another, spending fewer than five minutes on each site. In fact, a lot of them are
simply flipping through mindlessly, not knowing what they want, where they want and how they
want it.
Thornburg (2010) noted three important concepts pertaining to the behavior of online
audiences: searching and scanning, on the go, and social experience.
It should be noted how search engines play a huge role when it comes to online news
consumption (note how it is the most viewed website across the world). Through searches,
users are empowered to find the exact type of news they are looking for and exactly at the time
that they want to. In fact, search engines like Google drive massive traffic for online news sites.
This is why aside from tailoring the news online to the demands of the human audience,
journalists are also employing ways how computers will read news reports. Searchability is the
key. Hence, digital news producers subscribe to search engine optimization in order to compete
for ranking when it comes to search engines. In the United States, only 41 percent of online
news audiences go directly to a news website when looking for certain news stories.
If not through search engines, users tend to scan various online platforms for anything that
would interest them. This may be on a social media site or even on a news website itself.
Sometimes, the audience would even scan a news article, not fully reading its content, to see if
it is something that would interest him. If not, he will hop on to other suggested links or flip
through other online platforms.
Meanwhile, being on the go means consumers of news don't just sit in a corner to read or watch
news as opposed to those who subscribed to newspaper, radio or television. The online
audience tends to move from site to site. Sometimes they check news reports while
simultaneously doing other things like listening to other media, taking a commute or even while
making their breakfast. And this is where mobile phones come in handy.
With the popularity of smartphones (again, recall the numbers above), news websites now tend
to be more mobile friendly, taking into account the user's need to be on-the-go.
But good mobile operations don't just retool their existing site. As Thornburg had put it, content
for mobile devices can take advantage of geographically targeted information. For example,
several publications like The New York Times and the Financial Times have teamed up with
Foursquare to create content based on a user's location.
As for being a social experience, sharing and talking about news reports predates the rise of
social media. People used to forward emails they think friends and other acquaintances would
be interested in, thus triggering a conversation and exchange of views on the matter. This is
how the term "water cooler stories" came to be, with reporters pitching possible stories that
people would read and discuss around the water cooler while on break at work.
In the field of communication research, the uses and gratification theory suggests that people
consume news for one of these reasons: to be aware of dangers and opportunities in the world;
for entertainment; to feel connected to other people; and to reinforce personal feelings or
opinions. Notice how most of these are anchored in social experience?
Southeast Asia: Shift to online news rising but trust low
https://verafiles.org/articles/southeast-asia-shift-online-news-rising-trust-low
Application:
1. Survey at least five people and have them answer these queries:
How do you usually access information online? Is it through mobile phone, tablet, laptop,
or desktop computer?
How many hours a day do you think you spend on the internet?
What are the top three topics you usually search on Google?
Why would you share a certain content on the internet to your friends and family?
If you were to create a content online what topic would it be and in what format (text,
video, graphics, etc.)? Why?
2. After completing the survey, write a conclusion for each of the questions above.
3. If you are to produce a digital news report using this survey what would it be and how
would you present it?
LESSON 5: DIGITAL FIRST
Introduction: From being cynical and skeptical of the new platforms, digital has become the
latest battlecry echoing in newsrooms across the world. It used to be that most contents online
are just replicas of what you can find in other more traditional platforms. For example, a news
report on a newspaper would just get an online version as is -- no more, no less. But nowadays,
digital is the number one priority. News enclaves have now become “digital newsrooms.” But
what do journalists really mean when they say “digital first?”
1. Know the concept of “digital first”

2. Understand why newsrooms nowadays are adopting the “digital first” mindset
Activity:
1. What was the latest event in your life that you announced right away on the internet and
why?
2. What was the most recent news that you found out through the internet and how fast it
was compared to the actual moment when the event took place?
3. If you were to enter a newsroom and you heard the term “digital first”, what are the first
three words that you associate with it?
Discussion:
"Imagine, if you will, sitting down to your morning coffee, turning on your home computer to see
the day’s newspaper. Well, it’s not as far-fetched as it may seem."
This was how a KRON report began in 1981 predicting the rise of news reporting on the
internet. The San Francisco television anchor introduced a report about two of the city's
newspapers experimenting on the internet. Ironically, this news report resurfaced decades later,
where else, social media sites. It elicited laughs and fascinations, perhaps at how comical it
seemed especially with what we know now about the monumental changes in the way we
consume and deliver news.
But more irony is the part where the report went on to say, "“We’re not in it to make money.
We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we aren’t going to make much either" and that "the
new tele-paper won't be much competition for the 2-cent street edition."
Today, we are living in a situation once thought to be far-fetched. The digital sphere is now
home to massive channels for information dissemination and its impact on more traditional
media has been seismic. Print readership has hugely plummeted, with some newspaper and
magazine companies forcing to fold for good. Even television news viewership has steadily
decreased with more people increasingly turning to digital platforms as sources of information.
And so naturally, advertisers followed the audience. Companies shifted marketing strategies to
digital spaces, leaving the once flourishing traditional platforms. Journalists felt the impact.
For the past five years, massive layoffs were seen in countless newsrooms across the world.
Poynter listed down some of them including job cuts in The New York Times, The Washington
Daily, The Boston Herald and even in television stations such as CBS and NBC Universal. In the
Philippines, workers at CNN Philippines were greeted in January 2018 with news that dozens
would be let go as part of the company's "rightsizing" program. In addition, TV5, the country's
undisputed third player in broadcast media, has struggled to sustain strong viewership and has
seen left and right layoffs through the years. Add up the shutter of media giant ABS-CBN,
machinated by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte and his ally-filled Congress, and has
resulted in thousands of media workers losing their jobs amid the pandemic.
In an attempt to remain in competition, newsrooms have been trying their best to reach
audiences in new ways. First was traditional websites, where legacy media fight to continue
their presence. Now it's increasingly about mobile devices and social media. New business
models were fashioned and while contemporary trends in reportage have emerged.
And these gave rise to a phrase that echoed throughout newsrooms worldwide and has become
some sort of a battlecry for the news producers' intent to remain in sync with today's
technological advancements -- "digital first."
Also called the "mobile first" mindset, the term is often used in newsrooms after the rise of the
internet which meant publishing on digital platforms first before anything else. Just as the
infancy of the internet became a wake-up call for news organizations, so too are mobile devices
and social media. But since the lessons of the internet are still fresh from newsroom managers'
minds, this time news organizations try to stay ahead of the curve.
The digital first rule is about making it a priority to deliver quality reportage which can be easily
accessed by the public either on their mobile devices or social media platforms. In the old
set-up, a potential news exposé about a politician can be withheld by journalists within the day
and report it during the primetime television newscast at night for maximum exposure and
impact. Today, that is no longer the case. As soon as the story is ready and has gone through
the necessary editorial process, it must be reported right away on digital platforms. Even
ordinary breaking news, while in the old format a reporter must wait to be called-in to air his
story either through radio or television, this time must be presented right away either through a
breaking post on Twitter or Facebook, or through news alerts in other mobile apps like Viber and
Telegram. Only then a news article on websites would follow and other broadcast reports. In this
case, the traditional platforms have become the secondary places to publish information. Social
media and mobile apps are now the audience's portals into the world of news.
Adornato (2018) in his book Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide listed down
three main points about the digital first or mobile first mindset:
● Audience experience. Journalists must reimagine how news is reported and in what
spaces in order to make it accessible to audiences who move among devices and
platforms. A positive user experience with quality content in all of these spaces is key.
Engagement, a two-way conversation with your audience, is also part of this experience.
● Multiplatform hubs of content. News organizations can no longer brand themselves as

newspapers, television station, or a radio station. This is the reason why years ago,
ABS-CBN became "ABS-CBN Corporation" instead of the former "ABS-CBN
Broadcasting Corporation." This is an acknowledgment of the vast platforms in which the
company releases its content. The same goes for any journalist. Newspapers are now
doing more than just print. TV reporters are doing more than just TV. And radio reporters
are doing more than just radio. Think of each newsroom as a hub of content. They have
many different platforms to reach audiences and each story must be told across these
platforms.
● Evolving business models. Different business models are emerging that tap into new
revenue streams from the mobile audience and digital advertising. Solid journalism still
needs to be funded. That’s always been the case. What has changed is how it’s funded.
One example is the rise of "brandnews" within digital platforms.
In a chat with International Journalists' Network (IJN), Cory Bergman, general manager of
Breaking News (a mobile startup owned by NBC News Digital) acknowledged mobile became
the "second tidal wave of change about to collide with the news industry." This chat, which also
included Poynter's Regina McCombs and Damon Kiesow of Boston Globe included tips for
newsrooms adopting this mobile first mindset.
● Create a mobile-specific strategy. Mobile devices are more than just a new design or
distribution channel. Therefore, it requires a different strategy instead of just treating it as
another platform where you replicate contents which are created from other media.
McCombs said: "A mobile strategy is figuring out who you want to be as you grow into
the mobile space–not just playing catch up, but actually making plans, understanding
mobile users, developing products that work best on mobile."
● Know what content mobile users want and think 'personal.' Mobile has now become
natural extensions of users. It's like an extra arm or an extra set of senses. As such,
news coverage and information must adapt to this. Understanding how users interact
with mobile devices is a key step for news organizations. Bergman suggested that
journalists should be able to answer these questions: How many users are coming to us
on mobile? How do users flow through the experience? At what point do they bounce
(leave the mobile site or app)? What content is most popular? What format of content is
most popular? How does that vary by phone vs. tablet and mobile Web vs. apps?
● Aim for efficiency and utility. Mobile demands different consumption behavior than
tablets and other devices. For example, phones tend to be more utility-driven and used
in short bursts, uch as to look for specific information, whereas tablets are more
conducive to longer reads, in-depth information and video. And that means that
organizations need to be thinking about the devices differently. But as Bergman has
reminded journalists, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule. Remember how in previous
discussion, we acknowledged how the digital revolution is full of contradictions and
exceptions.
● Experiment. If there's any lesson throughout the history of journalism that we should
always remember is not to remain complacent and stop the arrogance when it comes to
new technological inventions. Journalists must use every point of leverage we have.
Kiesow's advice: "Have a phone, test out every app you can find, figure out how to
integrate the apps/photos/audio/text/videos into your newsroom's workflow--and keep on
trying."
Suggested reading:
Digital first: what it means for journalism

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/26/digital-first-what-means-journalism
Application:
1. What do you think are the advantages of the “digital first” strategy? List down at least
three and explain.
2. What do you think are the unique challenges that newsrooms in the Philippines would
encounter in implementing this “digital first” strategy?
3. Do you think campus journalists must also adopt the “digital strategy”? Why or why not?
Good writing is one of the foundations of good journalism. No matter the media, good writing
would always be a requirement to achieve cohesive storytelling. The digital media is no
exception to this. As much as people would like to think that digital contents are mainly whistles
and bells even for journalism, the truth is at the roots of a good digital content is a well-written
material from a well-meaning journalist.
LESSON 1: WHY A DIFFERENT WRITING STYLE
Introduction: As a digital journalist, it is your job to gain the attention of possible readers. To
achieve that, you must be able to speak their language. This is true for digital journalism.
Because of the new way of consumption that digital platforms brought along with them,
journalists must shape their writing in a manner that not only fits the medium, but fits the
audience as well.
Objective: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:
1. Understand the need for a different writing style for digital platforms
2. Gain an overview of the general writing style for digital platforms
Activity:
1. Just by merely scanning news articles on the internet, describe in three words what you
think is the prevalent writing style.
2. Considering also your reading habits online, what do you think is the effective style of
writing for digital platforms and why?
Discussion:
In this rapid technological evolution, it is the audience that decides how to consume news. And
if journalists want their stories read, they must adapt their writing style to new digital platforms.
Not so long ago, writing for digital platforms meant learning how to write for people consumed
news on computers. While there's still a hint of validity in it, what transpired in the following
years up to the present was so much more than that. With the introduction of smartphones,
tablets and tons of social media platforms with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Weibo on the
lead, the behavior for news consumption once again changed. Because as people choose
different platforms for news and information, they tend to develop different ways of consuming
the news (Dunham, 2020).
In reading a newspaper, a reader often begins on the frontpage and then proceeds to scan each
page of the sections and browse further on his favorite topic, whether it be lifestyle, sports, etc.
In this approach, the reader sees stories that newspaper editors thought are most important.
And along the way, the reader can discover other interesting stories he might never have found
if the editors had not chosen them.
But in a digital approach, when a reader clicks through a news report from a social media site or
an app, he is looking for a very specific story, either recommended by a friend or perhaps a
self-selected source. The reader will not go to a specific news website and browse through it
from top to bottom, flipping through section after section until he finds the last story of the day.
Instead, the reader is most likely to check out stories that have been specifically chosen through
algorithms developed by social media platforms and search engines. Majority of online readers
also are less likely to spend a lot of time on news and information. In fact, the New York Times,
the most visited newspaper website in the United States, only has 12 percent of people spend
more than two minutes a day on the site, according to Pew's research.
And this has led to fundamental changes in the news business. Presently, there is little brand
loyalty anymore. It used to be that people get their news from sources that they trusted. Today,
news consumers have no such commitment to a single source. Sure, in the Philippines, there is
still that "Kapamilya" and "Kapuso" divide, not just in entertainment contents but in news
consumption as well, but within the digital platform, that hardly is the case. News consumers
now are information omnivores, meaning that they graze at a wide range of information sources
(Dunham, 2020). You can hardly find a digital user nowadays who only shares or reacts to news
from a single source.
All of these have led to a change in the way journalists must write and package news. Now
more than ever, making our news presentation interesting to the audience is of paramount
importance. We write news to attract readers, not just because something is newsworthy or the
editors think a certain piece of story should be known to people.
This gave rise to metrics-driven journalism. Among digital platforms, real-time numbers on the
audience's demand and appetite for contents are easily available. Until the past decade, editors
chose to publish stories they thought were important and interesting, and there was no count of
how many people read a specific item. Now, metrics rule. Journalists can now find out how
many people read every single one of their stories. It is also possible to find out how the reader
discovered the stories, either through social media, a search engine or a hyperlink.
But in addition to digital culture, the actual physical traits of online platforms helped create a
new writing style for news. For example, unlike in print or TV, stories have no set news holes or
time within a newscast to fill. This offers the promise of being able to tell the story fully, with no
compromises based on just trying to fit it into a given spot. While this may sound like a dream
for journalists (no more arguing with editors over the importance of cutting one paragraph, etc.)
the reality is a little different. More often than not, digital editors still assign a rough length to
stories, fearing the "bottomless pit" syndrome, where a reporter gets carried away and writers at
far too great a length to be read comfortably online.
The notion of what a reader finds comfortable to read online is an area where styles differ
dramatically from one news site to another. But it should always be noted that the online news
audience has an aversion towards blocks of texts.
In addition, reporters often can't spend too much time crafting stories into works of literature
because deadlines are very different in digital platforms. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages
of online news is the ability to update instantly, particularly with breaking news, and so editors
want the reporters to get stories done as quickly as possible so it can be published instantly.
This creates more of a "rolling deadline" -- the notion that unless otherwise specified, you need
to write everything as soon as possible.
More elements come to mind, demanding a different approach to writing when it comes to digital
news. Just about every online news site nowadays uses links or story pages. These can appear
within stories themselves, where a name of the subject in the news connects to his or her profile
or to another story relevant with the same person involved. While writing, reporters need to be
conscious of this factor and incorporate it into their writing.
To sum up, Thornburg (2010) had put it quite simply. He said people don't actually read news
online, in the same manner that we have formulated a notion of news reading. He said "online
news audience searches. It scans. It surfs. It browses."
He also likened this new form of news consumption to how a hummingbird eats: “They flit in and
out. From story to story. From site to site. Online news viewers click on a headline, skim the first
part of a story, jump to a photo on the page, then go to a different spot in the text. They click on
the ‘back’ button of their browser, scan for another headline, click on it, then start to skim the
news story.”
Application:
1. Find a news story that has been reported in all of these three platforms: newspaper, TV,
website.
2. Compare the writing style between the three using: length, choice of words, structure,
and the overall impression. Write down both the similarities and differences among the
three.
3. Using your comparison, write a conclusion as to the style of writing used for each
platform. Explain why you think this style is suited for that specific platform.
LESSON 2: WRITING THE HEADLINE
Introduction: Giving your news article a headline is like giving a name for your child. Not only do
you want the name for your child to command a certain degree of honor, you want it to be a true
reflection of what you aspire your child to be as well as the values of your family. Across all
platforms, this is how crucial headline writing is. And as what we will discover in this lesson, the
digital platform demands an even more meticulous way of stringing words to give name to your
work.
1. Know the qualities of a good headline for a digital news article

2. Understand the need for a quality headline for a digital news article
3. Be able to write strong headlines for a digital news article
Activity:
1. Try to write a possible headline for each of the following topics for a digital news
report/feature:
● Your experience during the COVID-19 lockdown
● The COVID-19 quarantine policies in your barangay or municipality
● The manner in which the people in your barangay or municipality are adhering to
the established quarantine protocols to curb the spread of COVID-19
● The state of government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
2. If you are to write these headlines for a newspaper or TV, would you change the way it
was written? Why or why not?
Discussion:
Headline, across all types of media, commands a certain high level of importance. In digital
journalism, this level of importance goes even further.
For an online news article, the headline is like the name of the entire story. It is placed
prominently and uses the biggest text. And when search engines are trying to determine what a
page is about, they put extra weight on the words on the headline. This is because for some
readers, headlines are all they'll ever see -- on a search engine result page, an RSS reader, an
email in one's inbox, or in some cases a social media post.
Thornburg (2010) said a good digital news headline must do three things:
● Be able to stand on its own without the benefit of other visual or design cues to clarify;
● Integrate as many keywords as possible;
● Work well the instant it is published and continue to work well months, even years later.
Let's have a closer look at each of these.
First, online headlines must be able to stand alone because of the unpredictable ways the
content management systems (CMS) pull apart and rearrange stories. As mentioned above,
there will be a lot of cases that the headline is all a reader will see. Therefore, it's a one-time
chance to attract a reader, making it the gateway to your entire content. But as much as you
want your headline to stand alone, journalists should not give the entirety of the story in ot. For
online news, it is often a good idea to leave the audience needing to know more without
misleading the reader.
For example:
GOOD HEADLINE: Philippine Azkals signs Spanish-born striker
BAD HEADLINE: Philippine Azkals signs all-time AFC Cup top scorer Spanish-born Bienve
Marañon
GOOD HEADLINE: Fuel prices to go down by end of July
BAD HEADLINE: Fuel prices to go down by P0.90 to P1 per liter by end of July
The headline should encourage those who are interested in the topic to click through and find
out more, but at the same time, it already gave an important detail allowing it to stand on its
own.
Second, the prominent role of search engines in online news consumption means that headlines
have to be packed with keywords. A keyword is a text aid that automated algorithms utilized to
decide whether your story is related to the search being conducted by a potential reader.
Many of those potential readers will use search engines to look for stories, it is important to use
these keywords that users might use. Nowadays, there are tools journalists can use to check for
those keywords. But figuring out which keywords to use is just the first step in the process of
riding the dictates of algorithms. The placement of keywords within a headline is also important,
both for search engine optimization and for human readers who tend to scan online content.
The Poynter Institute's 2004 "Eyetrack" study cited by Thornburg indicated that readers tend to
scan down the left one or two inches of a Web page, looking for words that might indicate
whether the information there is relevant to their needs or interests, before they go back to the
top and read each line horizontally. Therefore, placing your keyword at the start of the headline
instead of putting it at the end or scattered throughout will improve the chances that even the
most rapid page scanners will see the words that are most relevant to your story.
Last is what online news makes headline writing unique -- the Web's "always on" characteristic.
In print media, when writers of headlines put text on a page, they know when it will hit the
newsstands. But within the digital sphere, journalists write headlines not only for readers who
will see the copy moments after it was written but readers who might not see it until weeks,
months, or even years later. And for journalists who are writing for an international audience,
they are writing for people in another time zone, who might read your headline as today even
though your today might be his yesterday.
Going back to the example above, the second headline might be written as "Fuel prices to go
down this week." While the headline will stand for print media, putting it on an online news
article might be confusing for people who might stumble upon the report weeks or months after.
In another concern, because your headlines are being sent all over the internet, they should
travel light. In some cases, they have to squeeze into some pretty tight spaces, that's why you
need to keep them as brief as they can be without losing clarity or accuracy.
Tenses and labels
As with the print media, headlines for online news stress active verbs. Active verbs show people
doing things, which of course constitutes one definition of news. In this case, the sentence
format follows the subject-verb-object order. For example:
● Congress passes anti-discrimination bill

● Biden leads Trump in presidential race
● Saudi executes killer of Filipina maid
All of the above examples show how the subject (first in the order of the headlines) are doing
the action and are followed by the action itself.
On the contrary, passive voice usually starts with the receiver for the example and is generally
seen as less attractive and commands less interest for the readers. For example:
Anti-discrimination bill passed by Congress. But of course, this is not a hard rule. Using the
passive voice may be entirely appropriate if the object is the information in which people will be
most interested. For example: President shot by unknown assailants. In this case, the passive
voice does a better job of putting the most important information at the beginning of the headline
construction than the possible active version of the same headline. Because of the way that
online news consumers scan the first few words of a headline, use of the passive voice is
acceptable when writing for digital platforms.
Meanwhile, as with other news media, there will come a time when the "who" is the most
important element of the story, especially in cases involving public figures like politicians,
athletes, and actors. These people command news value themselves and can make news
simply by doing or saying things. And these names of famous people are among the most
common searched terms online and therefore can be valuable keywords to include in the
headline. For example, it is better to write it as "Duterte: Congress must pass freedom of
information bill" instead of "Congress must pass freedom of information bill, says Duterte." The
former version of the headline will be more effective in attracting news searchers and scanners.
Of course, anyone can say that the Congress must pass a certain proposed law, as it is their job
after all. However, it is more likely to be news if the president says it. When attribution appears
at the start of the headline, searchers and scanners are most likely to quickly understand why
they should care about the story.
But of course, there are cases when attributions should not go at the beginning of the headline.
Sometimes, the source of information is not widely known and therefore will not command
interest among possible readers. This is mostly true in cases like medical breakthroughs and
similar stories. While the result of their studies or even their declarations are newsworthy, the
chances of people recognizing the person is very low. The attribution is still necessary
nonetheless but it can be positioned at a far less commanding location. For example:
● Vaccines will not likely work against coronavirus, UK scientist says

● Philippines losing control of pandemic, public health expert says
Some additional rule of thumb in choosing verb tense:
● Use the simple present tense for action recently completed (Duterte signs
anti-discrimination law), habitual action (Rainy season brings viral diseases) and general
truths (Good triumphs evil).
● Use the present progressive tense for ongoing action (Bad weather hampering search
and rescue ops)
● Use the simple past tense for action that happened in the distant past but was only
recently revealed (China hid information on coronavirus )
Use present infinitive tense for future action that is almost certain to occur (Duterte to declare
state of emergency after visiting blast site)
However, Thornburg is also suggesting that headlines for digital must be written as a label. And
in labels, verbs are optional. In newspapers, all headlines have a verb. Magazines with their
less time-sensitive content often use headlines without verbs.
Somehow, verbs in online headlines are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one
hand, strong action verbs are more compelling to readers than words that indicate little action.
On the other hand, few people use verbs when they search for information online. So what
should a journalist do?
In general, the longer the shelf life of a piece of content (meaning the longer the information in a
story stays relevant) the better for the headline to not include a verb (which is mostly the case
for features). By contrast, the shorter the shelf life of a story (like in cases of breaking news or
event-based content) the more likely your headline will need a verb.
Another form of headline within the digital sphere are those with links to multimedia content.
These include a label identifying the type of medium in which the content is presented.
Journalists may also start their headlines with verbs such as “Watch” or “Listen” referring to the
action which can be done out of that content. For example:
WATCH: Senator berates resource person in budget hearing

