Search engine optimization: Killing journalistic creativity or marketing to a new audience?

By Hannah Williams
Nov. 19, 2008

 

Search engine optimization suggests adding key words to standard print headlines, transforming the Chicago Daily Tribune's incorrect report of the 1948 president-elect to “Dewey defeats Truman in presidential election.”

Multimedia reporting spurs journalists to write to multiplatform audiences, manufacturing headlines that gain the approval of editors, catch the attention of readers and crack the algorithms of search engines.

“Journalists over the years have assumed they were writing their headlines and articles for two audiences — fickle readers and nitpicking editors,” Steve Lohr of the New York Times writes.

“Today, there is a third important arbiter of their work: the software programs that scour the Web, analyzing and ranking online news articles on behalf of Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.”

SearchEngineWatch.com explains how search engines work, “crawling” the web and spitting back keyword matches, and offers rankings of the “Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories” among other news, info and tips for optimizing your Web site to increase traffic.

Lohr credits search engine optimization with the decline of catchy headlines in “This Boring Headline Is Written For Google.”

“[S]oftware bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded,” writes Lohr. “There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.”

Increased traffic often means increased revenue, a big incentive for those in the newspaper industry with ever-declining readership.

“Some news sites offer two headlines. One headline, often on the first Web page, is clever, meant to attract human readers. Then, one click to a second Web page, a more quotidian, factual headline appears with the article itself,” explains Lohr.

The BBC is known for its dual headlines, especially on extended stories. Today, The BBC’s top story headline reads “A social danger;” click through and you’ll wind up at “How dangerous are networking sites.” In BBC business news, a click on “Motor city misery” leads you to “Detroit hit as car firms beg for bail-out.”

This linking compromise caters to the various audiences of online journalism: editors, readers and search engines.

Writing for the Internet has turned the news media upside down. Traditional print tactics don’t always translate into online success.

New Media Bytes, a site helping journalists better understand how to utilize the online medium most efficiently and effectively for news, offers tips for headline writing. The best headlines will be clear and concise and will contain names, datelines and searchable keywords.

Furthermore, the site capitalizes on the opportunities to increase readership via allowing readers to share the article using web tools: email, del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Mixx and Sphinn.

CNET News advises journalists to think in reverse when titling stories. What terms would a reader search if they were looking for the story content?

CNET writer Elinor Mills tackles search engine optimizing some of the most memorable headlines in history and suggests avoiding abbreviations (“Wall Street lays an egg, stock market crashes” in Variety on Black Monday) and adding key words (“Dewey Defeats Truman in Presidential Election” in The Chicago Tribune’s incorrect report of the 1948 election results).

The Internet is a new challenge for reporters, and in order to succeed in this new frontier, journalists must master their new medium and utilize it to its full advantage.

Relinquishing creative control of the headline to search engine optimization does not have to mean sacrificing witty, poignant, pithy journalistic writing. It merely means making it easier for a worldwide audience to find and enjoy your journalistic eloquence. 

Elon Community Abroad Still Invested and Engaged in Election

An International Round-Up of Elon’s Election Reaction
By Hannah Williams
Nov. 5, 2008

ELON, N.C. – Sen. John McCain conceded the presidency to Sen. Barack Obama at 11:18 p.m. EST, but for many Elon students and faculty abroad it was the wee hours of the morning when they received news of their president-elect.

“It was a nice wake up call,” junior Ashley Barnas said. Barnas, currently in London, was awoken by one of her Elon flatmates announcing Obama’s victory at 4 a.m. British time.

Elon students in London gather at a local pub to watch election coverage prior to the polls closing stateside. Photo by Ashley Barnas.

Barnas and other students gathered at a pub to watch pre-election coverage. When polls started to close, everyone in her six-student flat was “glued to the television watching BBC1,” said Barbas.

“We could hear the students in the flat above us cheering and yelling as each state was announced for Obama,” said Barnas.

Slowly her flatmates trickled off and went to bed, leaving one student to witness Obama’s victory and share with the group.

Professor Brooke Barnett, teaching in London, pulled an all-nighter, observing the media coverage of the election results at Sky News.

