Digital Journalism Exercises
Copyright © 1997 Elizabeth Osder

Editing for Online -- Annotation and basic HTML linking

It’s the job of the online editor to create context for a story. Ways of adding context include: linking (to outside sites and archival information), accessing databases and creating applications etc.

Take a news story and consider all the various ways you could annotate it. Acquire a digital version and place hyperlinks in the text as annotation. Describe other possible ways to annotate the text. Could you add sound and video to a music review? Could you access a database of crime information? Could you link out to the corporate site of a company being profiled in a business story?

Our goal is to discuss when and where it’s appropriate to link out of a site and to begin to imagine all the possible ways that we can add context to a story. What style do you like for linking? Do we link inside the text or not?

HINT: Remember to “view” source on a web page if you’re trying to remember how to create a hyperlink.

EXAMPLES: Have a look at the linking in CyberTimes and the applications developed in Issues ‘96

CYBERTIMES:

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/cyber/

ISSUES ‘96:

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/issues/ihome/