TEXT: Full transcript of Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech
VIDEO: Highlights of Lakers vs Clippers
INFOGRAPHIC: Decrease in student enrollment due to COVID-19 pandemic
LISTEN: Coach’s final words which sealed the deal for buzzer-beating shot
The use of questions to “entice” the audience has been a staple of broadcast journalism for a
long time now. Broadcasters temp viewers to “stay tuned” through the duration of a commercial
break by posing alluring questions, questions that they promise to answer “after these
messages.” In Tagalog newscasts, it usually goes like, “Magiging maulan nga ba sa weekend?
Ang buong detalye ng weather report abangan sa pagbabalik ng…”
Question headlines in digital news work the same way. A reader’s curiosity is heightened when
a headline is formulated as a question. But in this case, instead of waiting after the commercial
break, it can be answered only if the reader clicks on the link. A word of warning though.
Crafting a headline in this way requires that you deliver an answer as failing to do so would be
misleading and could mean a bad experience for the user.
Another advantage of question headlines is that it has an added benefit of potentially matching
the query of people in search engines. Here are some examples of question headlines:
● What happens to a YouTube channel when a vlogger dies? (Could be an explainer on

what happens to a YouTube channel and its earnings once the owner of the account
dies.)
● Where do the candidates stand on economic issues? (Could be a news article
comparing candidates’ stance on various economic issues.)
● Who will succeed Duterte? (Could be an analysis of potential presidential candidates.)
Application:
1. Watch a local TV newscast and list down 10 headlines from it. Transform these
headlines into how it should be written for a digital news report. Make sure to write down
the TV version of the headline next to its digital version. The digital version of the
headlines should be in English.
LESSON 3: REVVING UP YOUR WRITING
Introduction: Learning how to firm up your writing is a constant training, even for professionals.
This is why it is important for aspiring journalists to have a solid command of at least some of
the basic writing techniques required for a quality news report. For digital platforms, you could
say that there are many different things to consider to firm up one’s writing. Compiled in this
lesson are the most basic yet would make sure that your story is already a cut above most
things on the internet nowadays and at par with your peers.
1. Know the difference between the approach to delivering the news in traditional media
from presenting them on digital platforms
2. Understand the necessary adjustments to firm up writing for digital platforms
3. Be able to write a body of a digital news report with a strong narrative and good natural
flow
Discussion:
In whatever media -- be it digital, print, radio, or TV -- good writing is one of the foundations of
good journalism. But of course, the story, in order to be presented in a good way that the
audience will gain better appreciation of the narrative, must be told in a way that fits the
medium.
The traditional approach to putting together a compelling story is to write a punchy, informative
lead, then assemble all the facts in some sort of logical manner in a single story that contains
narrative threads for readers to follow to the end. To put it simple, as a journalist, you provide a
guided tour of your story in a linear fashion (Craig, 2005).
However, a digital approach means an entirely different way of delivering the narrative. Stories
on digital platforms no longer follow the linear approach. With links and photos scattered
throughout the news article or around the website, the doors and windows to branch out to other
narratives are perpetually open. With this, a user is given the power to create his own path to
the story, instead of following the guided path a writer has set out. Some people may walk
through the front door and go through the first floor clockwise, room by room, whereas others
may choose to go counterclockwise, and still others may take the elevator to the top and work
their way down.
This is the reality of online news because this is how the digital audience behaves and interacts
with information online and journalists must work their best to tailor their writing to this new way
of reading news.
Active vs Passive
Just like the discussion with headlines, maintaining an active voice throughout the story is key.
In the online world, you don’t want to write stories that just stare back at readers from their
screens. Your writings must be vibrant and compelling. But this lesson isn’t about teaching you
how to write decent sentences, as you should know that by now. Having said that, using active
voice is an essential element to writing good leads that would then trickle down to the rest of
your narrative. Just as it was mentioned in the previous lesson, using the active voice means
writing sentences in which the subject acts rather than responds.
A journalist accomplishes three things by using the active voice:
1. It energizes your writing. Your sentences come to life when their subjects are performing
actions instead of having actions performed upon them.
2. Active verbs are generally clearer because they directly explain who is performing the
action. Related to this is the fact that the active voice also usually results in using fewer
words. This is because the passive voice often includes a form of the verb “to be” (is,
was, am, are, etc.) in addition to the main verb.
Citing William Strunk Jr and E.B. White in their book The Elements of Style way back in 1918,
Thornburg (2010) said the best advice for writing online news today is the same as it was: “omit
needless words.”
Here’s an example:
Passive: A 35-year-old woman from Bulacan was killed Wednesday morning when she was
struck by falling debris near a demolition site in the province’s capitol compound.
Active: Falling debris near a demolition site at Bulacan’s provincial capitol compound killed a
35-year-old woman Wednesday morning.
The first sentence might not strike you as a bad one (it was still straightforward and factual) but
the second sentence gets across the same content in fewer words. Remember the rule in
omitting needless words, and in using active voice you’ve cut down the word count from 25 to
17. Imagine doing this for the rest of your story and you’ve already achieved a much tighter
piece, which must be your goal in digital platforms.
If you continue with the remaining details of the story, you’ll see that the active voice isn’t only
useful for leads and headlines:
Passive: According to Bulacan police, Tamarra De Guzman was standing on the northwest
corner of Makahiya and Mabuhay streets, which is adjacent to the site where a five-story office
building was being torn down. De Guzman was waiting to cross the street when a section of
mortar near the top of the building gave way, which allowed bricks to drop on her from 40 feet
above.
Active: Bulacan police said as Tamarra De Guzman waited to cross the street at the northwest
corner of Makahiya and Mabuhay streets, a section of mortar collapsed near the top of the
five-story office building being demolished in an adjacent lot. This dropped bricks on De
Guzman from 40 feet above.
At this part, you already have to explain a lot of details in your story. But here, the active voice
obviously accomplished it more quickly and effectively using the active voice. When you’re first
learning, it’s often difficult to figure out how to make your sentences active. Even veteran writers
sometimes take time for thought when arranging sentences to eliminate the passive voice.
Looking at the previous example, we can identify several places where sentences were
reorganized to make them active. For example, in the passive example, the first clause
“According to Bulacan police” contains no verb at all, and it’s hard to get more passive than that.
In the active example, this was replaced with “Bulacan police said,” which is an active phrase
that includes a verb.
Continuing the details of the previous story, here’s a walkthrough on how you can turn a passive
sentence into an active one.
Officials from Matawaran Demolition Inc, the company that is in charge of the building’s
wrecking, said their workers had used yellow caution tape to block off the street corner earlier in
the morning. They believe that someone else may have taken down the tape before De
Guzman got there.
How can we make this paragraph more active? Let us count the ways.
● The first verb “is” found in the phrase “the company that is in charge” is passive and can
be eliminated by shortening the phrase to “the company in charge.”
● The next item that should be changed overlaps the first one. The phrase “in charge of
the building’s wrecking” is passive and you could simply change this to “in charge of
wrecking the building.” The only problem is that “wrecking” is a weak verb. You could use
the word “demolishing” but it would be repetitive as the word “demolition” is already part
of the company’s name. This is the perfect time to use the Thesaurus and look for good
synonyms. In this case, the word “razing” is a good candidate. Now, the phrase “in
charge of razing the building” is in active voice.
● The phrase “had used yellow caution tape to block off the street corner” employs two
verbs, one passive and one active. How do we eliminate the passive “used”? In this
case, we can simply reorganize the phrase to read “had blocked off the street corner
with yellow caution tape.” The phrase “street corner” may be simplified to “corner” since
we’ve already established that it’s a street corner. Together, this shortened the phrase
but more importantly, it makes the construction more active.
● In the second sentence, the phrase “someone else may have taken down the tape” is
passive. “Taken down” is not as strong as the verb “removed” and it’s two words instead
of one, therefore it should be replaced. In addition, “someone else” can be shortened to
“someone” because we learned in the next clause that the tape was removed before De
Guzman arrived at the corner. With these two changes, the phrase would read,
“someone may have removed the tape.”
● Finally, the verb “got there” is weak and can be replaced with a stronger one-word verb,
“arrived.”
Let us compare the two versions now.
Passive: Officials from Matawaran Demolition Inc, the company that is in charge of the
building’s wrecking, said their workers had used yellow caution tape to block off the street
corner earlier in the morning. They believe that someone else may have taken down the tape
before De Guzman got there.
Active: Officials from Matawaran Demolition Inc, the company in charge of razing the building,
said their workers had blocked off the corner with yellow caution tape earlier in the morning.
They believe someone may have removed the tape before De Guzman arrived.
Here you can already see the difference between the two. In fact, you can still shorten this by
editing some words and strengthening some verbs. For example, instead of writing “the
company in charge,” you can simply put “the company” while the word “blocked off” can be
changed to “barricaded.”
Story flow techniques
Simply using the active voice is already an important technique to achieve smooth story flow.
But there are many other techniques, each aimed at drawing readers through stories quickly --
clearly an essential element to digital news writing seeing how we’ve already established its
audience’s fickleness.
Another useful story flow technique is called pacing, which involves writing sentences of varying
lengths to create rhythm. Perhaps the best way to understand how pacingworks is to see good
and bad examples of story rhythms.
To use the same story, here’s a couple of examples with poor pacing:
Long sentences: De Guzman is believed to have been on her way to visit a friend when the
incident occured, as her car was parked less than a block from the scene of the collapse. Police
have interviewed bystanders as well as workers who witnessed the event, and are not saying
whether charges will be filed against Matawaran Demolition. Under the country’s law, De
Guzman’s family could sue the company for criminal negligence if it is determined that workers
were aware that the caution tape had been removed before the incident occured and did not
correct the situation. If individual workers are found to be at fault, both the demolition company
and the workers themselves could be held liable for De Guzman’s death.
Short sentences: De Guzman had been on her way to visit a friend. Her car was parked less
than a block from the scene. Police interviewed people who saw the event. Police may file
charges against Matawaran Demolition Inc. De Guzman’s family could sue. This could happen if
workers knew the tape had been removed. Both the company and the workers could be held
responsible.
While both constructions contain the same details, they read completely different in many ways.
The first seems to drag, almost confusing, considering the length of its sentences. The second
one seemed to be a barrage of information with no coherence as it seemed clipped and abrupt.
The trick is to learn to balance long and short sentences to create a rhythm. Here’s a
better-paced example of the same material.
Officials believe De Guzman was on her way to visit a friend when the incident occured. Her car
was parked less than a block from the scene. After interviewing witnesses and workers, the
police have not said whether they’ll file charges against the demolition company. Under the law,
De Guzman’s family could sue the company for criminal negligence. If workers knew the tape
had been removed before the incident and did not correct the situation, both the company and
the workers could be held responsible.
This is still a long paragraph but the pacing is way better than the previous two. A writer need
not be too conscious in alternating a long and short sentence as it needs to come out naturally
and still depends on the details available, but you should always be mindful of the pacing of
your story.
One way to do this, according to Craig (2005), is by re-reading the story while paying attention
to the cadence rather than the content. Some journalists actually read them aloud, to observe
whether they’ll run out of breath while delivering them. Difficulty in breathing and stumbling with
words are good indicators that the pacing of the story is not good.
Meanwhile, some journalists get bogged down with transitions -- points where your story shifts
its focus or otherwise moves from one section to another. Especially for stories with packed
details, this could be a very challenging task.
Transitions are often called the glue that holds the different parts of a story together. Transitions
are particularly important in digital journalism where readers scroll or click from one section to
another and can easily lose track of a story’s connecting threads. Without effective transitions,
stories online or off will seem disjointed and hard to read.
These transitions may come as one word (However, later, meanwhile), whereas others are
phrases (on the other hand, in contrast, the following day). In longer digital pieces, whole
sentences and even paragraphs may serve as transitions from one section to another. In any
case, transitions serve both to alert the reader to the change in focus and to logically and
smoothly introduce the next subject.
Here are few examples of some types of transitions:
Officials believe the caution tape had been removed before De Guzman arrived at the scene.
However, one eyewitness wasn’t so sure.
Matawaran Demolition officials denied any wrongdoing, while police officials withheld comment
until after completion of their investigation.
Matawaran Demolition was involved in a similar incident seven years ago, when a falling piece
of molding injured a passerby at a Laguna site. Yet the company has been accident-free in
recent years, even winning a citation from the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The first transition (however) acts as a bridge between contradicting narratives and will
presumably be followed by a quote. The second (while) ties together two linked pieces of
material from different sources The third (yet) differs from the first because instead of linking two
significant sections of the narrative, it briefly introduces and links two isolated and seemingly
contradictory snippets of information.
Meanwhile, if the contrast between two sections of a single story is big enough, using an entire
sentence or paragraph for a transition may be warranted. Here’s an example of a transitional
sentence which can also stand alone as a paragraph in a story:
While investigators tried to determine when the caution tape was removed, inspectors wondered
why a solid barricade was not used at the scene.
This transition links the details of the incident to larger questions, which will be addressed in
subsequent quotes and other materials.
With this, it should be noted that transitions are not just a casual set of words one can freely
choose from just to break or connect two parts of a story. On one hand, they provide readers
with reasons to understand why the upcoming section is related to the previous one. On the
other, they insert transitions into the narrative smoothly and subtly. Here’s an example of a brief
transition linking two disparate quotes.
“In terms of legal action, the key issue here is the removal of the caution tape,” said Public
Attorney Mikhael Esteban. “If she removed the tape herself, there’s no case, but if it was gone
beforehand, it raises lots of issues.”
Legal strategies, however, provide little comfort for De Guzman’s friends and family.
“She didn’t deserve anything like this,” said Nora Corrales, a long-time friend of De Guzman.
“She was just standing there and then she was gone. It could have happened to anyone. It’s
scary.”
Aside from the ties to the same incident, the two quotes have little in common. Yet the transition
used links the two quotes by briefly addressing the conflict between the two aspects of the story.
It also alludes to both aspects quickly and provides the reader with a clear tie between one and
the other.
Remember that it is important to keep transitions simple and concise. The more seamless your
transitions become, the more easily your stories will flow.
As seen from the previous example, one of the most important uses of transitions is to tie
quotes from different sources together. Using too many consecutive quotes from the same
person tends to bore readers but hearing different voices interacting makes news articles more
varied and lively. Most journalists employ a technique called dialogue -- alternating quotes from
different sources to create a more diverse narrative.
Here’s an example.
Reviews among fans of the movie franchise were mixed.
“I thought it was great,” said Perth Samanjarn, 22, of Thailand. “It was really exciting from the
start. I wasn’t really a big fan of the first movie but this one was a lot of fun.”
“The first part, where they were lost in the forest, I thought it was gonna be boring,” Samanjarn
continued. “I mean, the effects were interesting, but it took a while to get going. But later, during
space battles, it was really cool. Then later, when all the characters from various dimensions got
together, that was really awesome.”
Christianne Sheshevour, 19, of France disagreed.
“It was stupid,” she said. “The first one was a lot better. I don’t know why they bothered to make
this one, except to make more money.”
While the above example somewhat looks interesting, using the dialogue technique spices it up
a bit. Hence it could look like this:
Reviews among fans of the movie franchise were mixed.
“I thought it was great,” said Perth Samanjarn, 22, of Thailand. “It was really exciting from the
start. I wasn’t really a big fan of the first movie but this one was a lot of fun.”
“It was stupid,” countered Christianne Sheshevour, 19, of France. “The first one was a lot better.
I don’t know why they bothered to make this one, except to make more money.”
The second example is snappier, and not just because it eliminates the secondary comments
from WIlson. It also creates an immediate contrast in opinions as well as introducing different
competing voices. In this case, the journalist can capitalize on each person’s unique way of
speaking and diversify stories for better appreciation.
Application: Transform these two Tagalog news articles to an English digital news report using
everything you’ve learned from this lesson.
● Sangley Point posibleng maging susunod na ‘province of China’ – Think Tank
Nagbabala ang grupong Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and the Environment (Pinoy
Aksyon) na maaring ang Sangley Point sa Cavite ang susunod na matataguriang
‘province of China’.
Bunsod ito ng Sangley international airport project na ang contactor ay isang Chinese
company.
Ikinabahala din ng grupo ang planong alisin sa Sangley Point ang Philippine Navy.
Nakapagtataka at imposible ayon sa Pinoy Aksyon ang pahayag ni Executive Secretary

Salvador Medialdea na hindi niya alam na ang kumpanya nan as alikod ng Sangley
international airport ay isinailalim sa blacklist ng US dahil sa pagkakasangkot sa
reclamation sa West Philippine Sea.
“Something is amiss in the Palace — the seat of government — when members of the
Cabinet sing different tunes,” ayon kay Pinoy Aksyon convenor BenCyrus Ellorin.
Sinabi pa ni Ellorin na mismong si Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. ang
nagbabala laban sa pagkakasangkot ng China Communications and Construction Co.
Ltd (CCCC) sa Sangley Point International Airport project.
“Is this washing of hands, plain cluelessness or what? Either way it does bode well for
the country as it strikes serious question on who really is calling the shots now. We need
answers,” ani Ellorin.
Kasabay nito, sinuportahan ng Pinoy Aksyon ang panawagan ng Philippine Navy at

ilang mambabatas na panatilihin sa Sangley Point ang naval stations.
Naalarma si Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, dahil ang CCCC ay hindi lang basta
construction bagkus mayroon itong ugnayan sa militarization sa South China Sea at
panghimasok sa Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone sa West Philippine Sea.
Sa Kamara, inihain ang House Resolution 1199 na layong ipahinto ang relokasyon ng
Naval Stations Heracleo Alano at Pascual Ledesma at sa halip ay panatilihin ito sa
Sangley Point.
“The Sangley Point Naval Base is where the headquarters of the Philippine Fleet, the
headquarters of the Naval Installation Command, and other vital facilities and offices of
the Philppine Navy are located,” ayon kay Cagayan de Oro 2nd district congressman
Rufus Rodriguez.
Ayon pa kay Ellorin, “For the country to rebound, government leadership needs to shape
up, show the way not later but now, as the bottom line of these ‘throw-away policy’ is bad
governance and when things turn for the worse, the people suffer more as the fibers that
weave the fabric of public accountability and people participation is broken,”.
● Kaanak ng mga seafarer sa lumubog na barko sa Japan umapela ng tulong kay Duterte
Umapela ng tulong kay Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang ilang kaanak ng 36 na

tripulanteng Pinoy na nawawala pa rin matapos lumubog ang sinasakyang cargo ship sa
may Japan ngayong wala pang linaw kung ano ang sinapit ng kanilang mga mahal sa
buhay.
“Kung puwede naman pong makiusap sa kanila na maghanap sana sila or mag-conduct
ng search and rescue doon sa kani-kanilang jurisdiction sa kanilang mga water and
island," ani Judge Fredelyn Addug-Sanchez, kapatid ni Dante Addug, na siyang kapitan
ng nawawalang cargo ship.
Setyembre 2 nang lumubog ang cargo ship na naglalaman ng 43 crew, kabilang ang 39
Pinoy seafarer. Nauna nang nasagip ang dalawa sa kanilang mga kasamahan, habang
isa ang natagpuang patay sa laot.
Naalala pa ni Liberty Seneres, misis ng chief engineer na si Aris Sabillana, ang huling
pag-uusap nila ng kaniyang mister bago tuluyang maputol ang kanilang komunikasyon.
"I just sent him a prayer, hindi ko po alam kung nabasa niya 'yun pero 'yun na po ‘yung
huling pag-uusap namin,” ani Seneres.
Umapela na rin ang manning agency na Korpil sa Japanese Coast Guard na ituloy ang
search and rescue operations sa mga nawawala. Itinigil ito higit isang linggo na ang
nakalilipas matapos walang makitang bakas ng nawawalang barko o crew nito.
Patuloy namang nakikipag-ugnayan ang pamahalaan sa Japanese Coast Guard at

humingi na rin ng tulong sa mga kalapit na bansa.
"Sumulat po ako sa Korean Embassy, China Embassy and Taiwan [Economic and
Cultural Office] requesting for assistance in conducting search and rescue operation in
their respective territories partikular adjacent doon sa place na pinangyarihan ng
paglubog ng barko,” ani Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
Hiling ng mga kaanak: "Kahit doon lang po sa nasasakupan ng teritoryo nila. Kasi
posible po kasi water current po 'yan na may mga nakasampa doon sa mga
[uninhabited] island po ng mga bawat bansa po na 'yon," ani Seneres.
Samantala, naiuwi na sa bansa ang labi ng nasawing seafarer na si Joel Linao.
Iuuwi ito sa kanilang bayan sa Polomolok, South Cotabato.
LESSON 4: STORY STRUCTURES
Introduction: All stories have a beginning, middle and the end. However, in storytelling, it doesn’t
necessarily have to be in the same order. The middle of the story can be the start of a narrative,
while the beginning of the story could be out at the end of a certain account. This also plays out
in news writing. In digital platforms, structuring is important not only for clarity of the story, but as
well as for making it interesting in a way that fits the platform it was put into.
Objectives: At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
1. Get familiar with the basic story structures that are usually used for digital news reports
2. Understand the importance of employing the appropriate story structure for digital news
reports
3. Be able to write a news story using the basic story structures for digital platforms
Activity:
1. Try to recount a certain how your day went so far starting from when you woke up all the
way to the time that you are reading this.
2. If you are to tell this story to a friend, what do you think is the most interesting part of
your day so far that you would like to tell him/her first? Why do you think this would be
interesting to your friend?
3. If you are to omit a part of your recounting of how your day went so far, what would it be
and why?
Discussion:
When looking at text articles, it’s obvious that online news articles get compared to stories
published in print media. One quick glance at the two and you’ll see that one stark difference is
the way stories are structured. It’s not just the construction of the narrative itself. You can also
see how the layout is different, and how digital platforms contain parts that are detached from
the traditional media.
First, story structure involves more than just the order in which information flows best -- it also
must take into account the characteristics of the medium. Because reading a story on screen is
vastly different from reading it in newspapers, digital journalists must structure their stories to
make them work within the medium. But even after years of daily journalism on the internet,
there is still no single structure accepted as the best means for reporting a news story on digital
platforms.
Inverted pyramid remains to be the most common story structure in journalism and is most
notorious when it comes to traditional media. By reporting the most important elements of a
story first, then continuing from the most important to the least important details, you cater to
both the reader who wants to know the essence of a story quickly and the reader who wants to
learn more about its circumstances.
Because of this, the inverted pyramid style is the dominant structure for hard news stories,
both for the traditional and digital media. Although closely tied to traditional news values, this
structure is in many ways ideally suited for the online medium. Remember that the online
audience is known for only wanting to read one or two screens worth of information. However,
beyond hard news, this structure is seldom employed online because of that close ties to
traditional news and online audiences disdain anything remotely stodgy.
For example, here’s an excerpt from a news article from Independent:

UK coronavirus cases rise by more than 3,000 for third day in a row
LONDON - The UK has recorded more than 3,000 new Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive
day for the first time since May.
There were 3,330 confirmed new cases of coronavirus, according to government data published
on Sunday, compared with 3,497 a day earlier.
The overall tally has now risen to 368,504 infections.
A further five new deaths were also reported, bringing the national total to 41,628 – the highest
in Europe.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 57,400 deaths
registered in the country where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Although daily deaths remain low, government advisors and experts have warned that soaring
cases could lead to a rise in people being hospitalised in the coming weeks and more lives lost.
Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London who advises
the government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses, said a “trickle” of
cases can turn into a “cascade”.
He also warned that the country faces going back into “hard lockdown” if people do not abide by
the “rule of six” restrictions, which ban both indoor and outdoor gatherings of six or more people,
being introduced on Monday in an attempt to curb the increasing rise in infections.
A ramp-up in testing has accounted for some of the increase, but the UK has also seen the virus
spread in recent weeks.
Another common story structure is the chronology, which essentially recounts events in order
in which they occurred. Sometimes called a narration, this structure can give readers a string
notion of the chain of events that led to the incident in question. This is used in both hard news
and soft news, though chronologies are most often used in hard news as support stories.
Chronologies seem to be more common online than in print. Structurally, it is in conflict with the
online audience’s seemingly fleeting attention span. But most industry research indicates that
online readers tend to surf quickly through sites looking for interesting material, but once they
find something that captures their attention, they will often read about that topic in great depth.
For example, here’s an excerpt from a Reuters story:

Key dates in Hong Kong's anti-government protests
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s decision to impose national security laws on Hong Kong has
exacerbated public and international concerns over the erosion of freedoms in the city and has
rekindled anti-government protests in the financial centre.
The national security legislation prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to move ahead and
strip the financial hub of the special treatment Washington affords it that is seen as key to its
success as a finance hub.
Following is a timeline of the key dates around Hong Kong’s protest movement triggered by a
now-abandoned extradition bill:
2019
February – Hong Kong’s Security Bureau proposes amendments to extradition laws that would
allow extraditions to mainland China and other countries not covered by existing treaties.
March 31 - Thousands take to the streets to protest against the proposed extradition bill.
April 3 - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s government introduces amendments to the extradition
laws that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
April 28 – Tens of thousands march on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to demand the
scrapping of the proposed amendments.
May 11 – Scuffles break out in the legislature between pro-democracy lawmakers and those
loyal to Beijing.
May 30 – Concessions to the extradition bill are introduced but critics say they are not enough.
June 6 – More than 3,000 Hong Kong lawyers dressed in black take part in a rare protest
march.
June 9 - More than half a million people take to the streets.
June 12 – Police fire rubber bullets and tear gas during the city’s largest and most violent
protests in decades. Government offices are shut.
June 15 – Lam indefinitely delays extradition law.
July 1 - Protesters storm the Legislative Council on the 22nd anniversary of the handover from
British to Chinese rule, destroying pictures and daubing walls with graffiti.
July 9 - Lam says the extradition bill is dead and that government work on it had been a “total
failure”.
For more in-depth stories, another common traditional style is known as the Wall Street
Journal structure, named after the venerable New York business newspaper. This method
consists of four basic sections:
● The story opens with an anecdotal, descriptive, or narrative lead

● The nut graf follows the lead and generally explains the lead
● The body of the story follows, containing more supporting details like quotes and other
facts
● The ending which includes another anecdotal or description of the person(s) who is/are
subject(s) of the story
This style and its elements are common in features, whether in standard soft-news stories or a
news feature. While this style may not immediately convey the central information of a story, it
often quickly personalizes the story and makes a reader want to continue.
Here’s an example from the New York Times:
The other way COVID-19 will kill: Hunger

