Week 3 reflection- Text

Prior to the week 3 lecture I decided to have a quick browse of the readings supplied on blackboard. Five minutes later I stopped. The Journalism Studies reading seemed to be incredibly dense and verbose. I thought perhaps I may have a better understanding of its material and be better placed to tackle it after the lecture.

What is text? Fast. Flexible. Complete Control. Portable. Searchable. Dominates Online... Immediately I am forced to contemplate what seems like a simple question.  It also another reminder that we now live in the age of the web 3.0, another reminder that I need to embrace this or be left behind.

The concept of the inverted pyramid seems so uncomplicated with the graphic in the slideshow. The very important facts go at the start of the article, funnelling down to the less important facts. I suspect that over the following three years the inverted pyramid will be constantly referred to. It seems to be the basis for journalism.  It makes perfect sense too.

After the lecture I did return to the Journalism Studies reading. Whilst incredibly dry at times it is also incredibly important. Whilst the origins of the inverted pyramids are clearly still disputed amongst researchers, the fact is that it is now unquestionably the commonplace practice of journalism. The reporting of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Europe seems farcical now. One of the causes of the biggest event in history at that stage and the assassination itself wasn’t reported until the end of articles.

I found the slide about the Poynter eyetrack interesting. I would have thought that photographs, or illustrations, would be the first point of focus for the reader. But as the slide says ‘text rules’. With this in mind I made a conscience effort of where my focus was drawn upon seeing the articles in the slideshow. Sure enough I went straight to the text, specifically the headlines. In the image below my eyes immediately went to guardian.co.uk, then to the headlines on the left even though the largest piece of information on the page is the photo of Bradley Manning.

Towards the end of the lecture there was another mention of blogging and social media. The lines between social networks and blogging are disappearing. Text is blogs. Text is emails. Text is tweets. These are feasible sources of news and current affairs. I am gradually learning this.

I realise this blog itself has not followed the inverted pyramid. Should blogs adhere to this? They seem to be more of a chronological reflection. I should practice using it though.