Panos Day 3: Getting into the meat of things

The Streets of Patan

With today's sessions, the Panos multimedia workshop now gets into the meat of the multimedia production cycle. We began with an understanding of the differences in writing for print and the web.


The key, we learnt, was concise and clear writing styles. Ideally, articles on the web are 50% shorter than those in print. Attention spans for text, we realise, is very limited on the web. And yet, most newspapers simple regurgitate material from print editions onto their websites, expecting to boost their online presence.


Journalists need to adapt to the writing styles for the web. Key among them are:

1. Present a summary of an article at the beginning of the page
2. Use shorter paragraphs, presenting one idea per paragraph
3. Incorporate bullet lists into the text to facilitate easy-to-digest material

When talking of writing for the web, I am also of the opinion we need to do away with the earlier “pyramid” style of writing and incorporate new paradigms. The pyramid model, where the most important – who, what, where, why and how – elements are presented at the beginning, was developed at a time when wire services were unreliable and prone to break down. As such, news agencies sent the most important part of the story at the very beginning so that, even if the wire broke down, the main story would reach the newsrooms.


Today, we do not face such issues. As a result, continuing to use the old pyramid style does not really make sense. Instead, new media gurus recommend a film-script style of delivery. Here, the story is gradually unfolded to the reader, much like good films hold the audience's attention through the film. David Gumiya of Viewmagazine is one such guru. However, old school journalists and editors may be very reluctant to accept such change.


Today we were also formed into groups for the hands-on production exercise. Over the remainder of this workshop we will be working together within our group to script, shoot, edit and put together a new media package for the web. There was a great degree of excitement because now the workshop gets into its hands on phase after the theory of the preceding two days.


We begin with audio recording and editing tomorrow before moving to video. Saturday morning we are scheduled to shoot video followed by editing and creating a web package. The groups are diverse in terms of the countries represented as well as the skill sets and backgrounds.

This should be interesting. Stay tuned!


The Streets of Patan
For your viewing pleasure, accompanying this post are some images from my walk through the narrow streets of Patan. This is a really ancient town that has retained its identity in the form of its architecture. The government, I am told, gives tax concessions to those keeping the old brick facades. From the looks of it, it seems many have chosen to take those concessions. For how long, time will tell.