By Peter S. Goodman, Abdi Latif Dahir and Karan Deep Singh
Long before the pandemic swept into her village in the rugged southeast of Afghanistan, Halima
Bibi knew the gnawing fear of hunger. It was an omnipresent force, an unrelenting source of
anxiety as she struggled to nourish her four children.
Her husband earned about $5 a day, hauling produce by wheelbarrow from a local market to
surrounding homes. Most days, he brought home a loaf of bread, potatoes and beans for an
evening meal.
But when the coronavirus arrived in March, taking the lives of her neighbors and shutting down
the market, her husband’s earnings plunged to about $1 a day. Most evenings, he brought home
only bread. Some nights, he returned with nothing.
“We hear our children screaming in hunger, but there is nothing that we can do,” said Bibi,
speaking in Pashto by telephone from a hospital in the capital city of Kabul, where her
6-year-old daughter was being treated for severe malnutrition. “That is not just our situation, but
the reality for most of the families where we live.”
It is increasingly the reality for hundreds of millions of people around the planet. As the global
economy absorbs the most punishing reversal of fortunes since the Great Depression, hunger is
on the rise. Those confronting potentially life-threatening levels of so-called food insecurity in
the developing world are expected to nearly double this year to 265 million, according to the
U.N. World Food Program.
Worldwide, the number of children younger than 5 caught in a state of so-called wasting — their
weight so far below normal that they face an elevated risk of death, along with long-term health
and developmental problems — is likely to grow by nearly 7 million this year, or 14%, according
to a recent paper published in The Lancet, a medical journal.
The largest numbers of vulnerable communities are concentrated in South Asia and Africa,
especially in countries that are already confronting trouble, from military conflict and extreme
poverty to climate-related afflictions like drought, flooding and soil erosion.
At least for now, the unfolding tragedy falls short of a famine, which is typically set off by a
combination of war and environmental disaster. Food remains widely available in most of the
world, although prices have climbed in many countries, as fear of the virus disrupts
transportation links, and as currencies fall in value, increasing the costs of imported items.
While the above example is just an excerpt, you can clearly see how the story transitioned to an
extensive anecdote to the core topic, which is availability of food during a pandemic that has
affected a lot of people including vulnerable children.
Meanwhile, rather than reinventing the wheel, many digital platforms have chosen to use
traditional styles while adding new features to make those styles work better online. Here are
examples from (Thornburg, 2010).
Article summary
This appears directly under the headline in a homepage package. Mostly, it is a one-sentence
description of the destination content. Its primary job is not to tell what the news is but to tell why
the news is interesting or important. This should be brief and packed with information. It rarely
takes more than three lines of text, which could mean about 150 to 200 characters (including
spaces) on most news sites. Here are two examples from HuffPost, with the underlined part as
story’s article summary:
Health Official Reportedly Pressured CDC To Alter COVID-19 Info To Back President
Health Department public affairs and former Trump campaign official Michael Caputo called
pressure on scientists a defense against the “deep state.”
A politically appointed Health and Human Services official with no medical background has
been orchestrating an operation to pressure scientists and other officials of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to use sunnier language in their COVID-19 reports to reflect
well on President Donald Trump, Politico reported Friday.
Some emails from the Health Department’s communications team viewed by Politico to CDC
Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials flatly complained that the agency’s reports
would undermine Trump’s optimistic messages about COVID-19. One email said that the “CDC
... appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration,” Politico reported.
Smoke Chokes West Coast As Wildfire Deaths Keep Climbing

The death toll from the fires in California, Oregon and Washington stood at 31 and was
expected to rise sharply.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Wildfire smoke that posed a health hazard to millions choked the West
Coast on Saturday as firefighters battled deadly blazes that obliterated some towns and
displaced tens of thousands of people, the latest in a series of calamities this year.
For people already enduring the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting economic fallout and
political tensions evident in the Black Lives Matter protests and far-right counter protests, the
fires added a new layer of misery.
Subhead
The subhead appears underneath the headline on the page where the body of an article is
found. Typically, it offers additional detail or specific information that would not fit in the headline.
A subhead can also serve as a way to present information that mitigates, contradicts, or
qualifies a statement made in the headline.
Here are examples from the Independent, with the underlined texts as the subhead:
Man arrested by counter-terrorism police after bomb posted to London home

‘Small improvised explosive device’ safely defused, says Met
Coronavirus: UK testing programme 'in chaos' amid 185,000 test backlog

Swabs sent to Italy and Germany for processing amid delays in supply chain
Section titles
When it is not possible to split a single news story into several pages, each focused on a single
topic, writers can use section titles throughout an article to provide scanners with a visual speed
bump and an efficient way to determine whether the subsections of an article might be
interesting, even if the lead is not.
In constructing section titles, journalists must follow the same guidelines as those established
for writing headlines. Section titles are set in a type that is bolder than that used for the article
body.
For example, here’s an excerpt from an ABS-CBN news article with section titles in it
(underlined for emphasis):
HIGHLIGHTS: Vatican's landmark summit on clerical sexual abuse

By Erik Tenedero, ABS-CBN News
Pope Francis on Sunday closed a four-day summit on clerical sexual abuse, declaring an
"all-out battle" against abusers within the Church whom the pontiff called "tools of Satan."
The unprecedented summit held in the Vatican was attended by 190 bishops from all over the
world with testimonies delivered by abuse survivors.
Here are some of the highlights during the pope's first-of-its kind meeting with the presidents of
the world's bishops' conferences:
A closer look on victims’ wounds
Drawing inspiration from the gospel where the risen Christ asked Thomas to touch His wounds,
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines called on bishops to take a
closer look on the "wounds" of the victims of abuse so that healing may begin.
"How do we as bishops, who have been part of the wounding, now promote healing in this
specific context?" Tagle said, addressing the pope and fellow bishops who attended the summit.
Tagle said bishops must accompany the victims in expressing their "deep hurts" so that healing
may begin. On the part of perpetrators, the prelate said the Church must "serve justice, help
them to face the truth without rationalization, and at the same time not neglect their inner world,
their own wounds."
The pontifical secret
Linda Ghisoni, a canon lawyer and a consultor for the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, has urged the gathered bishops to re-examine the "pontifical secret" in
dealing with the cases of sexual abuse.
The secret aims to ensure that the cases are being handled in strict confidentiality to protect
those who are involved (both the victims and perpetrators).
But Ghisoni said the secret is more often seen as being used "to hide the problems rather than
protect."
"It will also be necessary to refine criteria for a correct communication in a time like ours in
which the requirements of transparency must be balanced with those of confidentiality: in fact,
unjustified confidentiality, as well as an uncontrolled disclosure, risk generating bad
communication and not to render a service to the truth," the canonist added.
‘Hypocrites at times’
One of the questions Nigerian nun Veronica Openibo raised in the gathering of world bishops
and the pope was: "why did we keep silent for so long?"
Openibo, member of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, admitted that the clergy and religious
are at times hypocrites, parading themselves as custodians of moral standards while not doing
enough to address the various abuses perpetuated by its own officials.
"Let us not hide such events anymore because of the fear of making mistakes. Too often we
want to keep silent until the storm has passed! This storm will not pass by," the nun said.
Cardinal admits: Church destroyed evidence
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of his country's bishops' conference, revealed in
the landmark summit that documents on members of the clergy who are guilty of sexual abuse
were either destroyed or never even drawn up to begin with.
"Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were
destroyed, or not even created," the cardinal said.
Instead of confronting the abusers, it was the victims who were "regulated and silence imposed
on them", according to the bishop.
Marx, who was one of the closest collaborators of Pope Francis, called for a greater
transparency to counter the abusers.
Application:
Using the following details, write two versions of news reports: using the inverted pyramid and
the Wall Street Journal format. Each of your news articles must be complete with headline, lead,
body, ending, and quotes. Bear in mind that the news report would be published online and
must therefore observe the necessary writing style fit for such a platform.
● Victim: Dorado Caramosa; 25 years old; citizen of Malolos, Bulacan; killed by 3 gunshot
wounds on his head
● Perpatrator: Later identified as Carlo Tinsoloden, 33 years old, citizen of Baliuag,
Bulacan
● Chronology of event:
Caramosa and his pregnant wife Ceramosa Caramosa (22 years old) were on their way
to church 15 minutes before 9 am on Sunday. Car used was Toyota Vios.
A car (Montero) driven by Tinsoloden rammed at the rear-end of the Vios.
Couple were under the impression they had just been in a traffic accident, went out of
their car and confronted Tinsoloden who then pointed his gun at the two and took them
hostage.
Tinsoloden forced the two to drive back to their home where he hostaged them for three
hours.
Police arrived. Negotiations took place.
Shots were heard. That was the time Tinsoloden killed Dorado and then killed himself by
firing the gun on his own head.
Ceramosa survived but sustained wounds.
● Result of follow up investigation: Tinsoloden did a shooting spree on his neighborhood

where he wounded at least three.
● Police don't know yet the motive of Tinsoloden.
● Statements from people involved:
Malolos police chief Vicente Qquilongquilong: This is a complex series of details and we
have a lot of work ahead of us to connect all the dots.
Mother of Dorado Caramosa: He didn't deserve to die this way. This is very tragic. I don't
know if I can ever move on from this. How can a man who was just going to church with
his pregnant wife ended up dying in such a violent way? He was a good man. He had
many dreams for his family.
Ceramosa Caramosa: The only thing in my mind right now is staying strong for our baby.
How could this thing happen?
Marina Tinsoloden, mother of the killer: He was a hardworking person. I haven't seen
him in a week now. All I know is that he lost his job and he is still trying his luck finding a
new one. I never knew him to be a violent person. He was always smart, caring,
considerate. This is not him. There's no way the son I knew could do this.
The rise of digital platforms gave rise to new approaches to reportage. This unit explores the
basic ways in which a journalist co
LESSON 1: UNDERSTANDING MULTIMEDIA REPORTING
Introduction: Multimedia is the buzzword nowadays with the explosion of digital platforms and
journalism's continuing quest in adapting to latest technological advancements and the new
consumption behavior on the part of the public that comes with it. From the root word "multi"
itself, this new form of reportage presents a journalist a vast arsenal of techniques for better
storytelling. But this wide-range of choices creates two challenges for reporters: they must
choose the best combination of technologies to tell each story, and they must learn to use those
technologies well.
Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:
1. Know the concept of multimedia and multimedia reporting

2. Understand how multimedia can be employed for quality journalism
3. Get an overview of the keys to effective journalism in this multimedia era of storytelling
Activity:
1. To check your understanding of the concept, list down at least 6 keywords you associate
with multimedia reporting.
2. Using these keywords, explain or define multimedia reporting based on how you
perceive this concept.
3. Find a multimedia report from any news portal of your choice. From there, take the parts
of the reportage which corresponds to each of the words you've listed.
Discussion:
We've all used the term, perhaps in discussing trends in journalism or maybe simply by
browsing through the internet, especially on social media platforms. Most of us have become
familiar with some of the elements just by simply observing, like audio, video clips, pop-up
windows and photo spread. But what do we really mean when we say multimedia?
Multimedia, technically, simply refers to the use of multiple layers of media within a
presentation (Craig, 2011). This includes anything from plain text to photos, graphics, audio,
video, etc. But the problem with this definition is that it is too broad. If we stick to this, television
could qualify as multimedia because it incorporates both audio and video. The definition would
also include any Web page across the internet because they also use a combination of various
media.
Before the Web existed, Craig explained that multimedia primarily applied to in-person
presentations that made use of slides, overheads, audio or videotape and other elements that
would appeal to the audience. When sound cards, speakers and graphics-enhancing video
cards were first added to computers, machines outfitted with these features were called
"multimedia computers." These elements allowed for graphically rich programs and utilities as
well as for games with realistic sound and video. But with the rise of the Web, multimedia has
gradually acquired new meaning. Today, multimedia generally refers to elements that add
sound, video, or animation to Web pages. These browsers are equipped with programs called
"plugged-ins" which allow different elements to play within or be displayed simultaneously.
And there's no question how these multimedia elements can make a Web page more attractive
and grab users' attention. But when journalism comes in, the union between multimedia and
news is an uneasy one. Too often veteran journalists see the use of multimedia as putting style
before substance, of sacrificing journalistic integrity in favor of flashy graphics. Of course, news
content should never be compromised, in whatever sense. However, journalists should not fear
multimedia. They need to conceptualize multimedia as sound, video, or animated graphics that
enhance a story. From his definition, the concept espoused at its second part should be duly
noted. Multimedia should never be used simply as a toy. Never use multimedia unless they will
add something unique to the story.
Drawing from this, multimedia reporting is about convergence of different storytelling tools all
in service of a single story (Thornburg, 2010). The best multimedia stories allow text to tell that
part of the story that text can tell best -- analysis, trends and unseen motivations -- an audio or
visual media tells the parts of the story that those media can tell best -- human emotion, conflict,
and the physical setting in which the story unfolds.
Multimedia reporting is much more than just delivering a story through multiple channels of
distribution. An example of the latter, known as multichannel distribution, is when a similar
report published on the Philippine Daily Inquirer broadsheet appears as well on the website
inquirer.net or a radio program on GMA Network's dzBB that would also air at any of the
company's television channels. Multimedia reporting is also much more than simply reporting a
story twice in different media formats. For example, a text version of a story having a separate
complete video package. This is called parallel reporting.
In bigger newsrooms, the task of multimedia reporting is spread across a variety of specialists
from photographers and web developers to investigative reporters. In smaller newsrooms, each
journalist is required to be familiar with all forms of multimedia reporting. This jack-of-all-trade
style of reporting has been dubbed as backpack journalism because the journalist carries a
variety of small audio and video reporting tools all the time, typically in a backpack.
Remember that it is not enough to learn how to create interactive graphics, slide shows,
timelines, data visualization and the likes to master multimedia reporting. It is important to learn
how to perfect your journalism skills so you can maximize your effectiveness as a multimedia
practitioner.
In this tumultuous period in global newsrooms, it is important to build audiences not by playing
to populist anger and faux infotainment, but to serve our communities with good journalism that
is relevant to them (Dunham, 2020). From this, let us highlight some of the keys to effective
journalism in the multimedia era.
Master the essentials
No matter the medium, good storytelling is the basis for all good journalism. This applies to your
ability to succeed as a multimedia journalist. Other fundamental skills include learning
disciplined story structure, accuracy, and timeliness. Remember also that journalism requires
analytical skills -- the concentration on the "why" by providing analysis and context.
Legendary American writing coach cited seven words he termed as keys to good journalism:
conceive, collect, focus, select, order, draft, revise.
Multimedia savvy
With all of the available tools, it is important for journalists not only to
understand how you use them technically, but also to understand how each multimedia format
can best be used for storytelling. The tools may be created equally but their functions have huge
differences and therefore serves various strengths and weaknesses for your storytelling.
Focus on your audience
It is easy to fall into the populist model of serving the public when it comes to reporting. But
while that remains valid especially within digital journalism where real-time metrics has been a
constant staple in considering what to publish, we must achieve this by giving the audience
pieces of information they had not seen anywhere else or an insight that they had not
contemplated before.
This balance between giving in to what the audience wants and providing them what they need
to know is what allegiance to the public is all about in journalism.
Add value
Along with the job of delivering facts is explaining why and how they are important. “You’re not
competing on the basis of whether you have unique news,” writes journalism blogger Steve
Yelvington. “You’re competing with the entire world on the basis of the value that consumers
get out of your product.” Dunham cited several ways you can add value to your coverage:
● Move a story forward with new details or analysis

● Identify interesting or important trends
● Think about stories that can be told with data
● Use multimedia storytelling to present facts in a more compelling way
● Look for interactive tools to engage or immerse readers
Write tight
There's a reason why writing lessons come initially. Good writing is essential to good
storytelling. No matter how good your story is, it will not translate to your audience if it is not
written in a compelling manner. Roy Peter Clark says it best: Your writing is more powerful when
it is precise. Be concise. Short sentences have more power. Shorter words have more power.
Shorter paragraphs, used sparingly, have great power.
Be curious, be persistent
A good journalist is always on duty, always observant. You must learn to question authority. Do
not take anything for granted and do not accept “no” as a final answer. Follow up, as needed.
Application:
1. Find a multimedia report in any online news portal. Dissect this report by listing down
each multimedia element present and explain how it served the narrative.
2. Choose a potential story that you think is best suited for a multimedia report. If you are to
plan on executing this report, list down each component of the story and explain which
multimedia element you think fits it best.
LESSON 2: AUDIO, PHOTO, VIDEO, GRAPHICS
Introduction: Perhaps the most easily recognizable elements of multimedia reporting is the use
of audio, photo, video and graphics. While each has its own potential, together they can create
a compelling way to tell a story. Journalists must know the basics of these four in order to be
able to use them effectively in their reportage.
1. Know the basic concept of audio, photo, video and graphics in journalism
2. Gain an understanding of how to harness the potential of audio, photo, video and
graphics in producing a quality multimedia reportage
3. Be able to produce a simple multimedia report using audio, photo, video and graphics
Activity:
1. One by one, explain what you think are strengths and weaknesses of audio, photo,
video, and graphics in a reportage.
Discussion:
Audio
Audio journalism has been synonymous to radio. And with association comes the declaration of
many that "radio is dead." Young people today often think that radio is boring, viewing it's a
medium for old people.
Dunham (2020) in his book Multimedia Reporting lamented that for several decades, journalists
have not taken advantage of what was disparaging called "the invisible medium." But in the
present context of digital journalism, this considered old-fashioned medium is beginning to
change.
The best evidence, perhaps, is the enduring popularity of the BBC (British Broadcasting
Corporation) and NPR (National Public Radio) in the United States, both known for the quality of
their breaking news coverage and deeply detailed feature stories.
In 2014, NPR experimented with a new kind of long-form audio journalism by creating a podcast
called “Serial” which raised questions about the reliability of a guilty verdict in a 1999 murder
case in the United States. The compelling story of high school senior Hae Min Lee’s murder in
the city of Baltimore, her boyfriend’s arrest, his alibi, and the dramatic prosecution, created
perhaps the finest example of audio storytelling in the digital era.
With the help of social media, the podcast went viral and brought new listeners to NPR who had
never—and still do not—listen to it live over the airwaves. The podcast also had real-life
consequences. As a result of the innovative journalistic work done by NPR, a judge overturned
the conviction.
Of course, this NPR report is a great deal of work and not all of us can produce stories in such
complexity. But it is easier than you might think to create professional-quality audio news
reports. For one, you need very few tools, the essentials being: a recording device, a
microphone, and a free software to edit and share your work. Combine with this the ease of
technological access with your previous knowledge of storytelling and you have an exciting
journalism opportunity.
Meanwhile, another evidence is the popularity of podcasts nowadays. A wide array of podcasts
are gaining huge following on Spotify, with topics ranging from politics, lifestyle, entertainment,
and self-help guides. One of the most popular is "In the Dark," a Peabody Award-winning
podcast which investigates law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Its first season
delved on the death of 11-year old Jacob Wetterling, while the second one tackled the case of
Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same murder.
There are several important reasons why audio is making a storytelling comeback. Audio
journalism fits comfortably into our modern digital culture. Not only is audio news easy to
produce, it is convenient for your potential audience to use in our mobile society. First, it is
portable enough that people can access it anytime, anywhere. It also creates a sense of
intimacy. While millions of people may be listening to the same report, it seems that the reporter
is communicating directly with you.
Dunham added that there are many things you can do journalistically with audio in addition to
producing podcasts. You can create sound bites for blogs, websites or mobile apps. You can
easily share audio news via social media. And you can multiply the impact of an audio report by
creating audio slideshows combining still images and sound.
So what kinds of stories are most effective for audio?
● Breaking news: You can post audio files instantly on social media and quickly
on websites.
● Narratives: You can tell long, complex story in serial form using the podcast
format. The growth of “binge watching” of videos spawned a similar phenomenon with
podcasts.
● The backstory: Reporters can provide an overview of their print story or explain
the story behind the story, “how I got the story.”
● Mini-documentaries: Audio is a surprisingly good way to tell in-depth stories on
a single subject. The documentaries can be explanatory, analytical or investigative.
In terms of storytelling, audio of course requires a different style. In print, it is usually packed
with information at the top. But audio requires a more conversational tone. NPR's Anthony Kuhn
said, "If you wouldn't say it, don't write it that way.
You also need to decide whether you will tell your audio story either horizontally or vertically.
Horizontal stories often take a high and wide view of a news event. They analyze trends or
explain a situation alongwith its broad spectrum. Meanwhile, vertical stories go deeply into a
single idea or episode. They focus on a single person who illustrates the bigger story, or a
dramatic moment in the broader narrative
Simplicity is essential in audio journalism. It is best for you to limit your sentences to a single
thought. If your sentences are too long, you will run short of breath. What creates a natural
pause? It might be a period (full stop), a comma, or a dash. Write how you speak. Also, never
use too many numbers or statistics. If you are to use some simple numbers, make sure to
provide context write away.
Here are some tips on producing an audio report from Linda Lew of Global Business Journalism
Program, as cited by Dunham:
● Set the scene. Unlike video and photography, which are visual, audio reports need to
take care to describe the scene, or the “what” and “where” of the 5Ws. This can be a
brief sentence laying out the interview location or subject for the audience.
● Keep it simple. Use short words and sentences, simple sentence structures and
pronounceable words. This will help the audio report be more clear and suitable for
listening.
● Focus on the dominant theme. Audiences can lose attention quickly if the audio report
is confusing or not straight to the point. That is why it’s important to focus on the
dominant theme you’d like to report on.
● Create dramatic unity. This dramatic structure allows us to tell a story quickly and
without a significant level of detail. There are three parts: climax, cause and effect. The
climax is the end of the story, the most important or dramatic thing that happened. That
comes first. The cause (why did it happen?) examines the circumstances under which it
occurred. The reporter looks for the facts that can illuminate the climax and help the
reader understand what happened and why. And the effect explains the outcome or
looks into the future. If done successfully, this structure of dramatic unity brings your
story to a satisfying conclusion.
Photo
To be clear, this section will not teach you the basics of photography. This is more of a
discussion on the effective use of photos in multimedia reports. Of course, photography
especially in this digital age has become more valuable than ever as a journalism tool.
Photos serves multiple purposes in multimedia storytelling:
● Stirring emotions
● Catching attention
● Entertaining people
● Sending powerful messages
In the digital ecosystem, such emotion plays a powerful role in deciding whether your story will
be a hit or not. After all, it is from that emotion that the user will harness his reaction -- Will he
share it? Will he like or dislike? As American photographer and photojournalist Eddie Adams
once said, "If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips your heart, that's a good picture."
And this is the kind of photos we want to include in our reports.
There's no debate as to how photographs help journalists tell their stories, but they also help
them build their audience. Studies show that digital reports reach a wider audience when they
are accompanied by photos. In fact, on social media, the most shared contents are those that
contain high visual elements.
But not every story needs a picture, and not all pictures can be taken by the general reporter.
With multimedia journalism, one key determinant of the need for pictures is whether a story can
be told better or more easily or clearly with the addition of one or more pictures. Bear in mind as
well that online stories of any length can look very dull without a picture. Many websites use
templates that require a photo to be added to the story, like a lead photo, which is usually
included right after the headline and just above the actual lead of the text story.
Now for some basics.
When we talk about digital cameras and pictures, we often talk about pixels. So what's a pixel?
Pixel is short for picture element. A pixel is a single rectangular point in a larger graphic
composed of many such points.
Computer monitors can display pictures because the screen is divided into millions of pixels
arranged in rows and columns. Take a look at the technical specification of any digital camera
and you'll see it has a pixel rating expressed in megapixels. A megapixel is a million pixels.
Each pixel is one element of data, one tiny pinpoint of information about the scene you have
captured.
Meanwhile, resolution is the number of pixels in an image of any given size. Most computer
monitors display images at 72 pixels per square inch - 72ppi. They do that to speed up
download times, so your reader is not left waiting for images to load in a page. Meanwhile,
newspapers are usually printed in 200ppi and glossy magazines at 300ppi.
Another piece of information you'll need relates to the various formats digital images can be in.
For a quick runthrough, the three most common are JPG, GIF and PNG.
These are different ways to encode an image. Each format is good for some uses and not so
good for others. Web pages must have pictures encoded as either of the three. On websites,
JPG (stands for Joint Photography Editors' Group) is best for photographs because it produces
the smallest file sizes and small files means fast downloads. It does, however, cause some loss
of image quality. GIF (means Graphic Interchange Format) is used most commonly for graphic
images -- diagrams, tables, and charts. As for PNG (Portable Network Graphics), it is a lossless
file format designed as a more open alternative to GIF. Also, unlike JPG, it can result in a
smaller file that maintains high quality. PNG also handles detailed, high-contrast images well.
Another standout feature of this format is that it supports transparency. This allows the user to
have a transparent background around an irregular-shaped object and avoid a white (Or other
colored) box outlining your image.
Moving on to shooting pictures, it must be noted that you don't have to be a professional
photographer or own an expensive, state-of-the-art camera to thrive in the digital world.
Nowadays, smartphones are already equipped with enough power to take good photos just like
the capacity of a high-end camera.
If you’re going to be working in a multimedia world, you will need a camera with the capability to
take both still images and decent-quality video. Depending on which of those two options is
more important to you, you can find a good digital camera with video or a good video camera
that allows you to easily capture still images.
Once you're already adept with your camera, the next step is to practice, practice, practice. The
truth is there's no shortcut to it. Experiment with photo angles. Experiment with lighting.
Experiment with texture. Experiment with wide-angle shots and close-ups. See what works for
you and what you need to improve. As you experiment, it is important.
Here are some basics you need to think about while you are shooting from Andy Bull (2010) in
his book “Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide”:
● Light. There are three types of photographic lighting: natural (or available or ambient
light); flash (as the main light source); and a mix of ambient light and flash. Shooting in
bright sunlight poses problems. If you have the sun on your subject's face, it can cast
deep, ugly shadows. If you have a bright sun behind your subject, he can be thrown in a
complete shadow. This is why you need to be conscious about the dynamics between
your subject and your light. And because this is journalism and not some glamor shot,
you're the one who would have to adjust, not the subject or your lighting source.
● Get in close. Fill the frame with your subject. Remember that in digital, your picture will
probably go on a website or on social media platforms and chances are they are going
to be small, add up the fact that users might view them on small mobile devices.
● Keep your pictures simple. Particularly with the Web, your image must not be cluttered
up with small items. If it is, they will be very hard to make out on screen. So always go
for detail.
● Learn the rule of thirds. To understand it, picture your photo divided with three lines
horizontally and another three vertically. This gives you a grid of nine parts. For
compositions to look professional, the key elements in the photograph should
correspond to one of the four intersections of those horizontal and vertical lines. This
means don't put the main subject if your picture is in the middle, we offset it to one side.
● Shoot vertical and horizontal versions of each image. Give yourself some flexibility. If
you have upright and landscape versions of all your photos, then you won’t end up with
a picture that doesn't fit the space you have for it.
● Shoot action. Posed pictures often look dull and stilted. Instead, try to photograph
people while they are doing something so the picture looks more natural. Just like how
we want our verbs to be active, we want to see photos that are actually in motion.
● Be careful about the background. This means avoiding something odd or distracting
behind your subject.
Lastly, telling photos through photos can be presented either with picture galleries or
slideshows. Very often, in a print publication, the restriction on space means we use just one or
two pictures to illustrate a story. In digital, there is no such restriction. Indeed, if a story warrants
it, we can include a dozen pictures or more. We don’t have to have all those pictures present on
our story screen as well.
A picture gallery is a sequence of pictures. Often we have a separate, dedicated template for
galleries and depending on what our content management system lets us do, it can either be
included as an element of the main story screen or be linked to from that screen (Bull, 2010).
One form of picture gallery template presents one picture in a large format and the rest in a
series of thumbnails. If the viewer flicks on one of the thumbnails, it appears in the main picture
window, replacing the image that was there before. The viewer can click on any image they are
interested in to see it enlarged.
The above example is a screenshot from a Reuters photo gallery. Here, you see the navigation
arrows on the left and right, which users can click to access the next or previous photos.
Meanwhile, a slide show differs from a picture gallery in that it is automated. The images follow
each other automatically, in a sequence. Using a sequence of pictures has two main purposes.
One is that it enables us to tell a story as it unfolds -- the progress of a fire or a flood for
example. Also, it gives us the opportunity to play to one of the web’s great strengths: we can
satisfy an audience that has a deep level of interest in a particular story (Bull, 2010).
But remember that both photo galleries and slideshows are more than just a bunch of photos
put together. The key to creating them effectively is to have a clear theme. Once you're settled
with this, you either need a title or a caption that goes along with each it.
A photo gallery is visual, but you need at least a little text, starting with the headline. Unless the
photos themselves tell the story, you will want to write some lead-in text to introduce the gallery.
If you think you need to set up your gallery with a text introduction, keep it brief, one to three
sentences. The photos are the stars of your post. Don’t get bogged down in description
(Dunham, 2020).
Video
There's a reason why YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok are very popular nowadays on the
internet. Simply put, it's human nature. Moving images appeal to humans on a visceral level,
not only informing but provoking a wide range of emotions. And this human attraction is the
reason why TV became the leading source of news in almost every country as soon as
television ownership skyrocketed. And as portable devices replace television sets as the main
form of information and even entertainment consumption, it is important that all news
professionals learn the trade of producing effective video news reports.
Broadcast journalism, in its very essence, disseminates news broadly, meaning to the widest
possible audience most of the time all at the same time. But with digital news, consumption is
no longer through wired devices in homes or offices but also through
wireless networks on mobile devices. In this sense, the delivery becomes more personal and
intimate.
As news consumption rapidly shifts to mobile devices, it is important to learn how to tell stories
visually for screens of all sizes. As we tell stories for our digital audiences, you need to realize
that almost every breaking news story can benefit from a video component.
Today, almost every traditional news outlet includes video clips to supplement their reportage.
Even newspaper reporters take videos nowadays to complement their online outlet. BUt the
biggest reason media companies do this is not because a video is an effective tool for
storytelling (though it is), but because video is very popular. People watch videos. People watch
videos a lot. People spend more time watching videos than reading an average text story.
People share videos. Videos go viral (Dunham, 2020).
But perhaps the latest iteration of the news industry's search for clicks is live video. Across the
world, streaming live video has become a new magnet for media companies hoping to find a
new formula for building audiences (Dunham, 2020). In the old days, mounting a live video
report for a developing news event requires an elaborate setup. Nowadays, it's just a simple
smartphone with a decent internet connection and the journalist is ready to stream his live feed.
The nature of live videos is what makes these reports more exciting, sometimes because of the
unpredictability of the technology or the very subject of the report.
But what does it take to produce a good video report?
The good news is the audience does not expect an Academy Award-winning video quality.
Perfection is not necessary unlike the requirement usually associated with web, audio for
multimedia projects, and even for still photos. The online viewing public is generally forgiving. In
fact, the more raw the video, the more that it tends to appeal to the audience. But don't get
carried away with this "amateur feel." Remember that this doesn't give you the excuse to be
undisciplined or unprofessional. You get a little leeway on the production quality, not on the facts
or storytelling. Because in exchange for allowing you to publish a seemingly imperfect video, the
audience demands something in return -- immediacy.
From this, it is natural to point out that breaking news is a logical choice for video storytelling,
particularly if there is a compelling video available. But of course, news organizations have been
obsessed with finding videos that will go viral. In the Philippines, this is very evident seeing how
CCTV footage and amateur clips have become the subject of many news reports.
When there is breaking news, think of a video. For some examples:
● Paris attack. As soon as the atrocious event took place, a barrage of video clips
stormed social media, showing its terror and bloody aftermath. From interviews of
survivors, profiles of victims, reactions from authorities and even raw footage of the
developing situation itself, the media's reportage was full of them.
● Typhoon Yolanda. The magnitude of devastation brought by the typhoon, ironically, was
perfectly captured by bits of raw videos taken by the residents themselves and some
journalists.
● Hong Kong protests. News outlets scrambled to get compelling videos from protesters
and other citizens who were able to capture the brutality of government forces. Video
explainers, detailing how the violent protests erupted and the political landscape in the
region have surfaced to provide context to the situation.
So what are the essential elements for a quality news video?
● Motion. If there is no action, it shouldn't be a video report. This video demands

