Writing In Digital Media explained in 10 minutes

Purposes of written Digital Media Products The written form of media, like other forms of media, is produced and consumed for a range of purposes:

• Inform (also Describe & Explain) – This means that a digital media product is made to let the producer´s target demographic know about what is going on locally, nationally, or internationally, and is also based on the topic that they aim to target their audience; for example the news is primariy used for information, as the audience will want to know what is going on locally, nationally, or internationally. Informational media products very often tend to target a general audience, regardless of age, gender, occupation, etc., as they contain everything the audience needs to know about what is happening all over the world, no matter what their preferences are. Informational media products includes newspapers (Guardian, The Sun, The Telegraph), magazines (GO, Empire, The Radio Times), eletronic versions of newspapers & magazines you they can find online or as an application on their device (or e-newspapers & e-magazines). This also includes news channels on TV and Radio, and news bulletins in the beginning of every hour on non-news related TV channels and Radio stations. Inforamtional products can also fall under educational (in books, posters, and manuals) and entertainment purposes (the prime example of this can often be found in magazines).

• Educate/Instruct – These products teach a certain demographic how to carry out certain actions, how things work, what certain things are, the list goes on. Examples of educational products are books, newspapers, magazines, and manuals (all in print or electronic versions), as well as certain TV channels, and radio stations. Target demographics of educationaal content are also general audiences (in age, gender, and socioeconomical background), though they use it to help them with their studies or to learn more about a random subject that they wanted to find out more about, depending on whether they are in full-time education and/or work.

• Persuade – These products are used to get an audience to believe their ideals, get them to do certain things, or join certain places or attend events. Examples of convincing media products inlcude posters, flyers (from businesses or places that are holding events), leaflets (most commonly health-related), and advertisements on TV or radio (adverts are also used to sell or promote products that the company is selling). 

• This purpose can be modelled to the following:

1. Preferred (or dominant) Reading -- Where the audience agrees with the content, or reacts to a product the way the producers intended.

1. Opposed Reading -- Where the audience disagrees with the text, or reacts to a product in the opposite manner of the producers´ intentions; Opposed Reading is the antithesis of Preferred Reading, as instead of championing the context of that product, the audience will be against it.

1. Negotiable Reading -- Where the audience neither agrees nor disagrees with the products. Negotiable Reading often takes the form of an audience having mixed opinions on the products.

• Promote – These products are used by companies to sell, promote, and market their own products. Promotional products are also known as advertisments , and are often found in all the aforementioned products. Product promotion is a purpose of creating a product that is so common it even spans all the other purposes of products.

• Entertain – these products are often used by audiences as a way of diverting from their usual lives, or escapism. Examples of entertainment products are TV, radio, books (or ebooks), magazines (e-magazines), podcasts, music playlists, and most applications on digital devices.

Journalistic Writing for Digital Media

Journalism is a news-related form of written and moving image products, which is always found on newspapers (in print and digital edition), magazines (also in print or digital edition), and news websites. Journalistic content can also sometimes be found in memoirs of current or former journalists, and are even broadcasted on TV and radio, among other places. Journalistic content is produced for a few purposes; to inform their audience on all events happenng around the globe, educate them on certain topics of interest, and (at times) even persuade them into believing their stance on certain subjects.

The persuasion part of journalism (or even news in general) is where most people get confused (and understandably so) because news is supposed to be using accurate sources, impartial, and unbiased, but nowadays it has become very difficult to consume any kind of news that is all three of these; you may find an impartial piece of news which not entirely based on official sources, or vice-versa.

In Moving Image News, journalists have a different role to other news-related roles, for example newsreaders (or anchormen/anchorwomen), as journalists do not usually work in studio. They normally cover their assigned bulletins on or near the location where the particular event being covered was set. The inclusion of journalists in TV or radio bulletins may make it easier for them to effeciently cover a specific topic as they do not have to cover every single aspect of that topic, meaning that they only need to talk about key factors that played a role in causing an event while the newsreader will summarise it.

In Published News however, there is no newsreader or extra crew; the journalist will have to write about the topic on their own. This may seem fine when they are using secondary resources to assist them in writing a journalistic paper, but this does not make it entirely impartial, accurate, or unbiased. This is because secondary research only provides so much reliable information which you can comletely trust, as they are collected from anyone or organsisation outside of the journalist themselves. You cannot entirely trust a secondary source as they are not completely accurate, imapartial or unbiased. In order to get the sufficient amount of totally accurate and reliable information which is not solely based on opinion, not entirely proven claims, or rumors, you (as a journalist) must go out of your way to find the information by yourself.

