Excellence in Online Journalism
Exploring Current Practices in an Evolving Environment
- David A. Craig - University of Oklahoma, USA
Like the technologies that support it, the craft of online journalism is evolving quickly. This timely book helps students develop standards of excellence, through interviews with more than 30 writers, editors and producers, and dozens of examples of strong work. The author provides a framework of concepts to show how the field is evolving and challenged by competition, staffing limitations, and other pressures. Discussion is organized around four key elements: speed and accuracy with depth in breaking news; comprehensiveness in multimedia content; open-endedness in story development, including public contributions; and conversation with users. Chapter-length treatments of these topics bring home the realities of online work to students, who also come to appreciate how excellence and ethics online go hand in hand.
The text is an excellent example for students to use as a barometer of industry standards within multimedia journalism and writing online. There are certainly many aspects of online journalism that are evolving, and further research by academics will explore these further, but it opens this arena to many students as they develop as trainee and working journalists in a deadline driven and demanding industry.
Sage College Publishing