movement and activity. That sense of motion makes for more interesting viewing than a
person sitting at a desk and talking to the camera.
● Drama. Dramatic moments captured on video -- an unfolding news event, human

interaction, a sports highlight -- attract the attention of your audience. The unexpected
and the unpredictable make for good video.
● Emotion. Of course it is natural for humans to be drawn to authentic emotion. Once

again, it is the audience's emotional response to a story that drives it forward, especially
in the digital world. But this requires a careful balance between exploitation of the
subject's situation or condition and your job as a public-telling journalist. Also, you don't
want to manipulate your audience with maudlin content or inauthentic displays of
emotion.
● Reaction. The first type is a reaction that might be from a person you are capturing on
video. It could also be something that you report that is calculated to provoke audience
response. And a third kind of reaction is wonderment -- to convince the viewer that you
have to see what you’ve captured on video to believe it.
Next, here are some steps you can follow to shoot effective digital video:
● Vary your shots. Most of the time, you will shoot your video at a "medium" distance. But
always make sure you include some "tight" shots of the subject's face, some "wide"
shots of a broader scene, etc.
● Follow the ten-second rule. As you are recording your video, always make sure to
record for at least ten seconds. This doesn't mean that you will use the entirety of the
clip. It just gives you some wiggle room in the editing process.
● Frame and compose the shots. It is the same principle which we have discussed for
still images. Remember the photographic rule of thirds, that invisible grid over a
photograph where the eye is drawn to four intersection spots.
● Get good audio. Remember that even if you have compelling visuals, there will come a
time that it can be ruined by a bad sound quality or worse, a lack thereof.
● Be silent while you are shooting someone else. Your audience is not there to hear
your commentary. The story is not about you.
Meanwhile, video producers also use a technique they call "the five-shot sequence" to make
their reports more compelling. Below is the BBC's five-shot sequence:
● A close-up shot on the person's hand. This can be a person you are interviewing or a
subject who is working with his or her hands and staying in one place. This shot shows
"what is happening."
● A close-up on the face. This allows your viewer to see the person you are featuring.
This shot shows you "who is doing it."
● A wide shot of the scene. This gives the viewer a context of the environment including
the mood, and location information. This explains "where it is happening."
● An over-the-shoulder shot. This provides a visual point of view and somehow serves
the purpose of linking together the previous three shots.
● A creative shot at an interesting angle. This creative shot can bring a touch of art to
your storytelling. What else the viewer should see? Be creative: stand on a table, go
down on your knees, lie down on your belly, vary what's in the foreground or
background.
Of course there are exceptions to this rule. Sometimes, you may even add a sixth shot,
featuring an interview, which usually employs a profile shot of the subject. Sometimes, you only
need to shoot three of these shots. But the five-shot sequence has been remarkably effective for
news professionals.
Graphics
Good graphics can enhance a journalist's storytelling in many ways. For one, they can enlighten
a somehow very serious and very technical topic. Also, they can be sort of entertaining.
Graphics are an important part of digital journalism because it helps us explain our stories. Like
photography, graphic images are important because they are processed by the mind differently
than text, and often are seared into human memory.
And this importance of graphics in journalism has increased dramatically with the rise of social
media. "People on Facebook, Twitter and mobile love to share charts. If you are a business
reporter, you have to be thinking: How do I visually tell stories?” said Brian Bremmer, a senior
editor at Bloomberg News in Tokyo.
So what is a graphic? A graphic is an art element used to tell a story. It is an effective tool to
describe information that is hard to visualize with reality-reflecting visual tools such as video or
photography (Dunham, 2020).
In his book "Multimedia Reporting: How Digital Tools Can Improve Journalism Storytelling",
Dunham cited several ways that should serve as a guide in creating news graphics.
● Define the topic of your graphic as clearly as possible. Remember that this is still
journalism. You are not creating graphics to impress or entertain. You are out to provide
information, clarity, and context for the public.
● Know your audience. Ask yourself: How deep is their understanding of the subject?
Remember: With graphics, the less you need to explain with words, the greater the
impact of the visuals.
● Decide if the graphic is underscoring a point in a bigger story or if it is telling the

entire story. If you are illustrating a larger point, keep it simple. If you are telling a
complete story, figure out ways to streamline your narrative.
● Choose between data visualization and idea visualization. On rare occasions, you
can actually choose both. But nonetheless, you need to decide if your graphic is a
visualization of data that you will collect or if it is a visual way to simplify a story.
Sometimes, data can be part of the process. But usually your graphics are one or the
other.
● Choose the type of visualization that makes your point in the clearest, simplest,
most powerful way. It's not about making it pretty. You need to choose the best format
that tells your story best. It can be a line chart, bar chart, maps, world clouds, etc.
● Mind your data. The accuracy of the information is the ultimate goal in producing
graphics, everything else comes only after it. Your source must be credible. You need to
make sure the data has been cleaned and is internally consistent.
● Visualize the data. Your goal is to make it as attractive as possible without making it too
complicated. If you have to choose between the data being the star of the visualization
or the art, choose the data.
● Write a good headline. This is a vital step in the process. You are creating a news
graphic. This is not a book illustration or an academic paper’s table. Your headline
should make people want to read the graphic. It also should make them want to share it
on social media. The headlines should engage the reader and should not just state the
topic of the graphic.
● Write a source line. You must include the source of your data. It should be as
short as possible.
Application:
1. Form a group composed of maximum of three among your class and produce a podcast
featuring a report and discussion of a recent news event. The podcast should be no less
than 10 minutes in length.
If forming a group is not possible, you may opt to do it alone. A five-minute material is
acceptable in this case.
2. Just by looking around at your home, produce a narrative by taking several photos and
put them in a photo gallery or a slideshow. A minimum of five photos is required and
make sure that there is a story or a central theme to it. You may use your phone camera
or any other appropriate device. Make sure to provide titles and captions.
3. Create a short video narrative using the five-shot sequence. Just like in your photo
gallery or slideshow, make sure there is a story to it. The final material should be no
more than five minutes in length.
4. Select a newspaper report which you think is appropriate for a multimedia report. From
here, turn this newspaper piece to a multimedia report composed of text, audio, photo,
video, and graphics. You may scour the internet for materials or you may produce them
on your own.
LESSON 3: MOBILE JOURNALISM
Introduction: In an increasing competitive industry of journalism, coupled with massive

technological advancements in terms of communication, mobile journalism appears to be a
hybrid that is somehow an answer to these demands. Various media companies are now
embracing this new form of news gathering and presentation, even suggesting that is now the
best way of work for reporters. But along the welcoming calls are some naysayers, including
journalism critics predicting this could spell the end for journalists.
1. Understand the basic concept of mobile journalism
2. Become familiar with how a mobile journalist operates
3. Be able to produce a simple story through mobile journalism
Activity:
1. When you pick up your phone early in the morning, what is the first app that you often use?
Why?
2. When was the last time you took a photo or a video using your mobile phone? Explain the
reason(s) why you took that shot.
3. Have you ever witnessed a newsworthy event? Did you try and take a photo or video of that
event? Explain why or why not.
Discussion:
Almost all of us in the digital world are glued to our smartphones. We do almost everything in it
and we function effectively in our daily lives with a lot of help from our devices. From shopping
to studying, to traveling and even practicing our own religious beliefs, in our works and even in
forming relationships, it seemed that our smartphone contains the answers to all of these. It's no
wonder therefore that journalism is bound to get there.
Enter mobile journalism. Also called “mojo,” it is an innovative form of reporting where journalists
use only their smartphone to create and file stories (Burum and Quinn, 2016). Other journalists
would sometimes use other portable devices like laptops and DSLRs but smartphones always
are at the heart of mojo.
But mojo is so much more than a new form of gathering. It heralds a revolution in the way both
journalists and citizens operate in the public sphere. Mojo stories are delivered as complete
packages, where the reporter shoots, edits, voices and captions the story from the field. In this
sense, it creates a lot of advantages for the newsroom. Stories can be sent faster from the field,
ready to be put on air or the web. Mojo also usually works alone, unlike a typical television crew
that requires a team of people and bulky equipment.
Mojo is mobile in at least two senses of the word, according to Burum and Quinn (2016) in their
book The Mobile Journalism Handbook: they work with a mobile phone and they exploit their
mobility to file stories from where news is happening. But does not simply happen with context
and training and is the reason why declarations from media critics and futurists that anyone now
can become a journalist because almost everyone owns a smartphone.
Back at Burum and Quinn, they argued that: "This is nonsense. It is tantamount to suggesting
that anyone can become a Rembrandt or Titian once they discovered a drawing program on
their computer, or anyone could become a Hemingway or Dostoyevsky because they have good
word-processing software."
To put it simply, the mobile phone and the apps don't do journalism. At the end, it is still about
the person who uses it. Therefore, it is still the skills of a trained journalist that matters -- same
editorial abilities, same editorial mindset.
So why do mojo? The online Mobile Journalism Manual listed down several benefits to this:
Affordable. The usual television crew that produces broadcast quality video packages requires
all sorts of heavy equipment starting from camera, microphone, and even high-powered
electronic news gathering vans. With mojo, all you need is a smartphone.
Portable. It used to be called backpack journalism. But with mojo, your equipment can even fit
in your pockets. Of course, you can use other tools like a tripod and a laptop, but they are still
portable enough and easy to carry around even in a hostile environment you are covering.
Discreet. Because smartphones are too common nowadays, journalists can work freely in
various situations without attracting too much attention. This is particularly helpful in covering
hostile environments such as protests and riots.
Approachable. As a journalist, it should always be your goal to make your subject as

comfortable as possible. That way, the story will come out more natural and more like a normal
conversation. This is where one of mojo's strengths comes in. The small size of smartphones,
and the fact that they are so commonplace, means they are less intimidating for interviewees. A
study in 2017 by the Reuters Institute found people are more likely to agree to an interview and
to open up in front of a smartphone than they are in front of a TV camera.
Apps for beginners to professionals. Doing mojo means using several mobile apps to get the
work done. The best thing about it is that there are dozens of storytelling apps for iPhones and
Androids you can choose from -- from the simplest to the more technical ones.
A holistic journalism device. Mojo isn't isn't just about videos. By doing mojo, you can also file
reports for other media like radio, TV, and social media.
Basic mojo kit
It should be clear by now that mojo is about the use of mobile phones or smartphones. But if we
want steadier photos, clean audio and the ability to edit on your phone, you might need a
version of the following basic mojo kit.
● Recording device - a smartphone or other smart device with connectivity

● Mini directional microphone - to enable more present sound especially in live situation
● Lapel microphone - sound is one of the most important aspects of digital storytelling
● Rechargeable light - this is to help you with image quality in low light
● Monopod or light tripod - this is to ensure stability when recording wide shots, doing
stand-ups or long interviews
● External power - to make sure that your devices will have stay fully charged on the move
Mojo experts are honest in their preference on iPhone over Android devices. One of the reasons
they often cite is that the apps available for iOS are of better quality. As previously discussed,
doing mojo means relying on multiple mobile apps to get the job done.
Most mojo journalists use the phone's native Camera app. Usually camera apps come in four
categories: stills, video, live and proprietary (apps linked to platforms such as Instagram).
The basic requirement for shooting video is an app with: manual focus and exposure controls,
flash and or light, white balance, audiometer, zoom, variable frame rates and render resolutions,
function to enable transfer to various target sites. For stills camera apps, you may add variable
image quality settings.
For camera apps, Burum and Quinn (2016) are suggesting the following:
For sound apps, the authors as well as other experts suggest the following:
Meanwhile, for editing apps, here are the suggestions:

Smartphone handling
One aspect of being a good mojo journalist is being prepared to respond immediately to
breaking news. Of course, you'd probably say no one can be fully prepared when it comes to
breaking news. However, getting a good idea of how to work the basics and mastering your
equipment gives you a better command of the huge task at hand. And since a smartphone is at
the heart of mojo, this should be the first among your equipment that you should master.
First, handheld or tripod? Your choice here would determine how dynamic your footage will look.
Using a tripod and shooting from a distance gives the footage a spy look. This is now what
journalism and multimedia storytelling is about.
Great journalism is partly synonymous with good access – if you are not close enough you may
as well not be there. The better access you have to a news event, the more that you'll get a
good shot at covering it. Admittedly, there are journalists who advocate using tripods even in
cases of covering accidents, fire and the likes. But most of the time, the advice is holding it with
your hand is good enough. The trick is only use a tripod when it's absolutely essential, like when
recording a super-wide establishing shot. Being close to action and shooting without a tripod,
puts you in a flowing state of body and mind, where you feel the unfolding story and are able to
move with it to cover developing actuality.
Once again, here are some tips from Burum and Quinn (2016) for working hand held:
● Rest your body on a wall, or your elbows on a table, or on the front of your car to create
stability.
● If the smartphone is in a cradle it will probably be able to support itself on a table. But
leaving the camera stationary isn't that advisable. Probably yes for a sitdown interview
and no when you cover unfolding actuality.
● If you pull your elbows close to your body you will create a strong triangle with the
camera to support the shot. But bear in mind that it’s hard walking like that.
● Bend your elbows and knees to feel the center of your weight and when panning the
camera left and right, pivot your body, not your hands.
● Don't use the built in zoom of the phone's camera unless necessary. Go near the
subject. You will do better to track in and shoot close on the wide end of your lens
because: the shot is ready, the subject is audible, and you're close to evolving actuality
and will feel the emotion of what was happening.
As for taking the shots, the pointers discussed in the previous lesson remain applicable.
Remember the following:
● Five-shot sequence
● 10-second rule
● Essential elements for a quality news video
● The rule of third
But to add to these, let's talk about dynamic camera movement. Movement is shown in two
ways: subject within a frame, or by moving the camera and the frame. Camera movement within
a frame means the frame remains static and is filled with dynamic actuality. Movement around
the frame suggests following dynamic actuality.
Here are some shots to consider:
● Follow shot. Anticipate action by trying to predict where the subject/action will go, and
be ready to shoot action when the subject moves into frame. Think ahead and get
positioned ready to anticipate the action and follow the subject.
● Static frame. Let action happen within the frame and don’t constantly move the camera
in a futile attempt to cover everything. But don’t be afraid to whip the camera around if
something happens. You can always edit the whip pan out, if you don’t want it.
● Walk out. Allow your subject to move out of frame, rather than trying to follow them with
your camera.
Meanwhile, here are some types of camera movements to consider:
● Pan. It is a horizontal movement left or right and is used to establish wide shots or to
cover a group of people or objects.
● Tilt. It is an up or down motion used to cover something tall like a building, or to follow a
person from a standing position to a kneeling or sitting position.
● Track. It is where the camera follows or moves alongside the person or object; it’s used
when the subject is moving from one place to another and often during a PTC.
Application:
1. Picking up from what you’ve learned in this lesson, pick a topic of interest that you think
would work best with a mojo video package. Explain in no less than five sentences why
you think this story is a potential mojo story.
2. Thinking as if you are planning and about to do the story, list down the following.
● Equipment you will need
● Write a narrative of how the story will be presented, including the elements that
will appear on the video in chronological order, the texts like graphics or captions,
types of shots, who will be interviewed, etc.
3. Using a mobile phone, produce a simple mojo report using any topic of interest without
leaving your house or your yard. It could be a short feature about cooking, plants, or life
during pandemic. Be creative with your storytelling and use what you’ve learned from
this lesson.
LESSON 4: CITIZEN JOURNALISM
Introduction: Citizen journalism is another buzzword in newsrooms these days. Discussions

about it are abound, including journalism conferences and boardroom discussions on this new
approach to reportage. But even up to this day, there is still a lot of confusion and apprehension
in this concept. One thing is sure, citizen journalism is not a simple concept that can be applied
universally by all news organizations.
Objectives: At the end of this discussion, students are expected to:
1. Know the prime concept of citizen journalism

2. Understand why citizen journalism has become an integral part of most news
organizations nowadays
3. Be able to use citizen journalism for better storytelling
Activity:
1. At first glance, what do you think is citizen journalism and what are its goals?
2. Observing from your neighborhood, cite at least three problems that you think can be a
subject of a news report for national circulation and explain why.
Discussion:
Are you familiar with Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo and YouScoop? These two are perhaps the most
popular form of citizen journalism in the Philippines.
Citizen journalism, from the term itself means, means the involvement of ordinary citizens in the
very conduct of journalism. It is also called participatory journalism, a nod to how a
non-journalist is able to play an active role in the gathering, reporting, analyzing and
disseminating of news.
Chung and Nah (2020) in their book Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation
identified four characteristics of citizen journalism: multifaceted, multidimensional, multilevel,
and multimodal
First, they argued that this form of journalism is a multifaceted concept, encompassing a wide
array of societal institutions, organizations, groups and social actors at the intersection between
journalism, community and democracy. It should be noted that it is highly embedded in local
communities where community residents engage in day-to-day routines. Here, community
storytelling about local politics, events, neighborhood issues, and environments are abound.
This community storytelling has become a core in citizen journalism.
Second, citizen journalism is a multidimensional concept, embracing not only news production
and creation but also news consumption and sharing, thus, generating interactive processes
among news producers,
consumers. In this sense, the concept of citizen journalism has disrupted again a common
model of communication and information dissemination. This time content creation,
consumption and delivery all fall onto citizens who are now active participants in the process of
reportage.
Third, the authors cited at least three network levels, making citizen journalism a multilevel
concept:
● Micro-level - journalists, sources, and news audiences at the individual level

● Meso-level - news organizations and other societal institutions at the organizational
level
● Macro-level - interorganizational networks in local communities and beyond
And last, citizen journalism is multimodal because it cuts across all sorts of platforms and
channels. It can be radio, TV, or the internet.
But given the immense power that the digital revolution has given ordinary consumers of news,
this participatory form of journalism has taken an entire new level of popularity and enthusiasm.
Not only do news organizations now ask for permission to use certain contents from the public,
they are actually encouraging people to send materials to them for possible inclusion on
reportage. Sometimes, the contribution itself is already the entirety of the story.
Take a look at GMA News' YouScoop. The audience submissions include a wide array of topics
with stories that in the old days of traditional media, editors wouldn't think of them as being
newsworthy like unusual cloud formation.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN's Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo (BMPM) came from the former Boto Mo Ipatrol
mo, which was an election campaign encouraging the people to be guardians of their votes and
make sure that it would not fall on politicians' schemes to manipulate election results. In its early
conception, BMPM asked ordinary citizens to submit reports like unresolved problems on
electrical posts in their barangay or a bridge that has already taken years of construction and
yet remained unfinished. Producers even allowed citizens to voice the report which was then
aired via ABS-CBN's flagship newscast TV Patrol. And as soon as the problem was addressed,
a follow up report was usually done which will then be aired again in the newscast.
From these, we can draw up two concepts: first is user-generated content (UGC) and
user-generated stories (UGS). UGC is the raw, unedited material produced by ordinary users
while UGS is the packaged or more developed form of the report with the initial raw material(s)
still from ordinary users. The polishing of the story could be from the user itself or the journalist.
Take for example a footage of a landslide during a typhoon. An ordinary citizen took the video
while he watched the phenomenon unfold at the front of his house. The video itself when used
as it is by a news station is a UGC. IT can be posted on their social media account or aired
directly on television and other platforms.
When that same video is used in a report package, including a voice over from the reporter,
graphics and combined with other related videos, it now becomes a UGS.
So why does UGC matter? Let us count the ways.
For one, it helps create and power stories that are meaningful to the public. This is anchored
with one of the criticisms of the media that oftentimes, because it is too focused in seeing the
bigger picture, it is already detached with ordinary public concerns but actually has bigger
impacts in ordinary people's lives. UGC helps journalists see the real world through the public's
eyes.
Second, it promotes a sense of community between news organizations and readers. Since this
is participatory journalism, what better way to establish a community than having to collaborate
for a common goal, which is effective storytelling. Especially in this age of media distrust and
misinformation, having this kind of community could really make a difference for newsrooms.
And it's not just about building community. It is also about building loyalty between the news
station and its audience. Because of the massive array of options that users can get their
information nowadays, it is important for journalists to establish that connection and have their
audience go back and keep wanting more.
A word of caution though: fact-checking. This is what separates you as a journalist from the
citizens. It is still your job to authenticate these materials and make sure that what you’re
amplifying has gone through the necessary editorial process which includes verification.
Employing UGC in your reportage does not mean you can just take in every material offered by
the audience. And aside from fact-checking, it is also your job to provide context and see to it
that there’s a better understanding to the story that would promote better conversation and
better decision making for the public. After all, that is what journalism is about.
Application:
1. From the problems in your neighborhood or barangay that you’ve listed at the start of
this lesson, pick one that you think is best for a digital report and enumerate and explain
the necessary steps on how you’d pursue this story.
2. Find a potential UGC on the internet and ask permission if you can use it for your
reportage. Ask for more details and verify the authenticity of the said material. You may
also search for additional information that you think is necessary. After this, produce a
simple story out of all the materials you’ve gathered. It can be a news article with a photo
or video of the UGC along with other supporting details.
There’s no doubt to the popularity of social media. And judging by the numbers, it looks like this
platform is bound to get even bigger and play more roles on people’s everyday lives. But in this
massive platform, where do journalism stand? How are journalists faring to remain relevant in
this seemingly hostile environment where gatekeepers are viewed with great skepticism and
distrust?
LESSON 1: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Introduction: We all know social media because we are in it. But what we don’t realize most of
the time is its immense power over our lives. Here, we take another glance at this gainly beast
that has transformed itself from a simple venue for personal conversation to shaping the world’s
economy and even sparking revolutions.
1. Gain an overview understanding of social media

