Editors taught online editing techniques

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Press Institute in cooperation with the Cebu Citizens Press Council yesterday held a seminar for editors on social media and new media editing techniques.

Yasmin Arquiza, officer-in-charge/managing editor of GMA News Online, talked about the difference between the legacy media and the social media/new media and how these forms of media complement each other in bringing news and information to the people in the fastest and accurate manner.

Legacy media refers to the traditional media like newspaper, radio and television while the social media includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. The new media includes online news portals, newsfeeds send via text, among others.

Arquiza said that print media the texts, photos and graphics are static and records are permanent. The readers are limited because only the Class A and B buy newspapers. On the contrary, online media is interactive, easy to create, modify, and erase content. Its audience cuts across all classes.

In her presentation, she said that television reports are visually exciting, the content is usually very short snippets due to time constraints and the audience especially on primetime programs cater to the lower income classes. Online media on the other hand enhances TV news, it also provides breaking news and in-depth coverage through special reports and can be viewed by Filipino audience abroad through the web.

Radio, she said, remains the fastest source of breaking news, like online media it is also provides immediate interaction with listeners and news sources. It is widely accessible because it is portable and cheap.

Arquiza, however, said that the online media has captured the audience of the legacy media because of the accessibility of the internet.

“The audience online is broader, as it combines all the audience of legacy media,” said Arquiza.

Arquiza reminded editors to think what kind of audience they have and not to forget the basic principles that accuracy is important than speed especially on breaking new stories.

“Kasi sa company namin, accuracy is number one. Nauna ka nga pero mali naman,” she said adding that aside from accuracy and speed, fairness, substance and depth and creativity must also be considered in putting news online.

She emphasized that in editing news stories online, it is important that links are provided for background of the story.  For feature stories, visuals like photos, slideshows and maps are important.

Headlines for online news should be search engine-optimized such as it pops up quickly on Google and key words must be used.

PPI executive director Ariel Sebellino promised to continue to hold trainings and seminar among journalists and editors on this new trend of media. (FREEMAN)