JRN 260 - Explainer

JRN 260 – News WritingRich Hanley, Associate ProfessorSpring 2017/ Explainer

JRN 260 - News WritingExplainer

● What is an Explainer?- It is a model of basic journalism that emerged in the 2008

to cover the bewildering array of data available in digital form to a wider audience

- The model is used most often to illuminate science and statistics in an easily digestible format

- The explainer specializes in the “how” and “why” to give the “who, what when, where” elements of news context


● What is an Explainer?- That rests at the heart of the business case for explainers,

according to news industry analyst Ken Doctor

-“If, in fact, in a world awash in Who/What/When/Where, readers value the connecting of dots, they’re more likely to pay for it — and to pay more for it. That’s the business rationale. - Doctor


● What is an Explainer?- The difference between an explainer and the more widely

practiced and known explanatory journalism is in length, depth and writing approach

- Explainers tend to be short; explanatory pieces tend to take deep dives into a story, and, as such, are long, include more quotes and detail and can range to contextualize close but separate items of reportage

- Explanatory journalism also has its own Pulitzer category


● What is an Explainer?- First appearing in Slate, an online magazine, in 2008, the

model transformed what Vox founder Ezra Kline called the “vegetables and spinach” of journalism into short, accessible stories that helped the audience understand the complexity of the world signified by news

- The audience responded favorably, as Vox emerged an explainer site whose audience at times exceeded that of traditional news sites


● What is an Explainer?- The popularity of the model can also be traced to the ease

with which its content can be translated into a form of clickbait on social media

- Headlines, for example, can be simply rendered in compelling language

- Unlike Buzzfeed-like listicles or typical clickbait, explainers cover serious issues and thus emerged as an important part of the info ecosystem


● What is an Explainer?- The Atlantic magazine editor Matt Thompson described

explainers as an “antidote” for web overload in 2009

- The explainer thus served as journalism’s response to Wikipedia, according to journalist Qifan Zhang from Shanghai, China, writing in 2016.

- Klein sees explainers as expanding the definition of news itself


● What is an Explainer?- “New information is not always — and perhaps not even

usually — the most important information for understanding a topic. … The news business [is] just a subset of the informing-our-audience business — and that’s the business we aim to be in.” – Klein

- The model reverses the idea that news must be new in the sense that information is churning – or lurching – from one thing to next.


● What is an Explainer?- Thompson’s insight into the form stemmed from its

experience in the newsroom

- “Ten minutes of conversation with a good reporter could unlock the fundamentals of a beat so thoroughly I’d walk away feeling like an expert on the topic. I started to realize that “getting” the news didn’t require a decoder ring or years of work. All it took was access to the key pieces of information that newsrooms possessed in abundance,” he said.


● What is an Explainer?- That means newsrooms already had access to the

information but needed a model to express it effectively and efficiently outside of the traditional hard news, feature, profile or other structure

- The explainer model presented the opportunity for news organization to take reporting outside of the traditional format and extend and enhance it to enlighten an audience that desired information without much narrative propulsion


● What is an Explainer?- The model is simplicity itself

a. It takes a statistic or event, (the universal) asks a question, attaches an anecdote to it (the

particular) and provides the answer through a brief explanation

b. Geometrically arrayed in short paragraphs in a total package of 500 – 750 words, the explainer includes analysis, expert quotes, graphs | graphics and, if warranted, images

c. A conclusion summarizes the information


● What is an Explainer?- Here is a single recent example of an explainer from

Wonkblog

- It’s a bit on the long side but it focuses on that single question about Ivanka Trump sitting at the president’s desk

- The post seeks to answer that question with a quote from an expert


● What is an Explainer?- Here is another example, this one from Vox and based on

an explanation of presidential executive privilege


● What is an Explainer?- And here is how that story appeared on Facebook.

- Please note the headline and its informal expression that’s perfect for a social feed in a clickbaity sort of way: “That’s Nonsense”


● What is an Explainer?- Here’s a classic Vox explainer that serves as a template

except for one missing element: a quote or two from a health insurance expert

- The reporter’s expertise serves that function in this case but it’s always best at this point to seek independent expert views and guidance


● What is an Explainer?- Think of stories that can be translated into explainers, i.e,

a. Campus housing lotteryb. Shuttle system routesc. Selection of deansc. Women’s basketball defensive formationd. Men’s basketball rebounding strategye. Hockey faceoffs

JRN 260 - Explainer

Education

Transcript of JRN 260 - Explainer