2. Identify various types of social media
3. Understand the role of social media in today’s society
Activity:
1. Make a quick check of how you consume social media by answering the following:
● List down all social media sites that you have an account on.
● Approximately, how much time do you spend in a day accessing social media?
● What are your prime reasons for using social media?
Discussion:
Where do most people hang out today? Surely not in parks, shopping malls, or even bars. The
simple answer? Social media.
Even without looking at the numbers, the undisputed presence of social media in people's
everyday lives is evident even just by looking around. Even in parks, shopping malls, drinking
bars where people hang out to meet and socialize face to face, you'll see people still glued or
checking their mobile phones from time to time checking out various social media platforms.
It used to be that the answer to the question "where do most people in the world live today?"
was China. But today, more people actually live in the virtual land of Facebook than the world's
most populous nation. There are now more than 2.5 billion monthly active users on Facebook,
according to We Are Social's 2020 report. That's way more than the 1.4 billion people living in
China in present.
Social media can be defined as web-based applications or services that exist to allow a series
of connections to be made online through a profile or media content (Bossio, 2017). In effect,
social media allows individuals and groups of users to:
1. Construct and share a particular representation of identity or events online through a

public or semi-private social networking profile and content creation
2. View, share, or discuss particular content or social connections with other users
3. View the content and connections of others with online profiles.
To put it simple, by command of the term itself, it's about socializing in the digital world.
The popularity of social media began to slowly emerge in the late 1990s with platforms like
Friendster. However, it did not gain a massive following until the early 2000s with the adoption of
MySpace and later Facebook by a mostly youth-based audience. And this began the creation of
a wide array of platforms and services, offering web tools that have created or augmented
communication abilities. The foursome that is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram
became synonymous with activities such as microblogging, chatting, or video and image
sharing.
Here are the various types of social media and what they're used for, according to Hootsuite:
● Social Networks. It's about connecting with other people. Sometimes called
"relationship networks," platforms under this type help people and organizations connect
online to share information and ideas.
These networks are definitely not the oldest type of social media but they certainly define
it now. These channels began as relatively simple devices -- Twitter as the place to
answer the question "what are you doing?" and Facebook as a way to check the
relationship status of that one classmate you find cute.
Nowadays, especially with the rise of smartphones, these networks have become hubs
that transform nearly every aspect of modern life from establishing relationships to
reading and sharing vacation photos and even finding a job.
Examples: Facebook, Twitter
● Media sharing networks. Simply put, this type of social media is about giving space for
people and brands to share media online, including photos, videos and even live video
feed.
Admittedly, the lines between media sharing networks and social networks are blurring
as the latter has also become a hotbed of media sharing. However, what distinguishes
the former is that the sharing of media is their defining and primary purpose.
Examples: Instagram, YouTube
● Discussion forums. According to Hootsuite, this is perhaps the oldest type of social
media network. It is a place to find, discuss and share news, information and opinions.
Examples: reddit, Quora
● Bookmarking and content curation networks. This type is focused on discovering,

sharing, saving, and discussing new and trending content and media. These networks
push creativity and inspiration for people seeking information and ideas.
Examples: Pinterest, Flipboard
● Consumer review networks. This type gives people a place to review brands,
businesses, products, services, travel sports and just about anything else.
Examples: TripAdvisor, Zomato

● Blogging and publishing networks. In this type of social media, users are given the
platform to publish content online in formats that encourage discovery, sharing and
commenting.
Examples. Tumblr, WordPress
● Social shopping networks. This type of social media combines the social element to
ecommerce. Of course, elements of e commerce also appear in other types of social
media networks (Facebook Market, Instagram sellers). But social shopping networks
take it one step further by building their platforms around a focused integration between
the social and shopping experience.
Examples: Polyvore, Etsy
● Interest-based networks. This gives users a venue centered around their shared
interest or hobby. What makes it different from the others is that it takes a more targeted
approach than the big social networks by focusing solely on a single subject, such as
literature, music, etc.
Examples: Goodreads, Houzz
● 'Sharing economy' networks. Its aim is to advertise, find, share, buy, sell, and trade
products and services between users. It is also called "collaborative economy networks."
Examples: Airbnb, Taskrabbit
● Anonymous social networks. Its purpose is to provide a place for people to gossip,
vent, snoop and sometimes bully. Amid attempts of other social networking sites to hold
its users accountable in their online activities, sites under this category go the other way
and allow users to post content anonymously.
Examples: Ask.fm, Whisper
From these types of social media alone, we can already deduce the role it plays in our lives. By
using social media alone, people are shaping the world's technology, economy, and culture. It
even added many things to languages.
In a BBC article "Welcome to social media revolution," Saleforce.com chief executive Marc
Benioff argued for an integrated social media strategy, citing how businesses are now being
shaped by social media. He used Netflix as an example that when it announced that it was
changing its pricing structure, customers revolted by posting thousands of negative comments
across all social media sites, mainly on Facebook and Twitter. Within months, the company lost
two-thirds of its market value. Benioff said this is just a glimpse of the speed of social media and
he said we must be able to catch up with this.
Social media was also responsible for sparking revolutions. The biggest example perhaps is the
Arab Spring, a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the Middle East
and North Africa beginning in 2010, that challenged and toppled some of the world's most
authoritarian governments.
Militants harnessed technology to organize attacks, counter the regime's propaganda, recruit
converts, and reveal to the world on-ground situations that were suppressed by their
government.
But in a wired.com article "Social Media Made the Arab Spring, But Couldn't Save It," it was
argued that activists were able to organize and mobile back then partly because authoritarian
governments didn't yet understand very much about how to use social media. Right now, that is
no longer the case.
Social media has been weaponized by various governments to support their authoritarian
tendencies and has fostered polarization even in a crisis-filled world. Elections like in the
Philippines and the United States were said to be heavily influenced by a complex social media
propaganda, propelled by troll farms.
Indeed, there’s no questioning the power of social media and how it helped us somehow ease
into the daily difficulties of our lives. But taking a pause and understanding its awesome power
is important that we don't get carried away by the tides that make it dangerous. Because by
doing so, we will also be able to effectively harness all the good things about it and turn it into
tools for the betterment of the society.
Application:
1. Choose a recent news event that is heavily shaped by social media. Through an essay,
write about this news event and explain how social media played a key role in it.
For example, the “Milktea Alliance” between Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, which
was initiated by expressions of solidarity among netizens from these three as a counter
attack to pro-China and nationalist commentators on social media.
LESSON 2: JOURNALISM AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Introduction: Social media has drastically revolutionized the way journalists do their job. From
changing the way they gather information and verify facts to its delivery and feedback,
journalists have been on the social media mill tucking everything in it to better their storytelling.
But what's exciting is that the dynamics of journalism with respect to social media is still evolving
and even experts are still trying to grapple with its immense potential as well as the dangers it
poses to the journalism profession.
1. Know how social media is continuously shaping the news industry

2. Understand the basics of how journalism and social media go hand-in-hand
3. Understand the need to remain committed to journalism’s core even in new platforms
such as social media
Activity:
1. What was the most recent news story which you encountered on social media that made
you actually read or finish the entire video of the said report?
2. What was the first thing that caught your attention when you saw the said news report on
social media?
3. From which social media platform did you encounter the said news story?
4. What made you decide to finish the entire story up to the end?
5. How did you react to the news? Did you share it to your feed, pressed like or any other
available reaction on the social media platform? Did you post a comment? Explain why
you arrived at such a reaction. If there was no reaction at all, explain as well why.
Discussion:
Richard Scott Dunham in his book "Multimedia Reporting" said social media has transformed
journalism so quickly that some journalism students now ask the question, "What do we do
before Facebook?" True enough, it is hard to imagine nowadays how journalists used to do the
usual editorial process without the help of social media, let alone the internet. News bulletins
and wire services, which previously served traditional journalism, have all migrated to digital.
Because of social media, news today breaks in real time. News organizations organize social
media posts into stories of their own. If something happened, expect the news to be released on
Facebook or Twitter nowadays. And one thing about this is that it'll come to you no matter what.
You don't have to go searching for the news anymore. As they say, if you need to know about it,
it'll come to you no matter what.
And this has once again disrupted the usual news delivery model. The characteristics of
traditional mass communications are these (Adornato, 2018):
● From one entity, person, or group to a large audience

● One-way communication
● Passive audience
In this sense, journalists merely told the public what they needed to know with little or no
interaction to the audience, that's why this concept is also called the "Voice of God." But it was
turned upside down with the emergence of mobile devices, and even more with the
popularization of social media. All of a sudden, producers of information can no longer ignore
the growing voice and influence of an active audience.
Therefore, social media in news delivery can be characterized by:
● Accessibility
● Active audience
● Interactivity
What does it mean for journalism? It means this form of communication is no longer like a
lecture, but an active conversation. "Journalism as a conversation fosters interactivity between
the audience and journalists, an informal tone, and an openness on the part of the journalist to
audience feedback," Adornato added.
Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are no longer just means for people to keep
in touch with members of their social circle. They’re platforms for news -- platforms where
everyday citizens can share newsworthy content alongside professional journalists.
As mentioned, there's no doubt that Facebook is still king with its billions of users and huge
earnings year by year. Based on NewsWhip's May 2020 data, the top Facebook publisher is
The Daily Mail with almost 100 million engagements. It was followed closely by CNN with over
96 million engagements and Fox News with over 88 million engagements. In the Philippines,
ABS-CBN News is Facebook's top publisher averaging a million engagements daily.
What is noticeable is how news organizations remain top Facebook's publisher that it is now
possible for this social media platform to be the biggest distributor of news in the digital sphere
and perhaps even across all types of media.
This new form of news dissemination has created a "democratization" of information. It used to
be that one of the functions of journalists is to act as gatekeepers. Before social media, editors,
news directors, reports, and newsroom managers were gatekeepers in journalism. Now, there
are new forces at the gate: the active audience.
As Adornato had put it, mobile devices and social media are now at the heart of today's editorial
discussions. Audience members have become a source of news items, as they create their own
content. The audience is also able to communicate stories or topics that interest the, which in
turn influences news outlets' judgments about an event's newsworthiness and which stories
ultimately are considered "news."
Check out a social media account of some of the biggest news organizations and you'll surely
find a news story which was pursued and produced simply because it was "trending" or a hot
topic on social media.
In the example below, a GMA News post about a man carrying his wife everyday while they
roam the streets looking for plastic bottles to sell garnered thousands of shares and interactions.
It all began from a viral post from a netizen who then caught the attention of GMA News and
other news organizations as well.
And this power of the audience is reflected even more with the term user generated content
(UGC), which, as discussed in the previous lesson, refers to photos, videos, and other
information captured by people who are not professional journalists and shared
to social media platforms.
If the Philippines have Bayan Mo Ipatrol mo and YouScoop, CNN has CNN iReport since way
back 2006. The term social media wasn't even part of people's daily vocabulary then. It was one
of the earliest examples of UGC, with citizens turned into roving reporters, snapping up videos
and photos of newsworthy events, and then sending them to CNN for distribution online and on
air.
Adornato (2016) has a warning though for journalists when considering social media posts as
potential sources for news. Here are some important considerations reporters must be mindful
of:
● Journalists must first determine if the content has news value. Note the use of content
and not news in the term user-generated content. This is an important distinction,
because not all user-generated content is news. In the sea of social media content,
some is newsworthy. Plenty is not.
● Before deciding to use newsworthy social media content in their reporting, journalists
must be skeptical about information. The speed at which content travels over social
media, the sheer volume of user-generated content, and the rise of fake news make fact
checking even more important now. Social media information should be held to
traditional journalistic standards. Journalists must verify the accuracy and authenticity of
the information.
● Another question to consider is whether journalists, before using the content, need to
obtain permission from someone who’s posted material on social media. Not everything
you see on social media is free for everyone's use, especially those generated by private
citizens.
● News outlets must not become overly dependent on social media as a source for stories.
Focusing on topics from social media can lead the public to perceive those issues as
more important than stories uncovered through traditional means.
Application:
1. Find a social media post from any news organization containing a UGC story. Let’s
analyze that social media post/report with the following questions:
What was the story all about?
Using what you’ve learned about the elements of news, explain why the said story is
newsworthy or not?
Do you think this story will spark a conversation, not only among the audience, but
including journalists as well? Why?
Did the report provide a bigger context for the news story or was it a simple look piece?
Do you think it needs a macro report (bigger relevant issue)? If yes, what would it be and
explain why do you think it is needed. If no, explain why.
LESSON 3. SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTING
Introduction: From breaking news stories to fact-checking, social media and journalism have
now become inseparable. While the same journalistic skills and editorial values hold highly even
when reporting through and for social media, journalists find themselves having to learn new
tricks and techniques for their storytelling. That said, social media for journalists can be tricky.
1. Explore ways on how journalists can use social media in their reportage
2. Understand the capabilities of social media to do effective reporting
3. Acquire basic skills on how to report using social media
Activity:
1. Go on social media and find a journalist who regularly reports on social media.
2. Looking at his/her posts, what type(s) of news this journalist usually posts?
3. How would you describe this journalist’s manner of reporting on social media?
4. If you are to criticize this journalist’s reporting on social media, what do you think is
lacking in the reportage?
5. If you have no criticism, explain the strength of this journalist’s social media reportage.
Discussion:
Journalists use social media way differently than other people. For reporters, social media
means a mine of information waiting to be explored for compelling stories. It's like a watering
hole where everyone is gathered to exchange ideas and are therefore potential topics for news
reports. Because of this, social media environments have pushed media organizations, both
established and new, to think more carefully about production and distribution of content
(Bossio, 2017).
To be precise, Adornato (2018) listed down three ways that journalists use social media during
the newsgathering process:
● Tips line - to find story ideas

● Sources - to find sources for story they're working on
● Content - to find information for a story
Let's take a look at them one by one.
Nowadays, newsroom managers, before they head into story conferences, would make a quick
scan of social media to see any possible lead to a story. Are there mounting social media posts
from people complaining of unusual heavy traffic? Could there be a netizen who posted a
picture of a public official caught breaking a simple traffic law? Or maybe a viral post about a
celebrity who is involved in a recent scandal?
This is far from the usual daily routine of reporters in the old days when looking for possible
story leads means making phone calls to various beats like police agencies, or doing a usual
check on your regular official sources.
Social media is a modern-day tips line. It has become a powerful tool to find stories in your
community. Monitoring social media platforms is a way to listen to the public, to put your finger
on the pulse of what people are talking about.
Take for example the story of how police officers in Minneapolis killed 46-year-old
African-American George Floyd. In this case, the tip came in through viral video clips shared on
social media, along with tons of reactions condemning such an act of violence. Media
organizations scrambled to find more bystanders who managed to take some footage.
Pew Research revealed that there were roughly 218,000 tweets containing the
#BlackLivesMatter hashtag the day after Floyd's death on May 25, when the first bystander
video was posted online. When protests began in Minneapolis and spread across the United
States and the world, daily hashtag use surpassed 1 million come May 27. From a simple viral
social media post, the story has grown, not just into one of the biggest news stories of the year
(perhaps even within the decade) but a rallying point for race equality across the world.
Below is a screenshot of that initial video posted on social media that became the subject of a
massive story across all news outlets globally and could probably be still a topic of news story
even years from now:
Meanwhile, in addition to finding story ideas, journalists can also turn to social media to locate
possible sources for stories they are trying to work on. Let's say you are assigned to do a story
about the hardships of online classes, you will need interviews from both students and teachers.
So how do you track them out?
Some journalists would straight up post on their social media that they are looking for this
specific source. A post like this could read as, "Any student or teacher out there having a hard
time doing online classes? I'm currently doing a story about it so if you are willing to be
interviewed, leave a comment below and I'll send you a message."
The example below shows how Kuala Lumpur-based journalist Norman Goh posted on his
Twitter account about how he is pursuing a story about Malaysians who lost their jobs due to the
pandemic and are now trying to get back on their feet.
Another way to do this is by simply browsing social media platforms for possible posts from a
teacher or a student complaining about online classes. The journalist then could send a direct
message to the user and ask him/her if he can use his/her post detailing his complaint, or if the
journalist can conduct a separate interview to clarify matters and dig further on the issue.
Lastly, as previously discussed, tapping into content created by the audience has also become
commonplace, like the use of user-generated content into a journalist's report. Another way to
gather audience content is through crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing is an open call by news outlets to gather a range of content including photos,
data, and comments about an issue. In crowdsourcing, journalists make a specific request,
usually through social media, for content from the audience. Crowdsourcing is different from
searching for user-generated content that has already been created. It’s a call to action, inviting
people to take part in the reporting process (Adornato, 2018).
Local news organizations in the Philippines often use this during disaster reporting. Let's a
deadly earthquake rocked Visayas, news outlets would call out for photos and videos from
citizens who were able to capture scenes of devastation. A hashtag like #VisayasQuake or
#LindolPH could also be used to aid the crowdsourcing process.
Here’s a sample post from GMA News when they tried to do a call out asking for materials
during COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines:
How journalists receive information and interact with traditional sources in the news gathering
process has also evolved, thanks to social media. Even traditional sources, such as politicians,
government institutions, and other public figures, would go straight to their social media
accounts and post press statements and the likes both for the journalist and the public's
consumption.
In this new scenario, news sources are no longer reaching out to journalists to have their
statements delivered. Because of this, journalists now must routinely monitor social media
pages of these sources, particularly for breaking news.
The example below shows a tweet from Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin alluding to
how the Philippines is the rightful owner of Sabah. This simple tweet became a huge topic of
news reports not just in Manila, but in Malaysia as well. In fact, the Malaysian foreign minister
himself reacted to this through Twitter as well.
Moving on to the distribution of news through social media, Adornato (2018) cited three
requirements:
● Share on multiple platforms as they report from the field

● Provide real-time updates on stories
● Use mobile devices to capture, produce, and publish content
In this new model of news delivery on social media, journalists no longer have to wait for a
newscast, a morning news paper, or even a web story to deliver the latest about a certain story.
Because the audience expects information in real time and across various platforms, journalists
must dive in right away and share bits of information directly from the field.
This means embracing a digital-first approach to reporting, thinking about what needs to be
distributed on social media platforms while in the field and ensuring all content can be easily
viewed by people using mobile devices.
And remember that it's not just about a single social media site. Journalists must juggle feeding
information into many spaces like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and website.
But all these, of course, are achieved through a mobile phone. Just like how it was discussed in
mobile journalism, you are expected to capture, produce and publish the content at rapid
succession using your mobile device. With a single mobile device, journalists can broadcast live
from a scene. They can snap photos and record video and audio that can be instantly shared to
social media platforms. They can live-tweet from the scene of breaking news. Mobile devices
and apps allow journalists to easily distribute content in real time across platforms.
A usual work in the field can go like this:
● When a breaking story occured, the journalist is expected to report it right away on
his/her social media accounts. From there, the news outlet can then pick it up for
possible reposting on its official social media accounts and other platforms.
● If photos, videos, or documents are available and are necessary for the story, the
reporter is expected to accompany his/her breaking post with one of these materials. If
not readily available, the materials can be posted right after as a follow up to the
breaking post.
● If the story is still unfolding, the reporter is expected to post timely updates on social
media just as it was happening. It can be a text update, a situational video or photo, or a
direct soundbite from the source.
On Twitter, this is called live tweeting and could be done through a thread.
● Live video streaming is also possible, both for Facebook and Twitter, and is usually
employed in breaking news stories with compelling actions, such as protests, demolition,
or an on-going speech of a relevant personality.
● As soon as circumstances permit it, the journalist is now ready to package his/her report
either through an edited video, a text article or a multimedia piece for the news website.
● When the packaged report is published or finished, the journalist can now promote it on
his/her social media accounts. This report will also be promoted by his/her news
organization's official social media accounts to reach a wider audience and gain bigger
engagement.
Distributing news across multiple platforms as quickly as possible presents challenges. Among
the most notable concerns is maintaining traditional journalistic values while sharing information
at the speed that is now expected of journalists. You can’t be first and accurate all the time.
Those are two competing values. Fact-checking takes time. When in doubt, accuracy trumps
speed (Adornato, 2018) . Unfortunately, there are far too many cases in which news outlets did
not follow this basic journalistic principle.
For his, Dunham (2020) listed down several tips that can help you use social media effectively
with the lowest risk of error:
Accurately share what you have witnessed. Your eyes—or the lens of your camera—don’t lie.
Never spread rumors. Remember that you're a journalist. If it hasn't gone through the necessary
editorial process, don't present it as fact.
Confirm information you learn on social media, with official authorities or eyewitnesses.
If you are deciding whether to share images or videos, consider the source of information. Is it
reliable? Does the person or organization that posted it have a long track record on social
media? If it is a new account, an account with a pseudonym or no biographical information,
proceed with extreme caution. If the account has few or no followers, be very careful. If the
account has no record of
interaction with other accounts, you probably have discovered a fake account.
Check geo-location tools to see if the place identified in the tweet matches the location of the
shared information. If it does not, conduct further vetting before sharing. (Because some social
media users employ VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, the geo-location tools are not definitive.)
Try to contact the person or organization that posted the information through a direct message.
If you remain skeptical, ask for corroborating evidence. Use your reporting skills. You may want
to ask the source for their telephone number. A fraudulent poster would be unlikely to give you a
phone contact. If it is about a photo the user just posted, you may ask for other shots.
Check any images you are thinking of sharing for evidence of Photoshopping or falsification.
You may use several tools here like Google Reverse Image Search.
Debunk inaccurate reports, if you can supply evidence. Share the truth and counter falsehoods.
If you make a mistake and you share false information, misleading or out of context, post an
apology immediately.
Another challenge is writing across various spaces. First, each social media platform has its
own style and format. Reports posted on Twitter must be shorter and direct to the point
compared to Facebook where you have more allowance. Clear, concise, and accurate writing
has always been a hallmark of good journalism. But reporters need to be mindful of their writing
now more than ever. You have to be careful delivering news piecemeal, because you don't want
it to be misinterpreted by your audience. A single tweet must be able to stand alone and must
not be too dependent on a follow up tweet. That is because that single post will travel on its
own, meaning it will get shared multiple times by various users. Providing context and a
consistent stream of information is key. Don’t leave your audience hanging.
Application:
1. Watch out for a possible live press briefing on television or online and try to cover the
event by live tweeting details as it happens. Locally, some examples are the regular
Palace briefing by the presidential spokesperson and a House or Senate hearing. If live
tweeting is not possible due to unavoidable circumstances, you may opt to just write
possible tweets on a piece of paper.
2. Afterwards, list down the challenges you’ve met while doing the activity and write down
suggestions on how to overcome them.
3. Following the editorial process you’ve learned in this lesson, find a possible story lead on
social media and pursue it. After the gathering of data, package it as a digital story as
you see fit (either a multimedia article with text and photo/video or both, or a video
package in no more than 3 minutes).
LESSON 4: ‘FAKE NEWS’
Introduction: Why is it easier nowadays for people to just believe anything on the internet but
doubts those that are published even by reputable news organizations? The age of social media
has no doubt revolutionized our way of distributing and consuming news. And with it comes both
the good and the bad. But along with this era comes another era of threats to democracy and
social media has found itself in the middle of this new age battle.
1. Learn how basic concept of misinformation on social media

