Issues in reporting for a global audience

Reporting for a global audience can be a steep learning curve for an inexperienced journalist. Unlike traditional media which usually limits the consumer to one or two news sources at a time, online news needs to grab the attention immediately or lose viewer to a competitor. Never has finding a different news source been easier, and catching the attention of a reader immediately been so paramount.

A major issue when reporting for a global audience involves mistranslation and different uses of slang terms that vary from country to country. Depending on an online translation tool, like a news outlet in Norway, can result in a simple sentence such as "mass killing" turning into "mass killing of vermin". Many news sites picked up English translations of the article, resulting in red faces but fortunately no long lasting ill effects.

Another major issue when reporting information that can be viewed around the world, involves the legal and ethical aspects. Recently France banned the promotion of Twitter and Facebook in all national media outlets, basing the ruling on the theory that this provided advertising for the two online monopolies. Although this is an extreme measure, it's important to remember that something that may be legally allowed in one country may be cause for legal action in another.

Making stories relevant to an online audience.

As more and more people access up to date news through the internet, journalists must adapt their stories to maintain the interest of a global audience. This audience is aware that there are many other news sources available to them, so online stories must both attract and keep the audience's attention.

Lieb (2009, p127-8) says that "the online reader has virtually no investment in most news sites and may move to another site in an instant."

One way to keep a reader interested is to allow interaction with the article - this allows the reader to have an investment in the page, whether it be through comments, polls or other interactive mediums. Some leading news sites, such as the Courier Mail, allow reader comments which often lead to continued reader interaction and debate with other readers.

Short, easy to navigate stories are also an important part of maintaining reader interest. Some websites limit their websites to 250-500 words and help readers navigate longer stories using appropriate headlines, blurbs and subheads according to Lieb (2009, 129).

References

Lieb, T 2009, All the news: writing and reporting for convergent media, Pearson Education Inc, New York, US. Chapter 7: 'Writing the Basic Online Story', p.127-129