Barnett simultaneously watched a multitude of broadcasts while sitting next to the executive producer, the graphics producer and the line producer of Sky News.

Sky News would not call the election even when Electoral College projections for Obama surpassed the 270 mark.

“He hasn’t won when he gets 270. He hasn’t won until McCain concedes,” said Barnett of Sky News’s methodology for determining the president-elect.

Also in London, Professor Tom Mould noted the difference between American coverage and British coverage.

Mould was watching the BBC on television while monitoring the NBC site. While NBC projected 103 electoral votes for Obama and 34 votes for McCain, the BBC projected 54 to 10, respectively.

Barnett said she was more surprised by how quickly every station followed suit in calling the election for Obama, within 6 or 7 seconds, rather than by the hour at which the election was called.

“When it did end up getting called, it didn’t seem early because there had been a thought that it may have ended earlier,” she said of the reaction in the Sky newsroom.

Alex Walton, a junior studying in Perugia, Italy, said he watched the election results at the only place in town with English coverage: a bar that stayed open all night and broadcast CNN.

People gather at Merlins, a bar in Perugia, Italy, to watch the election results broadcast on CNN. Photo by Alex Walton.

“I’m not sure how they got it, but it was CNN,” he said.

Perugia doesn’t typically offer much news in English, he explained.

“It was pretty heavily in favor of Barack Obama,” said Walton. People would cheer when states were called for Obama and boo when they went to McCain.

“I was sitting next to a local who said if he were American he would vote for Barack Obama,” said Walton.

Walton said it looked as though Obama would win when he departed the Perugia viewing party at 8:30 p.m. EST. “There were people celebrating already.”

A flier advertising the St. Andrews election coverage all-night viewing party. Photo by Lisa Bodine.

In St. Andrews, Scotland, Lisa Bodine attended a University watch party simultaneously screening various news feeds with a crowd that was about half American students.

The atmosphere was very pro-Obama, said Bodine. “Every chair had someone standing on it and each blue state that showed up caused an eruption of cheers. Every red state caused some booing.”

Students in St. Andrews Scotland cheer as election results are broadcast around 8:00 p.m. EST. Photo by Lisa Bodine.

“I was pretty happy once I saw that Ohio went to Obama,” said Bodine, who left thereafter, confident he would win.

All students interviewed said they voted from abroad. Some said they weren’t sure how their absentee ballots would be calculated, but they were glad they voted.

“I was a little worried that I wouldn’t have enough turn-around time, but I’m pretty sure that I got it back in plenty of time,” said Walton in Italy.

Barnas in London said that the Brits were very interested and informed about the American election. “It almost seems that they know more about our candidates than we do.”

Bodine said, every non-American student she speaks to about American politics is in favor of Obama.

“Some of the Danes in my hall literally had tears in their eyes [they were so happy Obama won],” Sara Pasquinelli, a junior studying in Copenhagen, Denmark, said.

“When I got off the tube, people were mobbing the newspaper stands,” said Barnett who left Sky News during the morning commute.

The international audience was mainly interested in the presidential race and the congressional balance of power, she said.

Barnett said, “As soon as I got home I rushed in looked at Burlington Times-News and The Pendulum for the results of local races.” 

Freeze frames of the international media’s election coverage throughout Tuesday night follow.

The BBC appeared more cautious about its projections said professor Tom Mould. 

The BBC site at 11 p.m. EST Nov. 4.

The BBC site at 10:15 a.m. EST Nov. 5.

Sky News waited for confirmation from two major US networks before calling states for either candidate, said Brooke Barnett, an Elon communications professor who observed the station’s coverage from inside the Sky News newsroom.

The Sky News site at 10:30 p.m. EST Nov. 4.

The Sky News site at 11:07 p.m. EST Nov. 4.

The Sky News site at 8:15 a.m. EST Nov. 5.

Alex Walton, a junior studying in Perugia, Italy, had rare access to CNN International in a local bar that stayed open all night for people to watch the election results.

The CNN International site at 10:25 p.m. EST Nov. 4.

The CNN International site at 11:01 p.m. EST Nov. 4.

The CNN International site at 8:15 a.m. EST Nov. 5.