2. Gain an understanding of how social media is being weaponized as tool for
misinformation
3. Acquire basic skills on how to counter misinformation through quality journalism
Activity:
1. Find a piece of social media post that has already been debunked and proven as “fake
news.”
2. List down at least five reasons why you think people on the internet believed this piece
of “fake news.”
3. Why do you think “fake news” spread faster on social media?
4. Was there a time that you yourself fell victim to a “fake news?” Recount that experience.
Discussion:
You've heard the term many times. In fact, it has even become part of people's everyday
language. But first, let's get something straight. Fake news is a misnomer. Many journalists are
protesting this term because it has dealt a huge impact on how people view news. To put it
simply, news can never be fake. News is always factual. News is always about truth. Therefore,
if a so-called piece of information is fake, it shouldn't be called news. Simply put, it's nothing but
a mere piece of misinformation. But for the sake of discussion and of course unavoidable
circumstances, we'll continue using the term in this lesson.
There's actually nothing new in this concept of misinformation. In his book "Fake News,
Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies," author Donald Barclay said fake news is simply the latest
name for the ancient art of lying. Since the dawn of language, humans have used lies for many
purposes:
● blaming
● persuading
● winning arguments
● exerting dominance
Poynter has gathered a summary of some of the recent findings explaining why fake news is so
prevalent nowadays.
First is that misinformation isn't just about facts, it's about stories. As humans, we are natural
storytellers. Picture the many ancient cave drawings from thousands of years back and it's safe
to assume that storytelling is an essential part of people's lives. And stories are powerful. As the
legendary American writer and journalist Joan Didion had put it, we tell each other stories in
order to live. This power, according to Imke Henkel from the University of Lincoln, is what
pushes the human tendency to choose riveting narrative over factual accuracy, making us more
susceptible to false claims or myths.
Why do you think the story about a Filipino actress and an alleged monster living underneath a
popular shopping mall has become so popular? It wasn't just a plain lie. It was a story woven
with its intricacies that makes it irresistible to anyone listening and gets the urge to pass it along.
For most people, analyzing facts is boring. But listening to a story, taking in that narrative is
much easier and much appealing. And this makes social media a breeding ground for such
false stories. With its power, misinformation becomes too easy to manufacture, consume, and
distribute.
Thus, Henkel argues that fact-checking is not enough. He warned that: "Falsehood in news
reporting is not limited to the untrue representation of facts. Fact-checkers and journalists need
to pay more attention to how stories are being told, and how the narratives people want to
believe help shape myths and hoaxes."
Next is that when fake headlines are repeated, people believe in them more. A recent Yale
University study suggests that when fake news headlines are repeated, people are more likely
to believe them even if they don’t align with the viewer’s political leaning. This is actually in
contrast with the common belief that fake news thrive because people choose to believe things
based on their own political stance. They believe them because, as the scholars wrote, “when
the truth is hard to come by, familiarity is an attractive stand-in.”
For social media, this is easily achieved through the employment of troll farms. These keyboard
warriors are relentless in propagating the script handed down to them to reach all corners of
social media.
Another issue is that false rumors don't just repeat themselves; they evolve and get
stronger. Poynter said: "These rumors tended to pick up steam over time, becoming more
exaggerated and aggressive, adding more adjectives and partisan hashtags. And their
comebacks were driven by various 'nontraditional websites' that would pick up the old claim and
re-package it as news, leading the scholars to speculate that 'there is a group of rumor
entrepreneurs who not only produce false claims but also give life back to old debunked
rumors.'
On social media, you can see how this happens. A false misinformation could start as a simple
art card and then would evolve as a well-edited video with small added facts and other
elements. And over time, as people stop sharing them, it will be resurfaced by some obscure
page, sparking another discussion and a whole new host of people sharing the said material.
Meanwhile, for Barclay (2018), becoming adept at evaluating information means understanding
and accepting the fact that information, though powerful, has its limit. Because it is a product of
human thought and effort, information is often problematic and always less than perfect. With
these in mind, Barclay presented some realities regarding information:
● The credibility of information is rarely a binary true/false proposition. For most

information, credibility falls somewhere in between false and completely true.
● Making productive use of information requires knowledge and skill. Simply processing
information is not enough if you do not understand the information or know how to make
use of it.
● Facts, though crucial components of credible information, are sometimes tricky things to
nail down and do not always tell the whole story.
● Making use of even credible information often requires interpretation and the
incorporation of opinion.
● Expert interpretation and opinion are valuable tools for making sense of information, but
the qualifications of experts must be evaluated.
Considering all these elements reinforces our first notion that technically there's nothing new to
the core concept of fake news. But given today's digital nature, there are few new things to its
approach.
First is information overload. With billions of web pages, tweets, online books, journals,
articles, images, videos and emails being circulated across the Web, the amount of information
available nowadays is beyond human comprehension. Unlike before that access to information
is limited, the inability to grasp a concept or make a decision because there is simply too much
information to process has become a reality.
With so much information coupled with so much uncertainty over which information is
trustworthy or which should be dismissed, users tend to resort to coping mechanisms. One
example is to simply stop paying attention to information. Another one is limiting information
intake to a few sources of information, mainly due to bias. This leads then to the
information-bubble phenomenon in which individuals take in only information that reaffirms their
existing social and political biases.
Second is reaching a large audience at a low cost. You don't need to print tons of pamphlets
or other printed materials or buy skyrocketing TV airtime just to propagate propaganda. Ease of
access on the internet is way cheaper compared to the more traditional approach to information
dissemination. A dedicated individual or group can, at very low cost, crank out tweets, Facebook
posts and fake news stories again and again in the hopes that one of those items will eventually
connect to a larger crowd.
Third is the ease of alteration. While fakes and forgeries existed prior to digital technology,
altering physical objects such as a paper document or a photograph was not particularly easy or
common. Nowadays, even a grade schooler has a good command on photoshop and several
mobile apps that could do such alterations.
So how do we combat misinformation as journalists? The simple answer is by countering it with

truth. But like what we've discussed, presenting facts isn't that easy, especially in this digital
age. However, there are some ways we could do it.
Fact-checking has taken a space in most newsrooms. It's not rocket science. It's a scrupulous
analysys driven by one basic question: How did we know that? According to UNESCO's
"Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and
Training,” fact-checking is composed of three phases:
1. Finding fact-checkable claims by scouring records, media outlets and social media. This
process includes determining which major public claims (ac) can be fact-checked (b)
ought to be fact-checked.
2. Finding the facts by looking for the best available evidence regarding the claim at hand.
3. Correcting the record by evaluating the claim in light of the evidence, usually on a scale
of truthfulness.
Kovach and Rosenstiel in "The Elements of Journalism" affirm that: "In the end, the discipline of
verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art….
Journalism alone is focused first on getting what happened down right."
Admittedly, as delivery of news gets more competitive, the requirement to bring out the latest
information comes with the risk of accuracy. Real-time audience engagement has given rise to
crowdsourcing content, and even reporting tasks like verification can now be outsourced to the
audience. While journalism remains in essence a discipline of verification, methods of verifying
content and sources require constant updating to reflect the impacts of fast-changing digital
technologies, online behaviours, and newsgathering practices.
For the process of verification, the authors offered this guide:
● Edit with skepticism

● Keep an accuracy checklist
● Assume nothing (don't be misled by exploitation of signals associated with being truth)
● Be cautious with anonymous sources
By following skepticism, the journalist focuses on the originator of the information or any
material being considered. From this, a system of checks on both the source and content can
be performed. It's the traditional way of considering whether a source is reliable or not as they
replicate the work that journalists might perform if they were physically on ground. Along with
this, UNESCO's handbook added: "A journalist able to conduct an in-person interview would
scrutinise the account of the eyewitness, follow up on important details and come to a
conclusion about their reliability, based on fact checking. Instinct can also be a partial guide –
along with watching for behaviour clues."
However, although skepticism of the main source is essential, the problem is that the vast
majority of individuals who might get caught up in news events and share their stories are not
looking to deceive. In a way, they are just sharing their experiences. If misinformation arises, it
may not be malicious. Instead it could simply be that the individual cannot remember the events
properly or has perhaps chosen to embellish the story.
But there are red flags that can be uncovered through a simple verification process. UNESCO's
handbook offered this checklist:
● Is the content original, or has it been “scraped” from previous reporting and
re-appropriated misleadingly?
● Has the content been digitally manipulated in some way?
● Can we confirm the time and place of the photo/video capture, using available
metadata?
● Can we confirm the time and place of the photo/video capture, using visual
clues in the content?
To help you with the verification process, Reuters has listed several tools for checking possible
images and video contents:
● Reverse Image Search. It's possible that a photo of an earthquake you are considering
including in your reportage was a photo from years back or from another place. Luckily,
there are a multitude of reverse image search tools that can help show you if the content
you are checking is original.
TinEye – TinEye creates a “unique and compact digital signature” and compares it with
its enormous 26 billion image dataset.
Google Reverse Image Search – Navigate to https://images.google.com and upload or

drop your image by clicking on the camera icon. You can also use this on mobile using
the browser menu and selecting “request desktop site.”
Yandex – Similarly to Google Reverse Image Search, you can download or drop any
image into the search box.
● Mapping. When the deposed and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured
by rebels, journalists were quick to find a video online showing a man who was being
dragged and beaten. International journalists were not sure if it was indeed Gaddafi and
if it was indeed in Libya. By using interactive maps showing actual terrains of the
location, they were able to identify the area and send journalists for proper verification.
With detailed mapping tools such as Google Street View and Yandex Maps, you can
pinpoint a location and compare what you see in the footage you are verifying with the
maps.
● Big Invid Fake News Debunker. Just as its name suggests, this plugin is a go-to for
journalists keen to ‘debunk’ if content is not original. Using the ‘Analysis’ tab you can
check the location and time of YouTube and Facebook videos. It also has options for
Twitter video search, reverse image search options and metadata summaries.
● Inteltechniques.com. This open-source website developed by Michael Bazzell, an

international privacy consultant is handy for tracking information on an individual or
group on social media. Simply go to the ‘Tools’ menu on the main page and click on a
platform. The site allows for searches across most social platforms including Facebook,
Twitter and Linkedin. The site also lets you reverse image search across Google, Bing,
TinEye, Yandex and Baidu.
● Amnesty International YouTube DataViewer. Developed by Amnesty International this

easy-to-use tool captures thumbnail images of any YouTube video you paste it. The site
then lets you reverse image search each thumbnail to see if the video or parts of the
video have been uploaded previously online.
Suggested readings:
● Fact-checking under pressure: How Vera Files has dealt with the Duterte regime
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/fact-checking-under-pressure-how-vera-files-
has-dealt-with-the-duterte-regime/
● Fact-checking Donald Trump

https://www.factcheck.org/person/donald-trump/
● Solutions that can stop fake news spreading

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-38769996
Application:
1. Following the three phases of fact-checking discussed in this lesson, scour social media
platforms and choose a possible content for verification. It can be a post from a
personality or a speech from a government official.
2. Write down the step-by-step procedure you did in verifying this content.
3. Write a “fact-check article” similar to those being done by Vera Files and Agence France
Presse. Here’s a link to an example:
https://verafiles.org/articles/vera-files-fact-check-photo-shows-beach-france-not-manila-b
a
Do you consider yourself techie? If you want to be a journalist, you might as well be. This is not
to say that you have to be heavily knowledgeable with technology or that you will be handling
some high-level machineries. But being a journalist in this digital era, there are some basic tools
that you need to be familiar with in order to do your job.
LESSON 1: CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Introduction: News organizations nowadays manage tons of information. From text articles, to
multimedia reports, videos, slideshows, photo galleries and interactive graphics, managing a
newsroom means managing all these things all at the same time. And to help with that, news
organizations are coming up with a system that would make sure that all these contents get to
the platform they are supposed to appear.
1. Gain a basic understanding of what CMS is

2. Know how journalists are using CMS
3. Create a content for CMS
Activity:
1. How do you think news organizations get to publish their contents on their website?
2. Have you had an experience with blogging? If yes, explain the process in which you
published your content.
3. In publishing contents on your social media, what are considerations on which to post
and not to post?
Discussion:
If your job involves producing media for public or semi-public consumption, chances are you'll
have to be familiar with how a content management system (CMS) works. So what is it? A CMS
automates many of the technical details that would take hours for a human to process
(Thornburg, 2011).
A CMS management system is the essential tool of the trade for today's online news producers.
It makes it easier for journalists without knowledge of HTML, CSS or FTP to create, organize
and publish news and information to the Web and other platforms. This is done through the user
interface. For example, if you upload an image on Instagram or Twitter, you're interacting with
their databases through a graphic user interface (GUI). A website CMS is similar, yet provides a
much greater deal of control to you over almost all content elements of your website. Although a
CMS is the entirety of the web application (database tables, admin panel and front-end display),
a CMS, according to 360ideas, is typically judged on the functionality of its admin panel.
First, let's discuss the content. Content is the collective term for news articles, videos,
animation, audio interviews, photographs, discussion forums and any other tool for transmitting
information (Thornburg, 2011). a content has a lifecycle. First it is gathered through research
and other editorial processes. Next it is distilled and organized through an editing process. And
finally, it reaches the audience of news consumers. Audiences see only this final stage, when
the content is already published on the website and is made available for the public through a
URL.
But for journalists, their involvement with the process includes every stage of it. For publishing,
journalists log into a private area of a CMS that allows them to upload, edit and organize the
content they want to publish. This private area of the CMS is called the administrative interface.
This administrative interface provides special tools that allow journalists do to the following:
● Search both published and unpublished content that is stored in the CMS database
● Create new content
● Edit or delete existing content
● Order different content items in a list
● Relate content items to one another
● Manage permissions of registered visitors to the site
● Write new rules that automate frequently used patterns of content management and
publishing
If you have tried blogging before, chances are you already have the basic grasp of how a CMS
works.
Here are some of the well-known CMS with a description from their website:
● Drupal - is a content management software. It's used to make many of the websites and
applications you use every day. Drupal has great standard features, like easy content
authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security.
● Kentico - combines content management, digital marketing, and commerce into one
seamless digital experience platform.
● Wordpress - provides the opportunity for anyone to create and share, from handcrafted
personal anecdotes to world-changing movements. People with a limited tech
experience can use it “out of the box”, and more tech-savvy folks can customize it in
remarkable ways.
The first stage in the lifecycle of the content, as discussed previously, is the collection of content
and its entry to the CMS. Traditionally, in a news organization, information is collected by a
reporter and brought back to the newsroom in whatever format best suits the story. Sometimes it
is text, other times it is photographs, videos, audio or even PDF documents. A CMS must have
a way for all these different types of content to be entered and stored in its database.
At its core, Thornburg (2011) said a CMS is essentially two things:
1. A database that defines the structure of the content

2. A collection of rules and design templates that determines how and when different
pieces of the data should be displayed
Often, the content enters the database through a Web-based facilitator. The content is first
written and edited on a word processor or some other multimedia editing tool. Editors then save
the piece of content somewhere outside the CMS. In ABS-CBN, journalists use a separate
system called a NewsBox. Finally, either an automated process transfers the content into the
CMS or a news producer copies and pastes it into the system.
As content is added, the CMS keeps track of all sorts of information that describes the piece of
content. This is called metadata -- essentially it is data about the data. Metadata can include the
date the content was created, its subject, source or author and even the location at which it was
created.
Once content has been gathered and stored inside the CMS database, journalists have to figure
out when, where and how it should appear on the site. They also have to figure out how different
pieces of content should be related to one another.
As content in CMS is organized, it begins to collect metadata. Metadata doesn't necessarily

ever get published, but it follows the piece of content whenever it goes and helps describe
important information about the content to the CMS as well as to the editors using it. You can
think of the process of organizing content in a CMS as the process of adding metadata to the
content.
The New York Times, as an example, has an unusually robust set of metadata associated with
its stories. Metadata for an article might consist of various versions of its headline -- one to use
on the homepage, one to use on the article page itself and one to use on a mobile phone
version of the story.
Below is an example of various metadata that are visible in the HTML code.
Some of the functions of metadata allows the CMS to automatically place a link to the story on
pages where it might be of most interest. For example, a story about the number of people who
lost their jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic can appear in the business section of a news website
or on a special page dedicated to all updates on the coronavirus.
It also uses the date of the article to order the headlines on each page. On most sites, the
default ordering of articles on a page is to put the most recent stories at the top. This is an
example of how the news value of timeliness determines which articles get the most prominent
display on the website.
News producers also usually determine which pieces of content are featured on the site's
homepage and in what relative importance: which story is the banner story, on side bars, on
breaking crawl bars, etc. They also use CMS to organize content by choosing photos,, video
and graphics to either display inside an article or use as link destinations from an article.
Every news organization is different but the following, Thorburg said, is a common sequence of
steps that moves content from inside the administrative component of a CMS to the public
website:
1. The publishing process begins, triggered by a programming rule at automatic, regular

intervals or triggered manually by a news producer
2. The CMS requests specific content fields from the database and those fields are then
sent to design templates.
3. The design templates tell the data where to appear and how to look.
4. The data and templates together are sent as HTML, either generated at the moment a
user requests it or as a static page that sits on a server waiting to be requested.
5. If the news organization is large, each piece of final content is copied to several Web
servers. The larger the news organization the more Web servers it will have. Each server
will have a copy of all of the pages. Requests coming in from users are routed to the
various servers in order to equally balance the load across all of them.
If the publishing function of the CMS is working well, these steps together take place in just a
fraction of a second.
4 ways content management systems are evolving & why it matters to journalists
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2011/4-ways-content-management-systems-are-evolvi
ng-why-it-matters-to-journalists
Application:
1. Sign up for a free account on WordPress and explore its CMS.

2. What do you think is the most challenging part of this CMS and why?
3. In your own words, explain why you think journalists should know more about how CMS
works.
LESSON 2: OVERVIEW OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Introduction: You've probably heard of SEO. But as with anything too technical, journalists tend
to be skeptical in being familiar with it, or worse they just totally ignore it. But with digital
contents somehow at the mercy of search engines nowadays, being familiar with its basics is
important. After all, aren't we making all these contents so people can consume them?
1. Understand the basic concept of search engine optimization

2. Know the basics of producing an SEO optimized news content
3. Be able to produce a simple SEO optimized news content
Activity:
1. Write at least 5 words that you associate with SEO and briefly explain why.
2. Try searching on Google a certain topic of interest. Pick the top post (content no. 1) and
the fifth entry (content no. 2) on the page.
3. Try comparing the two contents -- what are the things inside the post that are present in
one but are absent in another.
4. Why do you think content no. 1 was ranked higher than content no. (2)?
Discussion:
Chances are as a student you have ample experience in searching for many things on the
internet, be it for an assignment, a topic of interest you had a question about, or information
about a product you are considering for your study. However, this experience, for sure has given
you a varying level of success -- some information is easy to find, while others felt like looking
for a needle on a haystack. The culprit? It's SEO.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), to put it simply, is the process of optimizing a website as
its content so it will appear in prominent positions in the organic results of search engines. In a
word, it's all about discoverability.
Examples of search engines are:
● Google
● Yahoo
● MSN
● Bing
To understand further what goes in SEO, let's break it down further:
● Quality of traffic. If you are a news organization, you want people to go to your site
because of the news that you are offering. It's useless to have a huge number of website
hits because people are coming to your site because they thought they could buy cars
through it. In this sense, you want to attract visitors that are genuinely interested in
consuming what you are offering.
● Quantity of traffic. Once you already have your target audience coming to you by
clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), now is the time that
you want the number of hits to skyrocket. In this sense, more traffic is better.
● Organic results. You can shell out a huge sum of money to appear up at the significant
portion of a SERP. But like any other things, you want your traffic to be organic. Organic
traffic is any traffic that you don't have to pay for.
SEO is actually way more than the three words it stands for. It's about understanding what
people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, the words they are using, and
the type of content they wish to consume.
So as a journalist, why should you care about SEO?
Only because 93% of all online experiences start with search engines with 65% of all searches
are done on Google. This is because for every second, there are about 280 new websites being
born on the Web across the world. With this massive undertaking alone, finding a content that
you are looking for would definitely be difficult without search engines.
As a journalist, you should definitely capitalize on this. Remember that you are competing with
tons of other contents online all at the same time. You want to remain relevant. You want your
content read because yours is something that people should know about.
So how do SEO works, specifically Google (the biggest among all search engines)? First, it
does three main things: crawling, indexing, ranking.
Crawling means the search engine is scanning your website. This is the discovery process.
Search engines send out a team of robots (known as crawlers or spiders) to find new and
updated contents -- a new webpage, images, videos, documents, etc. Imagine spiders crawling
around, making a web of connection among these contents. The Googlebots will then start out
by fetching a few web pages and then follow the links on those webpages to find new URLs.
Through this, the crawler is able to find new content and add it to their index, which will later be
retrieved when a searcher is seeking information.
Next is indexing, where Google makes a copy of your website. This is the process when the
search engine stores all the information in their index that they deem good enough to serve up
to searchers.
Last is ranking. Here, Google compares your website to all other relevant websites. The higher
a website is ranked, the more relevant the search engine believes that site is the answer to the
query.
There are many things to learn about SEO, but here we will focus on the content, since this is
what's most helpful for journalists.
First is about keywords. Your SEO keywords are keywords and phrases in your content that
should serve as the invisible threat that would connect users to your website via search
engines. A well optimized website for search engines in a way should "speak the same
language" as its potential visitor based on keywords for SEO.
This means keywords are as much about your audience as they are about your content. To rank
highly on search engines and to gain organic traffic, you need to understand the user's
language and the type of content they seek.
There are several two types of keywords:
1. Fat head keywords. They are usually one or two-word terms with high search and
volume as it tends to be all encompassing. For example, if you are trying to look for a
smartphone, your keyword could be "smartphone" or "buy smartphone."
2. Long-tail keywords. This type of keyword is, of course, longer than the one above. As
the internet grows and search becomes more competitive, techniques have tended to
focus more on long-tail keywords. Using the same intent above, a possible long-tail
keyword would be "buy new iPhone 11 pro max" or "compare iPhone 11 prices to
android."
In thinking of keywords, there are three fairly simple steps you should remember.
● Think. As a journalist, you must already have a fair amount of grasp on what your
audience wants and how they behave. Start by noting down all possible keywords you
think your audience would be using in relation to your story.
● Research. Once you have your list of keywords, it's time to check their value. One key
to this is by using Google Keyword Planner (this will require you though to make an
account). By checking how your keywords are faring through this tool, you will get an
idea of the search volume and competition for those keywords. The best and easiest
keywords to rank for are those which have higher number of searches but with lower
competition. Aside from this, the tool might also give you suggestions which are not part
of your proposed list. Meanwhile, another tool that you may use is Keyword Tool
[https://keywordtool.io/].
● Check the competition. It is always wise to see what your competition is doing. Not to
simply copy, but to broaden your perspective.
So now that you have your keywords? It's time to concentrate on the optimization of your
content. Here's what a perfectly optimized information page looks like:
From there, the most that you can work on are numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
Notice that from the headline, the presence of your keyword is already important. Preferably,
you should place the keyword as close as possible to the start of your headline. In the example
below, you will observe how Watsons have a better tag compared to Marie Claire simply due to
the placement of the keyword.
Undoubtedly, it also puts the keyword in a more prime, eye-catching place that could better
attract users. Also, bear in mind that search engines place high relevance to headlines/titles.
Another note to remember is to keep your headline short. This is so your headline would not get
cut when it appears on the SERP.
Also, it is important to have your SEO keywords, within the first 100 words of your content. But
this doesn't mean sacrificing your editorial process. It's not just about filling your paragraphs with
keywords repeatedly. In the end, it should come out naturally as search engines nowadays are
already using advanced algorithms to assess relevance and quality. On the number of words
used in the body of your content, the standard calls for at least 1,500 words.
Don't forget the multimedia components of your content. Engaging images, videos and
diagrams can reduce bounce rate and increase time on site. A bounce occurs when a user visits
your website and leaves without interacting further with your site. A high bounce rate could
affect the ranking of your website on search engines. It is also advisable to put hyperlinks on
your content to other websites.
How much should journalists know about SEO?

