June 06, 2012

By Amy Gahran

Journalism isnt really about articles; its about empowering people by informing and engaging them. The article (or its audio or video equivalent) is a powerful formatbut its mostly a one-size-fits-all artifact of non-interactive, space-limited print media. And it doesnt always meet a communitys true needs for engagement.

Recently author and journalism educator Jeff Jarvis pondered how news audiences might be better served if news outlets started deconstructing the article format. This gave me an idea that might be especially well suited to community media outlets

The problem with inverted pyramid news articles is that too often they are presented as the story, rather than one of several possible stories that can be spun from the same raw material.

Plus, news stories about the same topic often are presented mostly in isolation from each other. This can lead to a blind man and the elephant problem, making it hard for people in your community to grasp the big picture enough to care.

Yet most news outlets keep delivering most or all of their content via traditional inverted pyramid news storieswhere background and context only come after the latest developments.

To be effective, news must engage as well as inform. This means spelling out who should care, and why, front and center. If you really want people to care, dont expect them to read between the lines.

In his May 26 post, News articles as assets and paths, Jarvis observed:

A story can be made up of many assets. Once separated, the storyteller has the opportunity to presentand the reader to takemany paths through them. The expert in a story can go straight to whats new and then leave The novice can start with the background, then read whats new, then delve into the characters and timelines, then explore examples and arguments. The article becomes sets of assets and paths.

Read more:

Engaging communities by putting context up front