Another old piece from my MA work. This was, in fact, just a small part of a wider essay that I wrote to accompany a portfolio of webzine articles. I have therefore now edited and expanded upon it certain places in order to round it off. I'm posting it in the blog for the future, and hope somebody may yet find it useful... even if they just fish the quotes out of it.

Writing content for online publication shares many of the same key skills as traditional journalism insomuch as the content must be relevant, written in a dynamic and easy to follow manner, and correctly formatted for the medium of publication. The Jennifer Kyrnin article, ‘10 Tips For Good Web Writing’ published on About.com, breaks these down into a list of ten easy to remember rules:

1. Write relevant content.

2. Put conclusions at the beginning.

3. Write only one idea per paragraph.

4. Use action words.

5. Use lists instead of paragraphs.

6. Limit list items to 7 words.

7. Write short sentences.

8. Include internal sub-headings.

9. Make your links part of the copy.

10. Proofread your work.1

However the first major difference between writing for print and the web is in the formatting of the articles. As in traditional journalism, style guides differ from publication to publication depending on the audience it caters for but many web-based publications today will have accessibility on a global scale in mind. For example, MSN news will keep the sentences short, with one idea per paragraph, use contextual hyperlinks and include sub headings in bold and italic type. The logic behind keeping the style simple and the format easy to navigate is due to articles on a screen being harder to read, and according to the London School of Economics website:

“People who use the web do not behave like people reading a book. They are usually looking for specific information. Web authors must make it easy for them to find what they want.

Studies show that people read online text a lot slower than printed text. Reading from a screen for an extended period of time is generally an unpleasant experience for most users.”2

When taking this into account we can see a definite gap begin to emerge between the styles of the articles written for print and the web. For instance, in the daily newspaper The Independent on the 14th of August 2010, the article Not stopping at the next station – there's no driver, about a runaway maintenance train on the London Underground was featured. On the MSN UK news website, an article on the same subject appeared titled Tube line cleared due to runaway maintenance train. The first major difference is visible in the titles themselves. The Independent article is ambiguous and draws you in, whereas the MSN article is immediate and full of information. One reason behind this is what is known as Search Engine Optimisation – the practice of including certain keywords in articles in order to gain listings in search engines such as Google. Another reason according to Jakob Nielson is that:

“In print, you can spice up linear narrative with anecdotes and individual examples that support a storytelling approach to exposition. On the Web, such content often feels like filler; it slows down users and stands in the way of their getting to the point.”3

This example is best illustrated by the opening paragraphs to each article. In The Independent the opening paragraph is a sentence containing a brief summary of the story with little information yet it uses dramatic words such as “Chaos” and “Hurtled” to peak the reader’s attention.

“A runaway train brought chaos to London Underground yesterday as it hurtled through six stops on the Northern line.”4

However in the MSN article we can immediately see that there is significantly more information included in the opening paragraph, although the overall length of the sentences doesn't differ by much.

“A runaway train went through six stops on a 13-minute journey on the Tube on Friday with other Underground trains having to be cleared out of its path.”5

Another area where web journalism differs from print is in the presentation of articles, which differs significantly in many areas. The principle formats for print articles are broken down into three categories; News, news in brief and features. For online journalists the formats can include these and sub-sections thereof. For instance a feature may be included amongst a web of articles that are connected by hyperlinks. It may be broken down into galleries with photographs providing the lead ins. Audio and video may also be included to give more contextual background and interactivity that doesn't detract from the conciseness of the text. According to Robert Niles, writing for‘The Online Journalism Review, the opportunity is also there to utilise other formats than the web article to create a rapport with the reader by crafting an article that will create a discourse between the writer and the audience.

“Online writers can communicate with their readers in many more forms than the traditional news article. Blogs, ‘Wikis’ and discussion boards dissolve the barrier between writer and reader, creating a more informal and interactive writing environment. Take advantage of this opportunity and distinguish yourself by writing in a clean, active, conversational style that will make your readers feel as comfortable reading your words as they feel when talking with a close friend.”6

Many publications do operate both print and web services; The Independent, for example, includes all the articles available in it's newspaper and magazines and re-prints them on the website. These articles remain unchanged from the way they appear in print form, but are incorporated into the web layout with links to similar articles within the website. This is a common practice among magazines and newspapers that were published in print before adding a digital wing as well. This has the benefit of making the content from previous editions of the publication archival and allowing people, who didn’t purchase the physical copy in time, to go back and find articles.

However some publications have begun to switch over to purely digital content and as such have archived their print editions as pictures in JPG, PDF or Flash formats. These differ in effectiveness as to the search-ability of the content on the web as search engines do not as easily index JPG and Flash files as they do a PDF file. This has led some web publications to also create downloadable PDF versions of their articles as an electronic publication (E-Zine etc.) which can either be sold for a nominal fee or downloaded free of charge. Provided the downloader has a portable computer or tablet to view the document on they no longer need to be connected to that site to view the content.

The final difference is speed. Although a news site may receive a story from the same source as a newspaper, the speed at which they are published differs greatly. A news site like BBC online compared to The Independent can break news within an hour or so of it happening, if not instantly. This is due to the speed at which content is written, checked and published. This is why an initial report will often be short and sketchy on the details, and followed up with several more to clarify things, which is not dissimilar from the way modern rolling TV news operates. As a blog or webzine publication most news will be broken from a press release or taken second hand from another news source. These lead to a lot of repetition on sites as contributor’s copy and paste press releases or directly quote large chunks of other stories in an attempt to break news quickly.

In stark comparison newspapers and magazines may have to wait up to between a day and even a month before the same story can be published. This therefore gives them more time in which to be able to write original content and allow for more clarified information to come through before committing to publication.

With major publications invested in digital content, and new magazines, journals and newspapers increasingly opting for a web or other electronic platform to reach more readers, it is safe to assume that web writing is a skill that all journalists will need in their arsenal in the future. Newly qualified journalists will also have to have an increasing awareness of not only web writing, but also in the construction of websites. Basic skills such ass hyper linking, creating and adding pictures and graphics to HTML will all be part and parcel of prepping articles for publication. That is of course barring the irreversible collapse of the Internet overnight.

End Notes:
1 Kyrnin, Jennifer. 10 Tips For Good Web Writing. (webdesign.about.com/od/writing/a/aa031405.htm)
2 Writing For The Web. (www.lse.ac.uk/resources/webEditorsHandbook/bestPracticeGuide/editorialWriting/writingForTheWeb.htm ) 2009
3 Nielson, Jacob. Writing Style For Print Vs Web. (www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html ) June 2008
4 Woodman, Peter. Not stopping at the next station – there's no driver. Independent (London), Saturday 14th August 2010. pp 11.
5 Tube line cleared due to runaway maintenance train. (news.uk.msn.com/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154392333), Saturday 14th August 2010.
6 Niles, Roberts. How To Write For The Web. OJR: The Online Journalism Review (www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/writing/), March 2008.

I haven't added a serious article to the blog in a long time so here is one. It was originally part of my Masters portfolio that accompanied the Tor Marrock interview that has since been published on http://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/. There was also a feature on concert photography done in the style of Digital SLR Magazine which I may post as well at some point.

The following is a report rather than an essay, and I have slightly expanded a couple of points and added pictures to make it an easier read.
Enjoy.

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik issue #35

Music journalism is agreed to have started as soon as the popular press (newspapers and journals), as we recognize it, came into circulation in the eighteenth century. The reporters and reviewers employed then were often professional musicians themselves such as Robert Schumann who founded the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1834. At this time the subjects of the reportage and criticism were mainly operas and symphonies with “lower” forms of music such as traditional folk music, monastic music and vaudeville being regarded as common and not of interest to the upper class readers. This changed during the period of the Romantic Movement when interest in music became much more widespread and non-specialist publications began to cover more entertainment subjects with journalists who were not necessarily experts in the field.

Coverage of rock‘n’ roll and pop music as we know it today didn’t become widespread until the early 1960’s after the international success of The Beatles. At this time publications such as Melody Maker, Sounds, The NME, and Rolling Stone emerged ― sometimes first as small circulation fanzines, then as established publications. As John Harris wrote for The Guardian in 2009:

“The history of rock writing begins around 1966 when, with what was once mere "pop" being taken seriously, the American writer Paul Williams published a journal-cum-fanzine titled Crawdaddy, which aimed to bring to rock music the kind of cerebral writing long devoted to folk and jazz. Other currents were swirling around the more educated bits of the US counter-culture, among them the expressive precedents set by the Beats and the possibilities suggested by New Journalism.” 1

These new magazines not only covered and critiqued the artists and their output but also began to dictate the changes in music trends in. So much that Rolling Stone magazine began courting power with record labels for the public attention a cover feature could generate for a band. Music journalism soon became big business as cover features in influential publications came to be seen as stepping-stones for musical acts and their record labels.

In the 1970’s music journalism took its first steps back toward being controlled by the people as much as the wider media. In 1976‘punk’was, according to the late Malcolm McClaren, born and with it came the new wave of fanzines. This was a backlash against the commercialised and increasingly impenetrable world of mainstream music coverage that allowed fans of new genre’s such as punk to write articles and reviews and publish them via their nearest Xerox copier. One notable example, and for some the original punk fanzine, was Sniffin’ Glue by Mark Perry. The cut and paste 'DIY' nature of this fanzine soon spread and became a platform for writers such as Danny Baker, Mick Mercer and Tony Fletcher who would in the following years of the 1980’s take control of the established publications.

Sniffin' Glue issue #3 featuring The Damned

The punk ethic that was carried over from the scene’s fanzines into mainstream magazines such as The NME and Melody Maker in the 1980’s shook up the established idea of music writing. Critique and reportage had been the objective of the magazines for their entire lifespan thus far. But with the new wave of writers came the new wave of attitude. Tom Wolfe's "New Journalism" and Hunter S. Thompson's "Gonzo" styles incestuously mixed with deconstructionist literary theory and frank, opinionated personalities. Take for example this review of the Bauhaus single‘The Passion of Lovers’from The NME by Adrian Thrills, which simply states:

“The desperation of losers…”2

The idea of the music journalist as a somewhat glamorous entity who travelled the world to do drugs with bands and write about it wasn’t a new one ― Just ask former NME scribe Nick Kent. However the idea of a music journalist that told you that you were an idiot for liking a certain band or, more often, and idiot for not liking them was more novel. As Everett True recently summed up his late colleague Steven 'Swells' Wells as the “paradigmatic tastemaker critic”:

“[T]aste-maker critics are like gods […] Do the public really require―or even want―a faceless “meta” critic, the lowest common denominator of countless opinions, where all opinion is reduced to a mean average mark?”3

The late Steven 'Swells' Wells: "Tastemaker Critic"

This style of music journalism has since been mythologised in the popular consciousness. Across the Atlantic in the USA, Lester Bangs was pioneering his own brutally honest form of music journalism that initially found a home in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine and later Creem. Bangs' cerebral and incendiary style was again informed by the principles of "New Journalism" and "Gonzo" which has given his thirteen year career an "outsider" credibility. This has even led to him being portrayed in Almost Famous (2000) as a wise guru and mentor to the film's young and naive protagonist.

"Well basically I just started out to lead [an interview] with the most insulting question I could think of. Because it seemed to me that the whole thing of interviewing as far as rock stars and that was just such a suck-up. It was grovelling obeisance to people who weren't that special, really. It's just a guy, just another person, so what?" 4

Lester Bangs: Journalist with attitude.

The weekly music publication in the 80’s was transformed, taking the idea of artistic writing and running with it with many publications opting to take the reader into the discussion by engaging with them. The reader may not necessarily like what the writer has to say, but based on their experience of that writer's work they will have formed their own opinion. As a result the reader will be able to create further discourse because of it. Thus spreading the debate and keeping the sense of ‘fanzine-people-power’, as Petra Davies notes:

“This model’s imagined reader is willing to become engaged with what she reads, a participant by proxy in the cut and thrust of art-criticism, and, crucially, imagined as likely to disagree as to agree.”5

Suddenly the music press made a dramatic shift in the 90’s. The glossy monthly magazine grew as the format of choice and with it an objective ‘consumer review’ style of writing that reduced the artistic merit of albums to the level of the machines that played them. The mainstream music press systematically alienated those who had personally invested in it. The idea of a balance between a trustworthy rating system and writing that would attract more advertising became the basis for a new type of marketing system. The authoritative and sometimes incendiary critic was, as a result, toned down if not snuffed out altogether.

As the world-wide-web grew and connected to more homes in the late 1990s, the fanzine began to return to strength through the basic HTML coding of websites. Companies such as Geocities, Angelfire, and Lycos provided free web space and a ‘drag and drop’ interface that gave people the chance to create their own E-Zines. By the turn of the millennium E-Zines had become as slick as the mainstream print publications, but were not yet bound by the same rules. Advertising came, but not enough to qualify censoring the opinions of its critics. Many sites even featured forums where the readers could praise and blast the reviewers, or even do some of their own reviewing thus continuing the trend of stimulating debate into the digital realm.

The shift to web 2.0 has since provided even more scope for the websites. Wordpress and Joomla have become powerful content management systems that promote user interaction (and best of all they are free!). Cheap web space and domain names coupled with the explosion in professional and amateur blogs has created a system of critics on the pulse of the industry that has propelled bands into the mainstream media’s attention.

“A counter-culture of laptop-toting aural misanthropes has successfully (if not accidentally) managed to turn the music industry on its head. Suddenly indie is not so “indie,” and the counter-culture―like it or not―is not so “counter.” Ironically, the citizen journalism cult built on P2P file sharing and hipster snarkiness is driving the music business, not draining it.”6

The falling circulation of publications and decreasing revenues in recent years has meant that many titles have begun to switch over to the interactive and blog-based webzine format. In many cases using the website portion of the publication to compliment, enhance and sell the traditional print version. But is it too late for the mainstream media model in the face of digital expansion, or will the bloggers of today like the fanzine writers of the punk era, take over the current publications and shift focus once again?

 End Notes:
1. Harris, John. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/27/music-writing-bangs-marcus  (June 2009)
2. Thrills, Adrian. New Musical Express. (4th July 1981), P31 - Full review.
3. Davis, Petra. Drowned in Sound. http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4137396  (16th July 2009)
4. DeRogatis, Jim. Perfect Sound Forever. http://www.furious.com/Perfect/lesterbangs.html (Nov 1999)
5. Davis, Petra. Drowned in Sound. http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4137396  (16th July 2009)

6. Wayne, Jim. Online Journalism Review. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/071218wayne/  (18th December 2007)
 

A not-so-veiled reference to the new Anathema album there in the title. I received 'We're here because we're here' in the post yesterday along with a lovely new t-shirt and I was blown away by the quality of the whole package. I can honestly say this album will be the soundtrack for my Summer this year. I'd recommend you head on over to your local independent record store and purchase a copy.

It's been a very tough week in all honesty. Last weekend my computer died, which has taken several days to fully rectify – this has left me quite behind on the editing of recent photo shoots, so please bare with me on those. In addition to this my 1 year old Schnauzer, Wolfgang was hit by a car after an ill-advised idea that running off would be a fun game. He's doing fine though. He luckily avoided breaking any bones or tearing any muscle. He did however scrape himself on the road pretty badly and needed stitches (which are annoying him). But all things considered he was very lucky to get off with that. Thank you to everyone that has sent him love and hugs, it's been very appreciated.

Anyway, on to technical stuff of a boring but non-the-less important nature.

I've deleted my old Wordpress account – which I have to admit to using only very infrequently, often updating it with nothing of any real interest to anyone. If you're viewing this on my actual blogger page (http://seanmpalfrey.blogspot.com/) then you'll obviously noted the very minimalist look with it's one column and stark layout. There is a reason behind this, and a good one at that. Come September I'll be launching a personal website at the address http://sean.imagomortis.co.uk/ where I will be collating and archiving my journalistic work in a sort of e-portfolio/e-CV. This will include links to all my Metal Team UK and Reflections of Darkness reviews/interviews, archives of academic work, and original features that don't have a home to go to. Hopefully this will provide something interesting and interactive for people and potential employers to enjoy.

And then there is this blog. As you can see I've transferred some old articles over from the previous blog (by hand as the export xml file wouldn't download correctly) that were quite popular, in a view to continuing in the same vein (albeit more regularly than before). I will also be updating it with Imago Mortis news as well (new shoots etc.) – the Imago Mortis website will still operate as my design/photography portfolio.

The blog will be fully integrated into the body of the website via an “iframe”, hence the look being as such as to allow it to fit in the page effectively.

I think that's it for the technical mumbo-jumbo. I will be continually updating the blog prior to the launch of the website – posts are automatically going to my Facebook notes and Twitter account, so you can all see when I update.

For now though, here is a list of links and blogs for you to enjoy today :)

http://www.imagomortis.co.uk/
http://twitter.com/S2KDragonKiller

http://pictograms.blogspot.com/
http://heavylatin.blogspot.com/
http://nicholasdishington.blogspot.com/
http://ofthetwilight.blogspot.com/
http://thepharmakosfiles.blogspot.com/