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2009/how-much-should-journalists-know-about-seo/
How to get to grips with SEO as a journalist

https://www.journalism.co.uk/skills/how-to-get-to-grips-with-seo-as-a-journalist/s7/a545414/
Application:
1. In your blog, produce an original news story with all the elements of an SEO optimized
page. If access to a computer or the internet is in no way possible, you may simply write
down their content on a piece of paper. Here are everything you need to remember for
the task:
● List down at least five keywords you think are relevant to your content.
● Check your keywords using the tools discussed in this lesson. Screenshot them
and put them at the bottom of your content later on. Again, if access to a
computer or the internet is not possible, you may skip this part of the activity.
● Start producing that content. Make sure to observe numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and
11. For students who can’t access a computer or the internet, you may use
relevant photos from newspapers and magazine clippings and paste it on your
written content.
2. In at least five sentences, describe your experience trying to produce an SEO optimize
content.
LESSON 3: ANALYTICS
Introduction: Analytics is not the entire measure and sole determining factor for digital news
enterprises and editorial direction. Nevertheless, evaluating the right metrics can answer
important questions about audience behavior. The challenge now for journalists is harnessing
the available data and knowing how to analyze it to better storytelling.
1. Understand the concept of analytics-driven journalism

2. Know the basic analytics metrics used by most news organizations
3. Get an idea on how to harness analytics in reportage
Activity:
1. What is your stance on journalists pursuing stories because they are popular topics? Do
you agree with this or not? Explain your answer.
Discussion:
Another product of the digital revolution is how the use of metrics and analytics are having a
significant impact on how most newsrooms are shaping their editorial directions. But first, time
for some definitions.
Sharing the results of her study through the Canadian Journalism Project, researcher Nicole
Blanchett Neheli clarified that metrics and analytics are two different things:
Metrics are units of measurement that reflect a specific element of audience behaviour
(example is pageviews, the numbers of "views" an article received).
Analytics encompass the analysis of audience data as a means of performance appraisal on

existing content and the development of hypotheses to improve audience engagement in the
future (eg. if a lot of people like a particular story that can be perceived as a measure of
success, a type of performance appraisal—but interpreting what it was about the story that
people liked is the hypothesis, a prediction that the specific element can be replicated in another
story to build engagement/traffic)
Analytics systems are platforms specifically designed to aggregate, display, and assist in the
reporting and analysis of audience data (eg. Chartbeat, Google Analytics, Omniture)
Providing this distinction early on is important because they are used in two distinct ways in the
newsroom. Specific metrics like pageviews are used in real-time to know the performance of a
specific digital story. From this, news managers would determine several actions to further the
numbers. Social media editors could opt to promote the said story in other ways, like an artcard
or a GIF, to ride on its popularity. Other news producers could opt to pursue a sidebar to the
story or pursue the story further for other developments.
Meanwhile, a deeper analysis on the analytics part would mean broader decisions, such as
shaping the entire editorial agenda for the day or even further. Or perhaps changing the social
media strategy because of the metrics.
The two most popular analytics systems being used in most newsrooms nowadays are Google
Analytics and Chartbeat.
From its website alone, Google Analytics said it "gives you the free tools you need to analyze
data for your business in one place, so you can make smarter decisions." A lot of journalists
prefer this primarily because it is free and that it allows you to analyze in-depth detail about the
visitors in your website. And this is important for journalists because the audience is front and
center in their work.
A standard report within Google Analytics will look like this:

From this, you can deduce the types of data that you can get from Google Analytics aside from
the sheer number of visitors accessing your site or a specific story in there.
First is audience reports, which will tell you everything you need to know about users who are
visiting the website. This includes demographics (like age and gender), where they're accessing
the website from, and the technology they are using to get to the site (a smartphone, tablet, or a
desktop computer).
For acquisition reports, this will give you insight on what drives users to your website. Was it
through social media, like Facebook or Twitter? Were your views mainly driven by a successful
search engine optimization? Seeing this, you will get an instant view on which part of your
operations to remedy or strengthen.
Next is behavior reports. This is more content focused, that it will show you the top pages on
your website, the top entry pages, and the top exit pages.
You can also gain access to knowing the active users on your website who visited on the last
day, within a week, two weeks, and four weeks. One use of analyzing this part of the data is to
know whether people are coming back to your website or you're a one hit wonder. If you have
more one-day users than longer-term ones, you’re struggling with retention.
Similar to Google Analytics, Chartbeat is a content intelligence platform for publishers that
empowers companies to build loyal audiences with real-time and historical editorial analytics
across desktop, social, and mobile platforms. The company helps digital publishing
organizations understand what, within their content, is keeping people engaged. It shows
visitors, load times, and referring sites on a minute-by-minute basis. The service also provides
alerts the second your Website crashes or slows to a crawl.
Here’s a how a typical Chartbeat dashboard looks like:
Meanwhile, here are its main metrics:
Concurrents. It is a live count of all active sessions open to your site currently. Think of this
number as total open pages to your site where visitors are currently or recently engaging.
Recirculation. It is the percentage of open sessions directly referred by other article pages on
your site. It tells you how well your article pages are doing to drive readers deeper into your site
by clicking into additional content.
Engaged Time. It is the average number of seconds visitors actively engage with each page on
your site by scrolling, clicking, typing, etc. It tells you how well your site is holding readers'
attention at any given moment.
But the heart of the dashboard, perhaps, is the Top Pages section as it constantly updatesthe
list of highest traddic and most engaging stories. By default, this list is sorted by total
concurrents on each page, but you can also sort top pages by average engaged time and
recirculation.
While both are commonly used across newsrooms worldwide, Chartbeat is preferred by more
journalists as it is excellent when running live and breaking news stories.
Of course, it's not just websites that use metrics and analytics. Digital newsrooms also
constantly monitor their social media performance. Luckily for journalists, both Facebook and
Twitter (perhaps the two most used social media platforms by journalists) have detailed
analytics for professional pages, such as those of journalists and news outlets.
Here’s a breakdown of key data on Facebook Insights:
● Likes. The Likes section is straightforward. It shows the page’s fan growth, or the
number of people who have liked it. Use the date selector to view the number of likes
from the last week, month, or other time period.
● Reach. Total Reach indicates the total number of people who have seen any content
associated with the page. Post Reach indicates the number of people who have seen a
particular post.
● Page views. This portion gives you the total number of times your Facebook page was
viewed during the time period you select. This is where you can also see the areas of
your Facebook page that people visit most, including your timeline, info, and photos
tabs.
● Posts. When should you post to Facebook? The Posts section provides valuable
information about when those who like your page are on Facebook. On the top of this
dashboard, you can hover over each day of the week to see when they are most active
on Facebook.
● People. Here you’ll find a demographic breakdown of the people who like your page.
You can also dig deeper to determine if you’re reaching your target audience.
Related to this, Facebook has another available tool for journalists: CrowdTangle. Started in
2011, the tool "helps publishers identify great stories, measure social performance, and identify
influencers. It's used by newspapers, television stations, digital media outlets, investigative
journalists, entertainment companies, sports teams and nonprofits all over the world. Hundreds
of newsrooms and thousands of journalists use the tool every day."
Unfortunately, users can't just simply create an account for this. CrowdTangle would actually be
the one to come up with a dashboard for you, hence this is exclusive to the biggest news
organizations. Not only it provides more detailed analytics, it also serves as a monitoring device
for Facebook posts that are performing well.
Here's a sample dashboard of CrowdTangle:

For Twitter, here are the key metrics you should be familiar with:
● Top tweets. Top tweets are those that have the most impressions. The Home section of
Twitter Analytics lists the top tweet for each month. In the Tweets section, you can view a
list of top tweets for the time period you choose.
● Impressions. Impressions are the number of times users saw a tweet.
● Engagements. The engagement data indicates whether Twitter users interacted with
your tweets. Engagement is broken down even further, into retweets, favorites, clicks on
photos or video, replies, link clicks, follows, and more.
● Engagement rate. This is one portion you’ll want to pay close attention to. Engagement
Rate indicates the number of people who did something with a tweet, as a percentage of
everyone who saw it. Your content caught their attention, prompting them to not just
scroll past it.
● Audiences. Finally, just like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics provides a snapshot of
your audience. This section helps you better understand who follows you. Based on their
location and gender, among other demographics, you can gauge whether you’re sharing
information relevant to your followers.
After analyzing the numbers, it is now time for journalists to make important decisions. But
unlike other businesses, news organizations cannot just simply be driven purely by what the
numbers are saying. Journalistic integrity must still be unblemished even by following
analytics-driven journalism.
Another thing is just like the nature of breaking stories, nothing is written in stone when it comes
to following metrics. Even the American Press Institute acknowledged that analytics can be
frustrating for journalists as they're often "opaque and confusing, and instead of empowering
journalists to act, lead to "analysis paralysis.'"
Meanwhile, for Adornator (2017), it usually goes like this: "The process of producing compelling
journalism and engaging with audiences on various platforms is a neverending cycle. For any
story in a given day, the cycle might go something like this: Report on a story, share information
along the way, experiment with new ways of sharing content on social media, measure whether
it worked, and adjust accordingly."
Editorial analytics: How news media are developing and using audience data and metrics
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/publications/2016/editorial-analytics-2016/
Application:
1. Pick two local news organizations’ Facebook accounts for comparison.

2. Taking all social media posts for a period of five hours at any given time for each
Facebook account, determine the posts with highest engagement and the posts with
lowest engagement.
3. Why do you think those posts earned the highest engagement? Why do you think the
other two posts did not fare so well?
4. If you are to use the data you get by analyzing these social media posts, what newsroom
decisions could you possibly make? Name at least three and explain.
Amid every revolution, new possibilities emerge while old practices are threatened. This holds
true even in journalism. But journalism is not merely a fad. Its practice holds core values and
concepts that must be upheld no matter the time. And in a rapidly changing landscape of digital
technologies and other advancements, it is nothing but proper to take a step back and remind
ourselves of our ethical duties ultimately to the public that is central to the profession.
LESSON 1: TRADITIONAL TO DIGITAL STANDARDS
Introduction: As journalism moves to new platforms, it is natural that it will pose new challenges
-- from newsgathering to storytelling and all the way to the participation of the audience. But with
it comes a new set of ethical dilemmas. A central question is to what extent existing media
ethics is suitable for today's and tomorrow's media.
1. Gain basic understanding of the need for ethics in digital media

2. Know the traditional ethical values in journalism and how to apply them in the present digital
landscape
Activity:
1. As a journalism student, you are expected to be always in-tune with the latest news.
Observing the news reportage of most local news organizations, name one criticism of your that
you think must be addressed immediately. Explain why.
2. As an ordinary user of the internet, what is that one type of content that you don't want to see
on digital spaces? Explain why.
Discussion:
There's a heightened mistrust against media entities, which is probably the highest in modern
history. Perpetuated by populist government leaders and blown up by the new media, a
considerable amount of audience nowadays view journalism as a propaganda, as something
that can be bought, and a divisive tool that counters the nationalist sentiment.
In the Philippines, attacks on the media are perpetuated by no less than the president. The
administration of Rodrigo Duterte has been at odds with various media entities that are critical of
his many policies, chief among them his notoriously bloody war against drugs that already killed
thousands of suspected drug users and peddlers. This has resulted in the shutter of media giant
ABS-CBN with its failure to secure a fresh broadcast franchise from Congress filled
administration allies. Duterte, time and time, blasted criticisms against the station and the Lopez
family, branding them as oligarchs who lord over people to fatten themselves through their
media businesses.
Likewise, Maria Ressa of Rappler, a news portal which focuses solely on the digital audience,
has been targeted repeatedly with a string of criminal charges ranging from libel to tax cases.
Pia Ranada, one of Rappler's digital reporters, was admonished from the Palace and was
banned from covering presidential events due to the critical tone of her reportage.
Even independent media was targeted. In a trump-up matrix, the Duterte administration had
accused Vera Files and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism as part of a supposed
plot to oust the president.
The overall trust in news in the Philippines is at a low 27%, based on the latest data from the
Digital News Project. And with all the blatant attacks on the media, journalists have been
labeled "presstitutes," "fake news," "communists," and even "terrorists." Many cases of
harassment against members of the press have been recorded worldwide. Yvonne Chua,
University of the Philippines' journalism professor, noted in her Digital News Report, that an
alliance of media organizations has recorded at least 171 incidents of attacks and threats
against the media since Duterte became president, including the deaths of 15 journalists.
In the United States, US President Donald Trump had repeatedly harassed reporters covering
him, merely for asking him critical questions about his policies and contradicting statements. In
various speeches, Trump has called CNN as perpetrators of fake news, while hailing Fox News
with its pro-administration reportage.
And so now more than ever, journalists need to stand their ground and maintain tried and
proven ethical standards to ensure that they remain firm in their duty. But there is no single set
of rules and guidelines for journalists even with the oldest media platforms. But despite the lack
of an established "Hippocratic Oath," there is a fairly coherent notion of what is right and wrong
in journalism. Many news organizations have their own ethics code.
In their 1996 book Hold the Press: The Inside Story on Newspapers, John Maxwell Hamilton
and George Krimsky identified 10 rules that writers and editors follow within most reputable
organizations. They have dubbed these rules "The Commandments of News" and apply them to
all journalists. Cited Rich, let's have a look at them one by one and relate them to the present
digital situation.
1. Thou shall not lie in print or on the air

2. Thou shall not lie to or threaten a source
These first two pertain to the age old news elements of truth and accuracy. But it extends
beyond simply lying. Any clear attempt to mislead the audience is dealt with harshly in any
self-respecting newsroom. And this rule has been extended to computer alteration of photos
and videos, which has already gotten several reputable news organizations into trouble.
In 1994, TIME magazine featured O.J. Simpson's mug shot, but drew ire for manipulating the
picture to make the skin look darker and make him appear unshaven and blurrier. The magazine
later pulled the issue from the newsstand and produced a new version of the magazine with the
unaltered photo of Simpson.
Likewise, lying to your sources is also a form of distortion of the editorial process. Especially
now in the digital age, it is very easy to misrepresent one's self or use manipulative tactics to
gain information from a possible source.
3. Thou shall not report rumors or other unverified information
Digital journalists are particularly vulnerable to accusations of violating this rule. Couple that with
the constant skepticism as to the veracity of things seen online, and you have a complete recipe
for furthering people's distrust of the media.
Due to increased pressure from the continual news cycle, increased competition from tons of
online information platforms, and even lured by the ease of updating, some online outlets have
published insufficiently verified stories.
A recent local story circulated quickly on Facebook when a certain netizen posted a photo of an
odd situation in their barangay, where a group of 10 food delivery men in their motorcycle
converged in front of a residential house. The accusation was this: a guy by the name of AJ
Pande made all the orders with no intention of claiming them. It was also alleged that there was
no AJ Pande living in the address referred to in the food orders.
It was a sure topic for a news story given the sheer peculiarity of the situation. Tempted to jump
in the growing buzz online, news organizations reached out to the netizen who posted the
photos and asked permission for use and used the details he provided which accompanied the
material. News outlets then reposted the same material including the information provided by
the netizen.
The big problem with a situation like this is the obvious lack of complete details and context to
the news story. First, it was a single-source story, which is a no-no in journalism. A story
shouldn't have a single talking head. What's the guarantee that the netizen who posted it was
telling the truth? What's stopping this netizen for posting a photo which happened weeks or
months ago to make it appear that it just happened? What about a possible record from the
barangay? Surely a situation such as that should've called their attention. Complaints must also
be filed. And who is this AJ Pande? Where is he, and, if the accusations were true, did he in fact
have other victims? Perhaps there's a record from the NBI about it?
Later on, the office of the barangay issued a statement insisting that the incident happened
months ago and that they can prove that through records of complaints. But this came out later
on, with news organizations merely adding the update hours after the initial story was posted.
But here, we can clearly see how news organizations easily gave in to the pressure of online
buzz without doing the complete necessary editorial process.
The perception is that digital journalists are so desperate to get a scoop that they'll risk their
professional credibility to do it. Yet while there are examples of this in traditional media as well,
many digital journalists point out that somehow examples of bad journalism such as this get a
lot more publicity online.
4. Thou shalt not suppress or omit opinion with which one disagrees.
5. Thou shall not show favoritism or personal bias in one's reporting or writing.
These two are closely related and both have been sources of problems for digital journalists.
Anyone can create a Web page on behalf of any cause and for the sake of democracy and
public discourse, that should be a good thing. However, this trait also creates the impression
among much of the public that the Web is nothing but slanted news.
6. Thou shalt not misrepresent oneself or use deception to get a story.
Your sources are much likely to complain about the content of your story if you've been honest
with them from the beginning of the process. No one wants to wake up seeing a news story
where they are the subject but with a completely different narrative than the one you thought it’s
going to be. It is equally important that your editorial process is life-proof.
7. Thou shalt not plagiarize words or ideas.
This is the most ironclad rule in journalism. For reporters, being caught using someone else's
words is cause for immediate firing. Very likely, you'll never work in the profession again.
In 2013, one of Rappler's reporters was found to have plagiarized his report. It began with a
series of tweets from a reporter from TV5's Interaksyon news website, claiming that the Rappler
reporter used part of his reports about the rise in numbers of arriving tourists at that time. The
TV5 reporter claimed that the Rappler reporter was not in the scene when he asked the
question. However, they ended up having the same exact angle as well as direct quotes.
Initially, several senior Rappler editors defended the reporter, who insisted that he did not
plagiarize and that he was able to talk to Secretary Jimenez, who was then tourism chief. But
the TV5 reporter said that it was actually from the secretary's executive assistant that he got the
figures. In fact, the secretary didn't even have the exact figures and made the mistake of
announcing wrong numbers in his speech. The secretary's executive assistant corroborated the
TV5 reporter's account and insisted as well that he did not give the figures to the Rappler
reporter.
Another thing that was uncovered was that the Rappler reporter accidentally copied the wrong
figure initially written by the TV5 reporter.
Later on, Rappler issued an apology and wrote an editor's note along with the revised story:
"Our attention was called to a possible case of plagiarism involving this story. We conducted an
investigation and found out that portions of this story had indeed been lifted from another news
site, Interaksyon.com, without proper attribution. We have corrected this and we apologize to
Interaksyon.com and its reporter..." In the end, the Rappler reporter who was responsible for this
was fired.
An addendum to this might be "Thou shalt not fabricate stories." This has unfortunately also
become an issue because the internet makes it easy to learn about faraway places and events
without leaving your office.
8. Thou shalt not tap or tape telephone conversations without permission.
In this media-saturated age this rule might seem outdated, but it's generally the law. But of
course, with the current technology, it’s a lot easier now to record private conversations and use
them to your advantage. Remember that as journalists, you need to ask for permission to record
them as part of the arrangement for an interview. There’s no such thing as nothing is
off-the-record when talking to a journalist.
9. Thou shalt not use one's position for personal gain.

10. Thou shalt not do anything that may be construed as a "conflict of interest."
Journalists sometimes find themselves being offered gifts or money by people who might
eventually be the subjects of stories. There are endless accounts of everyone from public
officials to corporate the sports figures trying to cozy up to a reporter, particularly at major news
outlets. Reporters must resist this urge. The point is to avoid being beholden to anyone but your
news organization and your audience. Rule 10 basically requires that reporters not engage in
any personal activities that could compromise the fairness of their coverage.
Suggested readings:
The New York Times Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments
https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journalism.html
Activity:
Case study: ABS-CBN’s Bandila report on an alleged flesh-eating bacteria.
1. Study the circumstances of this case by reading various reports about it and analysis.
2. After this, list down and explain the basic journalistic standards that were violated
throughout the entire case.
3. How do you think this violation of ethical standards in journalism could’ve been avoided?
LESSON 2: ‘CLICKBAIT’
Introduction: You've heard about this. You've even seen this word used as criticism to certain
online contents. But what does it mean to be a clickbait in this era for journalism when
everyone's fighting tooth and nail to gain attention for what they offer?
1. Analyze the concept of clickbait and how it became a relevant issue in digital journalism
2. Illustrate the dangers clickbait poses to journalism
3. Understand the need to have catchy digital contents without sacrificing editorial integrity
1. In your own words, what do you think "clickbait" means?

2. Can you cite examples on the internet which you consider as "clickbait?"
3. Do you think that "clickbait" means bad journalism? Why or why not?
Discussion:
There's an insane level of competition in the digital sphere. In more traditional media like print,
radio and television, news is more concentrated that it didn't have to compete that much with
other forms of information. A news story published in a newspaper needs only to compete with
fellow stories on the same paper, as well as among the newspaper's competition. The same
goes for radio and television. As the audience listens or watches a news item in a certain news
program, the consumption is more focused as it doesn't have to compete with other radio or TV
programs at that specific time that the audience is consuming the material.
This is definitely not the case for digital platforms. The massive constant flow of information
across the internet has created a problem for news organizations to remain visible to users.
Bloggers, vloggers, social media influencers and many other digital content creators constantly
put out various materials for the audience on the internet every second. And more and more
among the audience are actually getting convinced to try and make their own content as well.
This excluding their personal posts like selfies, photos of their pet, or their latest hobby like
plants and cooking that they constantly share through their personal social media accounts.
About 2-3 years ago, Facebook rolled out a new algorithm which prioritizes MSIs or meaningful
social interactions. Facebook said back then: "We will prioritize posts that spark conversations
and meaningful interactions between people. To do this, we will predict which posts you might
want to interact with your friends about, and show these posts higher in feed."
The social media giant also added: "Because space in News Feed is limited, showing more
posts from friends and family, and updates that spark conversation means we'll show less public
content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses."
This is actually good news for those who want to regain Facebook's initial allure, which was
about that more intimate connection between the people in your work -- seeing vacation photos
of friends, checking if that classmate in one subject who you find cute is still available,
discovering other people's interests and the likes. But this is bad news for big publishers like
news organizations. This means their contents are now less prioritized and will appear less on
people's feed.
Because of all these challenges for content supremacy, some producers, including news
organizations are resorting to some tricks to catch people's attention and make sure that their
content rises above all other information online and stays afloat. And it's not just this. Isn't it a
golden rule of journalism to make your headline as attention-grabbing as possible? Due to all
these, there are those who would often resort to "clickbait journalism."
BBC, in an online article, suggests that by clickbait, we usually mean a story with a headline
"which tempts the reader to click on the link to the story. But the name is used pejoratively to
describe headlines which are sensationalized, turn out to be adverts or are simply misleading."
Clickbait is a no-brainer marketing strategy in the age of social-media dominance—and

therefore a revenue strategy. Publishers increasingly use it for simple economics; the more
clicks you get, the more people on your site, the more you can charge for advertising.
Many experts said that this is the digital version of tabloids. In the old discussions on journalism,
this is where sensationalism would be tackled. And just like what happened before, it has
attracted a dumbing down debate, highlighting how important information like politics and world
events are being pushed down in favor of less important, sensationalized celebrity gossip
stories and bizarre human interest stories.
When talking about clickbait, often, there's that one content producer that would come to mind --
BuzzFeed.
BuzzFeed soared to prominence early in the past decade, boasting of millions of unique visitors
with its eye-catching and provocative contents. This publisher is notorious for headlines such
as:
● This Girl Matched On Tinder With An Olympic Athlete And Here’s What Happened Next
● 10 Bizarre Food Combinations From Sweden
● This Is Why Women Multitask Better Than Men
● 19 Things Only Women Who Lift Weights Will Understand
Try searching the internet and you'll see various accusations on how BuzzFeed has used the
clickbait formula in furthering its contents, and consequently, its metrics. But many were
confused when its editor-in-chief Ben Smith wrote an article in 2014 where he said BuzzFeed
never used clickbaits and that "clickbait stopped working around 2009."
This gave rise to another debate: what really is clickbait? Reacting to Smith's article, James
Hamblin, writing for The Atlantic, admitted that the idea that nothing on BuzzFeed is clickbait
seemed strange to publishers "who have seen BuzzFeed shoot past them in audience size and
dismissed its cat-based listiculations as bait." It was also a surprise to internet users who have
always regarded, and have criticized BuzzFeed, for using clickbait in their headline.
But Smith and BuzzFeed have challenged people's concept of clickbait and its alleged "crimes"
against journalism. He used people's perception on clickbait as something that comes along on
the internet that the user doesn't like. Like Josh Benton of Harvard’s Neiman Journalism Lab,
who said that clickbaits are "things I don't like on the internet." Smith blasted people who think
this way, because according to him, this is subjective. He lamented how the term "is sometimes
thrown our direction to characterize entertaining web-culture content that the author doesn’t like.
That is something different, a matter of taste."
The truth is clickbait is really not just about entertainment. It's not just about gimmicks. The core
idea of a clickbait is a promise of value that isn't met.
They say that the internet nowadays is like walking through an amusement park where carnival
barkers walk around, shouting at people saying, "come here, come here and see the
three-legged man!" According to Smith, clickbait is responding to the call of the barker and yet
when you walk inside the tent, all you see is a guy with a crutch, not a literal man with three
legs.
As Hamblin had put it: "Even if what you wrote is great, people will be upset if it under-delivers
on the expectations set by the headline. If you promise me a three-legged man and I go into the
tent and it's a sword swallower, I'm upset, even if he's really terrifyingly amazing and highly
regarded in sword-swallowing circles."
The truth is this formula isn't new and did not emerge from digital media. As mentioned, tabloids
were first to use this style, which we now refer to as clickbaits. But even in broadcast, we can
also see this certain style. How many times have we heard headline teasers such as:
James and Nadine, hiwalay na nga ba?