In some cases you will be able to work with a crew to publish an article of a significant event in history, or an intersting topic, but those situations involves a professional crew from a newspaper publisher (sometimes a magazine publisher), and hiring someone from a publisher to help distribute and exhibit the article is not so simple; working on the article yourself is far easier (mentally and financially) for you, rather than getting a professional from a publishing company to help you.

Journalistic Writing: Structure and Style Articles written by journalists are usually written formally and sentences are well-structured. A formal writing style helps sets the article in a serious manner, and will therefore translate itself as such, to make the audience take its points seriously. Journalistic articles are written in the 1st Person Point of View (POV), to point out that the journalist had done most of the research themselves and did not hire anybody to do it for them. They are also typically written in the Times New Roman, which is the usual font for any type of published product. In the aforementioned section on what Journalistic Writing in Digital Media means, journalistic articles are written for the following purposes:

• To inform the audeince on certain topics.

• To educate them on important events or scandalus stories.

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• To persuade them into believeing their version of the bulletin. Journalists may also write articles on what they deem as worthy of covering the events, for entertainment value and financial gain.

With that said, not all articles are written formally or with a serious tone to it; Tabloid publishers (including The Sun) will add humurous (or dark) content to make their readers emotional, as some of them want to find entertainment in reading their editions. This usually consists of puns, a lot of emotive words, etc. 

Journalists can boost the popularity of their article or the publisher by having “exclusive” interviews with celebrities, creating celebrity endorsement, and making the edition more unique from other editions. These interviews will often be informal (in their expressions and language), to ensure the interviewee feels more relaxed, and these interviews will appear on the Questions and Answers section.

It is really important for a budding journalist to carry out an effective research into their demograhic, so that they know who they can target their article to, which tone, writing style, etc., is suitable for that audience, and what interests their potential audience have, as well as which lifestyle values they live by. 

Some amatuer journalists may prefer to start with secondary research as they do not have enough experience to carry out a questionnaire or survey. They will eventually transition to carrying out their own primary research when they feel they could get valuable information via surveys and questionnaires. Other beginner journalists will want to start conducting their primary research immediately after completing their degree or diploma in Journalism or related subects. This could be due to their desire for interviewing people before searching for data online or from books, or this may be due to primary research giving the researcher more accurate and unbiased information, compared to secondary research. The facts that they will gather must be 100% based on the truth, though a small portion of the article can contain rumours, as long as they are related to the topic and enhance the story.

The journalist´s research will lead to a potentially grandiose story that they can cover in their article. This will either be a scandal that is yet to be covered or something to do with a celebrity or organisation that has been leaked. Journalists tend to work on their own or in small groups, giving them more freedom and autonomy to find a breakthrough story, using only their imitative (or their ability to imitate; ideal for undercover primary research) and research skills. for this reason journalistic work will often be likened to police work.

Other forms of written text in Digital Media

Blogs

Blogs are the antithesis of journalistic articles; they are mostly written informally, the writer will most likely be someone who does not work in the publishing sector and, depending on the subject of the blog, will mostly write about topics they have a particular interest in, so not blogs are based on particular events or leaked stories, and the ones that are will most definitely be more like the writer is writing to their audience as a friend, not overtly professional (that is the writer´s choice, although they will often choose informal over informal as they are writing about their interests, not a bulletin), and their audience will often be more niche.

In order to write a blog, the following 5 things must be considered:

• You need to have an audience in mind, making sure it appeals to them

• The topic must be specific; it will be easier to focus your blog on a topic, and make it about something you have genuine interest in

• The blog´s intro must be captivating, as this will help grab the audience´s attention, keeping them reading your blog

• The contents of your blog must be well-organised and easy to read

• The blog must be up to date with the present day, and the topic must also be relevant to current events

Advertising

Advertisements are everywhere, to the point where you will find forms of these in your own home. Adverts also require writing to be incorporated in them, as this helps a great deal to promote a product or idea. Adverts will always contain eye-catching verbs and adjectives to help boost their campaign´s popularity.

On-line text games

These games do not contain graphics-based characters, but rather they incorporate text-based characters in the game. These were most popular in the 1980s, in the advent of home computers, and these kinds of games are far more easier to produce than games with graphics in them, as words are simpler to generate. Text games were seen by the general public to be the first Role Play Games (RPGs), and they contain clear instructions on how to pass a certain level, maing these games really successful.