OJ: The quest continues: Guardian Unlimited
As my quest continues to find out why media organisations use quizzes and surveys in online journalism, I turn to Jon Dennis, the deputy news editor for Guardian Unlimited.
I asked, "When do you feel it is necessary to include a quiz in a news story?" Jon explained:
"If it adds value to the story. If, for example, there is a story about research showing people don't know much about science, then we could do a factual quiz testing people's knowledge of science. Or we might do it for fun. Where we would not do a quiz - which I think should really be always fun for the reader to do - is to run alongside "serious" news stories involving death, injury, personal tragedy or loss. In these instances a quiz would obviously be inappropriate."
My next question was to see when he thought surveys would be useful in online journalism. He told me:
"I think we would do so frequently and on any subject where a subject might be illuminated by discussion, or simply a
subject where a range of views and experiences are likely to be held.
In the past we've had discussions on our talk boards:
http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee74cb9. Our readers still use this part of the site, but in recent years we've tended to use the medium of blogs: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news On this part of the site we can get our writers to express a view or suggest a topic for discussion in a lively and informative way."
Jon then told me what he believed both of these had in common with each other. "What they have in common is a degree of interactivity, though clearly a forum such as a blog has a higher and more sophisticated degree of interactivity than a multiple-choice quiz. Also, both are mediums that you could only offer on the internet - ie not in the printed Guardian newspaper"
You can visit the Guardian Unlimited web site at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
I asked, "When do you feel it is necessary to include a quiz in a news story?" Jon explained:
"If it adds value to the story. If, for example, there is a story about research showing people don't know much about science, then we could do a factual quiz testing people's knowledge of science. Or we might do it for fun. Where we would not do a quiz - which I think should really be always fun for the reader to do - is to run alongside "serious" news stories involving death, injury, personal tragedy or loss. In these instances a quiz would obviously be inappropriate."
My next question was to see when he thought surveys would be useful in online journalism. He told me:
"I think we would do so frequently and on any subject where a subject might be illuminated by discussion, or simply a
subject where a range of views and experiences are likely to be held.
In the past we've had discussions on our talk boards:
http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee74cb9. Our readers still use this part of the site, but in recent years we've tended to use the medium of blogs: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news On this part of the site we can get our writers to express a view or suggest a topic for discussion in a lively and informative way."
Jon then told me what he believed both of these had in common with each other. "What they have in common is a degree of interactivity, though clearly a forum such as a blog has a higher and more sophisticated degree of interactivity than a multiple-choice quiz. Also, both are mediums that you could only offer on the internet - ie not in the printed Guardian newspaper"
You can visit the Guardian Unlimited web site at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
posted by WRD Matt at
10:28 AM
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