Magiging maulan nga ba pagdating sa weekend?
Ano nga ba itong bagong vacation spot na kinagigiliwan ng mga Pinoy?
'Wag bibitiw sa balitaan, lahat ng 'yan sa pagbabalik ng...
It's about the curiosity gaps. Agreeing with Smith, Hamblin said clicky headlines can’t really
make a bad post popular. Because distribution is driven by social spread, people have to like
something not just enough to click on it, but enough to share it. As a publisher, you don't want
people to just come in your tent and see the three-legged man. The goal, especially in digital, is
for that audience to come out and start telling other people that they have to see that
three-legged man.
Smith may be right that what BuzzFeed was doing isn't really clickbait because they always
make sure to deliver at par with their creative titles. As long as the three-legged man is the one
inside the tent just like promised, then no harm done. But of course, that doesn't stop naysayers
from pushing the "dumbing down" accusation pertaining to headlines like that.
While it's not entirely wrong, journalists must still refrain from resulting in such tricks just to gain
views. Some of its negative consequences is the so-called diminishing value of news. Whether
we admit it or not, it's still a matter of perception. If people view contents like that negatively,
then they will stay away from those.
Also, tech companies are now employing algorithms seeking to counter the shareability of these
so-called clickbait contents.
Ann Friedman, in a piece for Columbia Journalism Review, shared three rules of thumb for
creating "shareable" content without sacrificing editorial values:
1. No empty teases. If your story is good enough, you don't need too many tricks to make
it stand out. At the end, nothing can beat good writing. Hyper-emotional and
hyper-sensational contents are flooding the internet every second especially on social
media. And this makes the audience's behavior shift as well. What happens now is that
the user will just hit "like" and move on. In other words, when it’s all bait, there’s no click.
2. Change the format, not the content. This is a warning to journalists not to get too
comfortable with established structures of storytelling. And this is the reason why there's
no "one size fits all" formula to writing.
3. “Newsy” and “viral” go hand-in-hand. There's nothing wrong in pursuing viral stories.
But remember that good journalism doesn't stop there. Look for other angles. Find
another source.
Application:
1. Going back to the content you cited early in this lesson and based on the discussion
here, was it really a clickbait content or not? Explain why or why not.
2. In cases of entertainment stories and other soft news, do you think journalists can use
the clickbait style? Why or why not?
3. What do you think are the lessons that journalists can use from the concept of clickbait?
4. Making a quick assessment of the Philippine media, do you think news organizations in
the Philippines use clickbait strategy from time to time? Why or why not? If yes, can you
cite some examples?
LESSON 3: PRIVACY
Introduction: In this digital age, especially with how social media has taken over people’s lives,
many people think that privacy has long been gone. Even few journalists think this way. While it
is true that the present digital landscape has altered our sense of privacy, it remains a rights
issue that journalists must still navigate their way around in their reportage.
1. Understand the importance of respecting people’s privacy in the conduct of journalism

2. Learn the ways in which a journalist can do his job while respecting other people’s
privacy
Activity:
1. Take a step back and analyze the amount of personal information you’ve been sharing
on your social media accounts. By observing the details as well as photos, videos, status
and contents you’ve been sharing, do you think people can deduce from them the
following information about you?
● Address
● Birthday
● Name of family members
● Medical history
● Travel history
● Economic status
2. From this, do you consider yourself an oversharer or not? Explain your answer.
3. If you saw your neighbors having a physical altercation, would you take a photo or video
of what was happening? Why or why not? Would you share it on your social media
accounts? Why or why not?
4. Have you ever shared a social media content exposing other people’s private moments?
If yes, what was your reason for doing so? If not, why did you decide against it?
Discussion:
Years ago, a report on ABS-CBN's flagship newscast TV Patrol featured a story about a
15-year-old woman who was suspected of killing a 57-year-old plant manager she was having
sexual relations with in a motel somewhere in Pasig. The woman was arrested. On the report, a
photo of an elderly man and a young man was used, identifying them as the victim and the
suspect. But as it turned out, the people involved in the story were not those who are in the
photo.
It was news gathering gone wrong. A staff member of the newscast got the photo from the
Facebook account of a man who happened to have a similar name with the victim. And,
apparently, the woman in the photo was his daughter. Except for sharing the same name with
the slain victim, the two have nothing to do with the crime.
The woman, who was at that time working in Singapore, immediately took to Facebook to call
out TV Patrol. She said: "Sa mga nakapanood ng TV Patrol kanina, pinakita nila ang picture ng
papa ko as victim ng pagpatay sa isang hotel sa Pasig. Ang worse pa they showed my picture
as suspect sa nasabing incident! This is not true... Sana naman bago po nila ipinakita ‘yung
pictures nag-verify muna sila kung sino talaga yung pinatay."
But it doesn't end there. ABS-CBN News' website also featured the same report. To be fair, the
idea of Facebook photo-hunting apparently came from the police. A police investigator
apparently said that he had found "Apuyan's Facebook account showed several pictures of him
with his lover."
Later on, a corrected and updated version of the story was aired on the late night newscast that
same day. TV Patrol and ABS-CBN issued an apology and reached out to the family of the
mistaken victim and suspect.
The entire dilemma should've ended there. But three months later, ABS-CBN committed the
same mistake again. This time, the same wrong photo was used on the station's current affairs
show Failon Ngayon. The program was doing a feature about a juvenile crime, citing the Pasig
motel incident among others. Apparently, the show's researchers picked up the file video of the
erroneous TV Patrol and used it again, not knowing what happened.
The journalists involved in this whole scenario are all guilty of mortal sins in journalism. The
proverbial power of the pen, despite the said distrust and cynicism towards the profession, is
still as powerful as it was, multiplied even further by the influence of digital platforms.
There are many facets to this case, such as the issue of verification, handling of sources, and
editorial judgment. But the overarching issue here is privacy.
Privacy is no longer what it used to be. In this digital era, access to information seems infinite --
public profiles of people with countless photos and videos, documents containing personal
information posted on several social media platforms, and even the relationship of several
people within their network. All of this information, if used carelessly, can destroy people's lives.
Take the previously discussed case. No matter how the apology was phrased or circulated, the
damage has been done. Reputations were at stake. People were already maligned. The woman
in the wrong photo even said that it was a good thing her mother was not able to see the report
because she had a heart problem. This time, it's no longer just reputation; lives are already at
stake and were put in danger.
For many journalists, whether and to what degree to report on private aspects of a person’s life
begins with that person’s expectations of privacy.
Celebrities, for example, are well aware of their status within the public. Roger Patching, a
journalism professor, in a piece for The Conversation, said much of the reporting concerning
celebrities is not telling the public what "they need to know," but rather what "they want to know."
Because celebrity scandal and gossip is supposedly popular with the public, a lot of
entertainment journalists give in to the pressure of catering for this craving. Of course, public
scrutiny is expected from them, but lines, still, must be drawn.
This concept of public scrutiny is even more expected of public officials. Because most of their
acts and decisions would affect the public they serve, journalists must hold them accountable.
This is actually what separates the reportage for public officials from celebrities. It's not just
about curiosity; this should be about the journalist fulfilling his mandate as watchdog. But even,
in these instances, it should be noted that politicians are still entitled to a certain degree of
privacy that must be respected.
When it comes to ordinary private citizens, journalists must be even more careful in handling
information pertaining to them. Reporters must be mindful of any distress it might cause people.
Usually, when ordinary people find themselves on the pages of news, it is because they are in
some way associated with a high-interest issue, as discussed by Journalists.org's Privacy and
Reporting On Personal Lives. An example of this high-interest issue is a crime story. In these
situations, many journalists set certain rules to guard against disclosures that might unfairly
damage personal lives or, worse, turn out to be wrong.
And because of social media, information that are previously inaccessible become easily
accessible to journalists. But amid all these concerns, Sarah Laskow in Columbia Journalism
Review suggested a simple way of being mindful in a journalist’s reportage: “Just because data
is public—available at a courthouse or a government agency—doesn’t necessarily mean that it
should be published online or in a newspaper.” If only journalists involved in the ABS-CBN case
considered this, the mistake would not have happened.
Dissecting this, here are some points to remember:
Right to privacy. Public figures still have the right to some privacy, where it can be shown that
there is no overlap with the performance of their public role. And this goes both for celebrities
and government officials. For example, what goes on in a bedroom a public figure is private.
However, the story changes if the public figure married but is engaging with sexual acts to a
person who is not his/her spouse. But even in a case such as this, certain sensitivities of privacy
must still be observed, like the showing of graphic photos and videos and the way the sexual act
is portrayed and described on the reportage.
Suffering and distress. It's unavoidable for journalists to encounter scenes of heightened
emotions, such as grief and distress. Sometimes it could be a family member of a victim of a
brutal crime, or people who are greatly affected by a natural calamity. Journalists must be
especially sensitive in cases like this. Even for public figures, the media should respect their
privacy. It is justifiable though to use materials showing people at this state of heightened
emotion. However, moderation is the key. For example, if you are to use footage of a wailing
widow beside her dead husband's casket, you need not show a close of her seeing snot
dripping from her nose with her foaming mouth. In this case, you can simply opt for a wider
shop, which is shot a considerable distance. The sobs and gasps should not be included simply
for the emotional effect they will have on your audience. Remember that you need to justify
them as necessary to your storytelling.
Related to this are victims of crimes. Perhaps, the way the Associated Press had phrased it in
their style guide puts it best: "We do not generally identify those who say they have been
sexually assaulted or pre-teenage children who are accused of crimes or who are witnesses to
them, except in unusual circumstances. Nor do we transmit photos or videos that identify such
persons. An exception would occur when an adult victim publicly identifies him/herself."
Graphic material. Your audience doesn't need to see an amputated body or the bloodied body
of a victim of a summary of execution just to drive the point of your story. Journalists must avoid
gratuitous use of close-ups of faces and serious injuries or other violent material.
And it's not just visual materials. Even graphic texts containing obscenities, profanities and
vulgarities must be regulated. In this issue, the Associated Press puts it this way: " We do not
use obscenities, racial epithets or other offensive slurs in stories unless they are part of direct
quotations and there is a compelling reason for them. If a story cannot be told without reference
to them, we must first try to find a way to give the reader a sense of what was said without using
the specific word or phrase. If a profanity, obscenity or vulgarity is used, the story must be
flagged at the top, advising editors to note the contents."
Suicide. Coverage of stories involving should be avoided for as long as it's possible. This is not
just about the privacy of the people related to the individual who took his/her own life. Studies
have shown stories about suicides, with headlines that included information about how a
suicide was completed and statements that made suicide seem inevitable were all correlated
with suicide contagion. Decisions on covering stories such as this are always a decision of the
newsroom’s top most managers.
Journalism's top ethics expert isn't concerned with right and wrong
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg8ygd/its-about-ethics-in-journalism
The public interest, the media and privacy

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/research/privacy.pdf
Activity:
1. Study the "Amalayer" case, which was a viral story back in 2012. It was about Paula Salvosa,
a girl who was caught in a video that spread on social media, showing her and a lady guard in
an LRT station having a tense exchange of dialogues. Read previous reports, analysis, and
recent materials pertaining to the case.
2. This story was a subject of national news across all platforms -- radio, TV, newspaper, and
digital. When the video first circulated, news organizations were quick to jump in to report on the
situation. Obviously, errors in editorial judgment were committed by the media in this case. What
do you think was/were the mistake(s) committed by journalists and news outlets? Explain your
answer.
3. Do you think this is an issue of privacy involving journalists? Why?
4. Considering the concept of citizen journalism, do you think the person who uploaded the
video also has a culpability to what happened? Why?
LESSON 4: TRANSPARENCY AND ACCURACY THROUGH HONESTY
Introduction: Journalism has many facets to it -- from the fact that it remains a business and
therefore somehow dictated by economical issues down to the reality that it is being run by
humans and is therefore a subject to human frailties. It’s far from perfect despite the high
demands and the seemingly no room from error nature of the job. But this doesn’t mean that
journalism is failing. This only means that if media institutions want to remain a trusted institution
that it should be, it needs to push for more transparency and accountability, even if it means
publicly exposing itself to the errors it commits.
1. Learn the importance of transparency in journalism especially in the time of digital media
2. Know the ways in which journalists can practice transparency in their digital reportage
3. Understand the importance of maintaining accuracy even when committing blunders in
reportage
Activity:
1. If you are to ask a journalist about his profession, what would it be? List down at least
five questions.
2. There’s no denying to the fact that there’s a serious amount of misinformation going on
the internet nowadays. Let’s say you accidentally shared a “fake news” on your social
media feed and a friend pointed this out to you. How would you react to this situation?
3. Let’s say a news station you’ve been following committed a serious blunder, how would
you react to its admission of the error and apology? Do you think this makes the news
organization less credible? Why or why not?
Discussion:
It has been mentioned all throughout the previous lessons how trust in the media has eroded
over time. The truth is, there are many valid reasons for that. Some of them include:
● Underestimating what information would interest the audience

● Refusal to acknowledge the audience or address their concerns
● Keeping silence in various matters instead of directly confronting them in plain view of
the audience
● Cutting deals for access to information
Again, these are just some of the issues that led to the low level of trust that the press is
receiving right now from the public. But there's an overarching issue among all these --
transparency.
The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics defines transparency as "explaining

one's decisions to the public." The Knight Foundation, on the other hand, referred to
transparency in journalism as "disclosing potential conflicts of interest and making additional
reporting material available to readers." In short, transparency in journalism means a story
behind a story.
Right now, we also need to view this concept of transparency with the new technology and
platforms we use in journalism. And much has changed in this industry -- advertising models
have changed, new channels and new providers of information are coming up including think
tanks, activists, entrepreneurial start ups, developments in social media, and others.
Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel on Poynter's The New Ethics of Journalism book which they
edited, argued that with the dawn of the digital era comes more opportunities for consumers to
examine, question and critique journalists and journalism organizations behind the news. This
means new organizations can no longer ignore the calls of the audience. Unlike in radio and
television, news organizations can simply disregard feedback by not reading them or providing
space in their reportage. And McBride and Rosenstiel said "all this leads some to conclude that
independence—and with it the neutral voice style of presentation—are conventions of the past
that no longer serve the profession or the public. Some go further and argue they never did
serve the public—that at best they were commercial illusions and intellectual impossibilities."
And with these changes comes a new mandate of transparency that supersedes independence.
McBride and Rosenstiel this new mandate is closer to the original concept of objectivity as it
was meant when it was introduced from social science into journalism in the early 20th century.
But make no mistake. Simple disclosure of conflict of interest is not enough as true
transparency is more than disclosure. It also requires producing the news in ways that can be
explained and even defended. It becomes the key to a method. Transparency requires those
who produce the news to anticipate how they will explain their actions before they act. Some of
the questions the media should be prepared to answer are:
● Who is this source you are interviewing?

● Why should I believe him?
● What biases might the guest on your program have that you aren’t telling me about?
During the deliberations on the now junked application of ABS-CBN's new broadcast franchise,
one of the issues that surfaced is their repetitive use of a certain health expert. Out of the many
health experts in the country, why this one? And why do all relevant news reports and on air
discussions must this health expert be consulted? Here, you can already see ABS-CBN's failure
in transparency. You don't just choose a resource person for no reason. In this sense, the public
needs to know why because that would then be an element to their decisions in consuming your
narrative.
Among the mentioned questions is the issue of handling sources. Relevant to this is the use of
anonymous sources. Obviously, this is not to say that anonymous sources are unethical as
there are instances that they are the only key to unlocking big stories, especially in cases of
corruption which fulfills the journalistic mission of being a watchdog and public's informants.
Who could argue better to the need for anonymous sources than the case of the Watergate
Scandal?
In their guidelines to their reporters, the Associated Press listed down three reasons for
anonymous sources to be allowed in their reportage:
1. The material is information and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the news report.
2. The information is not available except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by
the source.
3. The source is reliable, and in a position to have accurate information.
And it doesn't stop there. A journalist must ask the source on how he/she knew the information
is accurate to ensure that he/she has direct knowledge of the fact that he is trying to pass on.
This is crucial because after this, it is now the duty of the journalist to explain in the story why
the source requested anonymity. The Associated Press said when it’s relevant, journalists must
also be able to tell the source's motive for disclosing such information. Finally, it is also
important to provide attribution that would establish the source's credibility. There's no way that
a source would be referred to simply as "a source." Journalists must provide descriptions like:
"according to a Malacañang aide who requested anonymity" or "a senior police official who
asked not to be identified."
All the more in the present digital landscape that these measures should be observed. After all,
it is easier nowadays to fabricate sources and stories and even fake anonymity. With all the
competing sources of information, it’s best to establish the foundation that would strengthen the
authoritative voice of our stories.
Meanwhile, last March 2020, situations across the world are getting tense due to the rapid
spread of the novel coronavirus, which allegedly started in China. As more cases were reported
in Asia and slowly in other corners of the globe, the Philippines has begun recognizing the
severity of the situation.
Early in the day, word already spread that President Rodrigo Duterte would declare a lockdown
to curb the spread of the virus. In fact, documents of the government’s task force handling the
situation containing the recommendation of a lockdown were already being passed around in
various groups of journalists, including some citizens. And so news organizations prepared for
such a scenario. Protocols were established. Embargo materials are prepared in anticipation of
the president’s announcement that night.
In cases like this, most of the time, included in prepared materials to break the story is an art
card announcing the supposed breaking news, which in this case is an announcement of the
lockdown. But hours before the official announcement, the embargo art card bearing the
announcement was accidentally posted on ABS-CBN’s Facebook account. It stayed on the
news organization’s social media page for at least 7 minutes before it was taken down.
But it was already too late. The post spread fast like wildfire. Despite the deleting the post, there
were already screenshots circulating, with people panicking and asking whether an official
announcement has already been made.
ABS-CBN released apologies, acknowledging the error along with a clarification that an
announcement has not been made. The statements were released on all its platforms: Channel
2 programming was cut to give way to a reporter reading the statement; the same statement
was read again on the station’s flagship newscast TV Patrol: and artcards bearing the apology
were distributed on all of the station’s social media accounts.
It was a disaster of an error for any journalist. However, that is one of the realities in this
business that although can be avoided, remains a lamentable circumstance that is bound to
happen. No existing news organization in the world has never committed any error. It’s part of
our human frailties.
While it was admirable that ABS-CBN was quick to acknowledge this, admittedly, this is not
always the case for other circumstances as well as in newsrooms elsewhere. In fact, most news
stations' errors are either shoved under the rug or worse, completely ignored as if it didn't
happen at all.
There are various reasons why news organizations do this, especially now in the digital era.
Admitting errors has been misconstrued as something damaging to the reputation of the
organization. Heckling comments are easier now to propagate on social media, parading the
error committed by the news outlet. There is also that notion that releasing a correction would
only amplify the error and in doing so, those who initially did not know of the error would now be
aware of what happened.
Ann Friedman in the same Poynter book The New Ethics of Journalism edited by Kelly McBride
and Tom Rosenstiel argued that the problem is that journalists and news organizations fail to
recognize the profound role that admitting errors plays in maintaining trust with the public.
Contrary to the concerns of most news organizations, it is even more damaging to our
reputation when we act inadequately to mistakes.
Said Friedman: "Rather than viewing corrections as a necessary evil, news organizations
should treat them as a means to help create a strong connection to the people they seek to
inform. With that connection comes trust and a more honest relationship. That, in turn, should
encourage the public to support journalists’ efforts by consuming what we create. Each error
that we admit fully and sincerely brings us closer to the public.
With this, she offered five keys to quality corrections:
1. Deliver the accountability we demand of others. It's a reality that as journalists we

highlight the mistakes of others. And so often, we are accused of calling the kettle black
whenever we do our job and yet commit mistakes from time to time. It's a false
dichotomy of course to think that those who watch out for others' mistakes must not
commit the same errors. And so when when journalists make some lapses, we are often
suddenly not so committed to transparency and public accountability
An essential guiding principle, a golden rule that should inform and direct newsrooms in
how they handle mistakes and deliver transparency, is that news organizations must
meet the same level of accountability and transparency they demand of the people and
institutions they cover.
The good thing is because of social media, more journalists now are becoming more
transparent in their editorial process. It is also easier now to acknowledge lapses through
social media posts, bearing explanations and actions done to remedy the situation.
2. Make mistakes easy to report. From being more like a lecture, journalism now has
been transformed to a conversation. With this, news organizations must open their lines
of communications for corrections called out by the audience. Thankfully, unlike in the
more traditional media, doing this is a lot easier now, again, due to the internet,
particularly with social media.
3. Create a corrections workflow. Newsrooms are always chaotic. With the pressure of
deadlines and the volume of work, it's easy to get lost in sudden mishaps like errors
committed in news reports. This is why establishing a workflow for instances like this is
important. Who's going to make the calls? What details should be included in the
correction? Who will make the final decision? Which platforms should bear the
corrections?
A corrections workflow will have clear roles and responsibilities for those involved, and it
closes the loop by ensuring the requester of a correction is given an answer and can see
any resulting fix. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a clear process that integrates an
efficient workflow for corrections. This helps provide the level of service and response
the public deserves, and it helps correct errors quickly.
4. Corrections must be clear and sincere. Have you ever experienced being on the end
of an apology that is not really an apology? You know that admission of guilt but
somehow it still felt as if the one making the apology is still making all sorts of excuses
forcing you to feel guilty and think that it was not really his fault?
A correction must inform the reader. Too often a correction is confusing or vague
because the goal in drafting it was to mitigate damage and blame. Sincerity is key to
ensuring a correction repairs, rather than compounds, any damage. An effective
correction is written with the head and the heart.
5. Corrections must be spread and promoted. A correction that no one sees or reads is
a failed offering; it exists to help spread the correct information to anyone who might
have encountered the incorrect information. This is even more important in stories with
huge consequences, such as the ABS-CBN error on the declaration of lockdown. A
basic approach is to match the distribution of a correction to the same channels used to
promote the inaccurate content.
Application:
1. How would you rate the Philippine media’s transparency when it comes to its reportage?
Do you think the media here in the country is doing well in being transparent to the
public? Why or why not?
2. In following the local news media, do you think media organizations here have a healthy
mechanism when it comes to errors they commit? Explain your answer.
3. Interview a local journalist and ask him about his experiences in committing errors in
his/her reportage and what are the steps he/she took or his/her organization to rectify it?
You may ask more questions you see fit but all of it should be framed in the topic of
transparency and accuracy.
REFERENCES:
● Books
Adornato, A. 2018. Mobile and social media journalism: A practical guide. California, CQ Press
Bossio, D. 2017. Journalism and social media: Practitioners, organizations and institutions.
Australia, Springer Nature
Burum, Ivo., Quinn, S. MOJO: The mobile journalism handbook. Burlington, Focal Press
Craig, D. 2011. Excellence in online journalism: Exploring current practices in an evolving

environment. California, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Craig, R. 2005. Online journalism: Reporting, writing, and editing. Wadsworth, Thomson
Learning, Inc.
Dunham, R.S. 2020. Multimedia reporting: How digital tools can improve journalism storytelling.
Singapore, Springer Nature
McBride K., Rosenstiel T. 2014. The new ethics of journalism, California, CQ Press
Ireton C., Posetti, J. 2018. Journalism, fake news and disinformation. France, UNESCO
Jones, J., Salter, L. 2012. Digital journalism. California, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Kovach B., Rosenstiel T. 2001. The elements of journalism: What newspeople should know and
the public should expect. London, Atlantic Books
Thornburg, R. 2011. Producing online news: Digital skills, stronger stories. Washington, DC, CQ
Press
● Online sources
Alexa. 2020. Top Site in the Philippines. [https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/PH]

Chua, Y. 2020. Digital News Report: Philippines.
[http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/philippines-2020/]
Digital Skills Agency. 2018. Mobile Journalism Manual. [https://www.mojo-manual.org/]
Hare, K. 2020. Here are the newsroom layoffs, furloughs and closures caused by the
coronavirus
[https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-clos
ures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/]
Rappler. 2018. Employees laid off from CNN Philippines

[https://rappler.com/nation/employees-layoff-cnn-philippines]
We Are Social. 2020. Digital 2020 Global Digital Review.

[https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media]
Weiss, J. 2013. How newsrooms can adopt a mobile-first mindset

[https://ijnet.org/en/story/how-newsrooms-can-adopt-mobile-first-mindset]
INSTRUCTOR’S PROFILE:
Erik Palino Tenedero is currently working as a digital journalist for ABS-CBN News. His official
designation is social media editor, handling the Philippines’ largest and most followed social
media platforms within the news industry.
Aside from spearheading social media campaigns and editing and writing contents for its digital
platforms, he also breaks and files reports on the religion beat, particularly Philippine Catholic
Church, as well as the affairs of the Church internationally. Occasionally, he also contributes
feature stories on wide-range of topics, including human interest, pop culture, and music.
He is currently working to expand his interest in Asian studies with particular emphasis on
Southeast Asian political affairs.
For five years now, he’s been teaching journalism courses at the Bulacan State University. So
far, some of the courses he has taught are news writing, feature writing, and digital journalism.
A graduate of broadcast communication from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, he

prides himself as a true-blooded “Iskolar ng Bayan.”
Email erik.tenedero@bulsu.edu.ph
Mobile number 09178924216
Twitter @erikreports
For story pitches and other concerns not related to school works, you may send your email at
EPTenedero@abs-cbn.com

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DIGITAL JOURNALISM

UNIT I: OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL JOURNALISM

UNIT II: WRITING FOR DIGITAL MEDIA

UNIT III: DIGITAL REPORTING

UNIT IV: JOURNALISM IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

UNIT V: DIGITAL TOOLS

UNIT VI: ETHICS IN CYBERLAND

COLLEGE: College of Arts and Letters

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides students with an understanding of digital

Core Values: SOAR BulSU!

Service to God and Community

Program Educational Objectives

LEARNING OUTCOMES TOPICS WEEK LEARNING ACTIVITIES

RUBRIC FOR ASSESSMENT:

OTHER REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS:

Term Examinations - 30%

1. Deadlines are sacred. Extensions shall only be allowed in grave circumstances.

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Objective: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Gain an overview understanding of what digital journalism is

Activity: Answer the following questions:

“It won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.”

Notice that there are at least five elements to such definition:

1. A form of expression that is invention

● Maintaining standards of fairness, completeness and accuracy in the face of competition

How has digital journalism changed your work day?

So what is “digital journalism studies,” anyway? Is it its own thing?

1. In your own words, compose a definition of digital journalism.

LESSON 2: WHAT MAKES DIGITAL JOURNALISM DIFFERENT

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Understand what makes digital journalism different

Presently, here are some common tools of on-demand delivery of news:

Multimedia newsroom: BBC London

LESSON 3: REDEFINING THE ELEMENTS

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Identify the characteristics of information that gives it news value

Timeliness - How recently did the news event happen?

Below is a screenshot of an interactive timeline for an Al Jazeera report on how COVID-19

1. Pick up a newspaper story of any topic of your choice.

LESSON 4: THE DIGITAL AUDIENCE

Introduction: As communication technologies evolve, so too do audiences. And because the

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Gain an overview of the current landscape of digital news audience

Activity: Answer the following questions:

1. Observe yourself when you browse things on the internet.

Other important figures:

89 percent - Chat apps

How people consume digital news

LESSON 5: DIGITAL FIRST

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Know the concept of “digital first”

● Multiplatform hubs of content. News organizations can no longer brand themselves as

Digital first: what it means for journalism

UNIT II: WRITING FOR DIGITAL MEDIA

LESSON 1: WHY A DIFFERENT WRITING STYLE

Objective: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to: