Making Noise With News

1. Making Noise With News Using the news-item to tell your stories

2. In today’s Webshot • Tools for telling stories – Maurice Ryder Storytelling and Writing for the Web Recap News as blog content News content types • The storytelling paradigm in action – Jane Haynes • Questions?

3. Do you remember the last time we talked stories? If not, we’re gonna do a quick recap…

4. Tools for Telling Stories – Storytelling and Writing for the Web Recap • Ken Adam’s Stages of a Story • Once upon a time (a place in time) • …every day… (this is the way it was / this is the problem we were facing) • …and then one day… (the change happened / we discovered something) • …because of that… (this is the result) • …until finally… (this is the impact) • …and ever since…(this is how the world changed) See Webshots3 and 9

5. Tools for Telling Stories – Storytelling and Writing for the Web Recap • Writing for the Web Quick Tips • Write clear, simple and effective content. The content of your site should be easy to read for everyone, preferably in a conversational style. Remember your audience is varied, school leavers, mature students, international students and staff. • Front-load your text. Put the most important content on your page in the first paragraph. Readers will scan your pages you want them to see your main ideas or points of information. • Group your content. Cover only one topic per paragraph. • Be concise. Write short paragraphs and minimize unnecessary words. • Write in active voice instead of passive voice. (Ex: ‘Tim taught the class’, instead of ‘the class was taught by Tim’.) • Use lists. When possible use lists to make your content easier to scan. See our Writing for the Web page

6. Tools for Telling Stories – Storytelling and Writing for the Web Recap • Writing for the Web Quick Tips • Who is the audience? • What do we need to get across? • Be concise • Be clear • Be scannable • Be consistent • Be findable See our Writing for the Web page

7. Tools for Telling Stories – Storytelling and Writing for the Web Recap • UCC Language Style Guide • The purpose of this document is to help contributors to UCC's websites to be consistent in terms of writing style, use of capitalisation, date formats, titles, etc. • Helps you by removing ambiguity and providing clear guidance • Some examples: • Acronyms – spell it out on the first mention • Age – written without apostrophes (20s not 20’s) • Capital letters – these are used to start sentences, don’t use to emphasise words e.g. “The university” not “The University” • Dates – written as in 4 April 2019, without commas or superscript • Disability – we use “a person with a disability” not “a disabled person” • Titles – write them without a full stop e.g. Dr, Ms, Mrs, Mr, Sr, Fr, but always spell Professor in full • Punctuation – it’s important! The difference between helping your uncle, Jack, off his horse and... See our Language Style Guide

8. Tools for Telling Stories – News as Blog Content • What is news? • Anything current • Of the now • Latest updates • In some ways, news and blogs can be the same thing – blogs are seen as a bit more informal • E.g. DEWG Latest Updates

9. Tools for Telling Stories – News as Blog Content • Advantages of adding regular content using the news-item content type: • Easy to add multiple pages • Frequent updates help Google to see that your site is being updated • Self-contained and very shareable • Can be grouped

10. Tools for Telling Stories – News Content Types • The “news-item” Content Type • Flexible content type that allows rich content • Image and image caption • Date, to give content relevance and context • Summary, to grab attention • Full story, to tell your whole story (including allowing you to embed video, audio and social content) • Summary (list) and Detail views of the content • Let’s take a look at this in the CMS…

11. Tools for Telling Stories – News Content Types • The “2017 - News and Views” Content Type • Can be used on landing (but not inner pages yet) • Can display main UCC news (Use Branch News set to “No”) • Or it will find news content on your site (Use Branch News set to “Yes”) • Specify where you want the “Read more” to point • Let’s take a look at this in the CMS…

12. Tools for Telling Stories – News Content Types • The “News Block” Content Type • Can be used on landing and inner pages (but better on inner) • Displays news content on your site (make sure to use this on a section at a level above your news section) • Specify where you want the “Read more” to point • A carry over from pre 2017 redesign – should be phased out • Let’s take a look at this in the CMS…

13. Tools for Telling Stories – News Content Types • The “2017 – News Pagination Control” Content Type • Add it to the section that contains your news items • Will break your news into pages • Will add a pagination control onto the bottom of your news listing page • Let’s take a look at this in the CMS…

14. The Storytelling Paradigm in Action with Jane Haynes, Office of Marketing and Communications 

15. Why Storytelling Matters Storytelling… • translates research into a language everyone can understand • unpacks complex concepts for universal understanding • spotlights tangible, relatable, important values/findings • captures interest Endless possibilities!

16. Making the Human Connection The most compelling story is the human story

17. Making the Human Connection A good story… • is relatable • appeals to our emotions (e.g. art) • appeals to our morality (e.g. sustainability) • appeals to our self-interest (e.g. health) • appeals to our natural sense of curiosity (e.g. history)

18. Focus on Research: The Science of Storytelling

19. Finding the Human Interest Angle • Bring it back to your basic storytelling structure • Ask key questions, like: Why? Why is this research important?           Why should people care about it? How? How are you conducting your research?           (key processes, people, events, etc.) What? What is the impact of your research?

20. Finding the Human Interest Angle

21. Avoiding the Antibiotic Apocalypse

22. Avoiding the Antibiotic Apocalypse See our article online

23. Non-research stories: Charting the hero’s journey Use for profiles, sporting victories, events, projects, etc

24. Spin-out Success See our article online

25. Spin-out Success

26. Pride of Cork See our article online

27. Pride of Cork

28. Sharing Your Story • Key message = strongest human interest angle • Use simple language that everyone can understand • Keep your message basic – how would you explain it to your granny? • Beginning, middle, end = Why? How? What?

29. Editorial • Avoid using jargon – e.g. pertaining/relating • Use only the most essential and compelling quotes • Introduce your human interest angle at the beginning • Choose a strong headline • Don’t compromise on images and media • Brief and bite-size, where possible

30. Audio and Video • Use audio and video where editorial doesn’t make the strongest case or needs a little something extra • Example: Mental Health in the Community • Powerful human interest story weaved into a package that everyone can understand/relate to

31. Questions? email dewg@ucc.ie