https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3511-5628
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ABSTRACT
Journalism faces a number of challenges: patterns of news consumption have changed and audiences for traditional news outlets are declining. In this context, we explore whether the “inverted pyramid” model – a system of news writing that arranges facts in descending order of importance, which remains predominant in journalism – is the most effective way of communicating information online. Based on a mixed-methods approach using qualitative data from workshops and expert consultations, we developed a series of new “prototypes” of online news storytelling and tested them with a wide range of audiences (N = 1268). Building on earlier work, we find that linear forms of storytelling - rarely used in news - are more effective in transferring knowledge to news consumers and are seen as more engaging, convenient and useful than the traditional inverted pyramid. We then identified key principles that should underlie a more user-focussed approach to narratives in online news.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Clwstwr programme (https://clwstwr.org.uk/) under the Creative Industries Clusters Programme of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, and is part of ongoing research and development project in news innovation.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The first workshop was carried out in collaboration with the Ethnic Youth Support Team in Swansea and the second with support of academics at the University of South Wales.
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