The main ingredients of "tasty" material
The secrets of journalism in CitySites
The main task of an interactive journalist is to interest the reader. Let’s try to figure out how to attract the attention of the average user and, if possible, to cause his reaction or to induce action.
ILocal journalists write for a category of people united by geographic location, if we talk about the sites of the CitySites network. This is where their similarities end. Solid differences begin from age and social status to religious preferences.
A professional content specialist should be a half psychologist in order to predict and analyze various factors that can make the material popular among users and cause a general resonance. In other words, you need to become interesting for representatives of the most diverse audience.
- As my teachers, the leading figures of journalism, taught me, a person is obsessed with just a few primary needs in life. By making a bet on them, as the main theme of the material, you will not lose. As I remember that they include food, sleep, safety, housing, health, sex, rest, etc. In any case, touching on one of these problems, you are guaranteed to attract the attention of the reader.
- The old good headline remains a constant trick to lure the audience. In the sphere of online media, it should be provocative, enticing, screaming, intriguing, scandalous - the main thing is to be catchy.
- Since the time of the most reading nation in the world is in the past, it should be borne in mind that our reader is lazy. Humble yourself. Not everyone who is caught with your headline will read an article to the end. Therefore, we have such a feature as short description of the content in the design of the Internet news. Aerobatics for a journalist is to create such interesting and attractive introductions so that after reading them you want to get to the bottom of the news and read the material from “A” to “Z”.
- And one more constant component of an interesting online material is design. We never cease to love pictures, so the news without a full-fledged illustration is an empty sound. And if you want to capture the users’ attention, use the whole arsenal of design and artistic techniques: callouts, quotes, color highlighting, collages, photoshop contest, professional drawings and photos - all methods are good in our business.
How to write good news or how is it made in CitySites.
“Shop-list”
1. Exclusive idea
2. Use
3. Easiness to understand
4. Mood
5. Space
6. Personalization
Now, about the content:
- To get your material attractive, make it problematic. Your offline audience is concerned with earthly troubles: pensions, communal services, unemployment, education, transportation, and other human problems. Attract the attention of readers, delving into their problems and offering their solutions.
- An exclusive will never go out of fashion, therefore, creating unique information, you are “doomed” to the attention of readers and success among them.
- Philosophy, reflections, analytics and other theory is, of course, good. But your reader will be more interested and post a practical info that can be applied in practice, used in real situation. Therefore, practice, practice and practice once more. Stake on what is useful, not just informative.
- I was taught to deliver information in an accessible, human, not Aesopian language. You can be educated, erudite and enlightened three times, but you are just a horn giving information in an accessible form. Even if the text is initially fanciful, stuffed with statistics or specific terminology - adapt it for the reader. Make the information, easily understandable.
- Make your material socially oriented. Give him a mood, attitude, motivation, motivation. Write not for a tick, but for a specific recipient, who can read the information, feel inspired and catch fire.
- Do not consider your readers worse or dumber than yourself. Do not make for them the choice of what is good and what is bad. Give accurate and comprehensive information, but leave judgement and analysis to the audience. Leave space for reflection, conjecture and aftertaste of information.
- Another trick is personalization. If possible, use in your work examples from the life: your own, friends’, neighbors’. Served with sauce, such information is always easier to digest and read much more interest than the dry facts.
- Unfortunately, materials under the heading "incident" and "crime" will always be popular. Any note about the killings, tragedies, wrecks and atrocities will be in demand. That's the way a person is. Add a screaming headline to this informational subject, and that’s it, success is guaranteed.
In general, you can summarize all the tips in one - put yourself in the reader's place. Always ask the questions: “would I be intrigued by such a headline?” Or “would I be interested in reading to the end?”. In addition, operate only on verified facts, refer to authoritative sources, leave space in the text for a dialogue with the reader, not statements, and think over the visual appearance of the text. Given all the above, you will definitely get a decent material. See you later, partner.