Contemporary Editing

Exercises

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Editing 2.0 Exercises

Module 1.1

Editing 2.0: The architect within

Questions

How do these metaphors help us think about how best to communicate in digital spaces and places?

1. When we describe digital “spaces,” we invariably turn to metaphor.
   • The information superhighway.
   • The worldwide “web.”
   • Electronic messages as “email.”
2. For what kinds of stories do traditional, linear sequences (think of books here) make the most sense, and for what kinds of stories might it be better to provide multiple sequences or paths?

Activities

1. Take any story on the homepage of your favorite news site right now and think about how to provide additional layers of information. Think also about how the story might be improved by interactive features or elements.
2. 2. Identify a website with poor navigation. Write a one-page memo to that site’s webmaster instructing him or her on how to improve that navigation.

Quiz

Editor’s Bookshelf—Additional Reading Suggestions

Chapter 1: Focus on fundamentals: The editor within

Starr, Paul. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications, Basic Books, 2005. A wide-ranging social history of American media that not only tells the history of the media in a new way but also puts America and its global influence into a new perspective.

Schudson, Michael. The Sociology of News, W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. A synthesis of what is happening to journalism—and what is happening to the scholarly understanding of journalism. This second edition examines journalism as a social institution and analyzes the forces and factors that shape the news media today.