Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Online, last month's panel discussion may never end... Just in time for final exams, Randy Neal of KnoxViews has provided an unsolicited example of a half-dozen points that came up repeatedly during the past semester's "writing for the Web" and "online journalism" classes...  The example is a full transcript of last month's Society of Professional Journalists bloggers-meet-the-press panel discussion. Journalism textbooks always point out the benefits of brevity, but they also mention that "online" doesn't have the space limitations of newspapers or the time limits of broadcast news. That transcript is certainly more detail than would ever fit in a newspaper, even one whose editor was part of a panel discussion in its own building! (I was on the panel and didn't report on it here, either.) The textbooks also discuss "layering" online stories, providing readers with choices of how much to read, from a headline to a summary to a full story. Randy's short collection of excerpts as well as the eight-page transcript fits that category nicely.  And, as for "online" being "interactive," the excerpt page features KnoxViews' usual comments engine, for anyone who wants to get in on the discussion. Better late than never. If you want multimedia... KnoxViews offers a YouTube link to the hilarious Daily Show clip that moderator Dorothy Bowles used to introduce the whole journalists-bloggers discussion. (Stephen Colbert as "Ted Hitler" was a pretty tough act to follow.) Having the panel transcript online is also an example of the Web's archival function -- the old saying "yesterday's news wraps today's fish" just doesn't apply when you can browse backward through time.  After all, a Thanksgiving-week panel discussion is still "news" to you, if you were too tied up with holiday travel preparations to attend in person. (Granted, there's no guarantee that blog posts or online news stories will stay put forever, or stay available for free. But that's another good topic for discussion.) Final (exam) disclaimer:  I hope students will be kind and resist the impulse to flog any of the panelists (i.e., me) for fractured syntax, faulty verb-pronoun agreement and other grammatical details that we all like to think we're more careful about in our written work. Standards may vary in spoken English or less-formal prose like this weblog, but grammar still counts if you're taking the course for credit. :-) 11:58:18 AM    comment []

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