You Catch My Eye.

I like pretty things. That fact is pretty universal. People rely so much on their eyes to judge whether or not they’ll like something, or someone. We pick our clothes, our homes, our things, and sometimes even our friends by what things look like. So why wouldn’t we do the same thing when we’re reading news stories? Don’t stories get to be pretty too?

I learnt today in my lecture, taught by guest speaker Skye Doherty, that yes, they do. There’s much more to a story than just the body. The headline, images, captions and quotes are all just as important as the actual story you’re trying to tell. These are what catches the reader’s eye, and sparks their interest. In traditional newspapers, the main story would be on the upper left, often accompanied by a picture or graph, like this:

Slide Five

This is because our eyes scan from left to write. Nifty, hey? But with the development of online media, the way news stories are presented has had to change. No longer do five stories have to be crammed onto a page; the limitless expanses of the web have enabled writers to spread things out a little, and has given them the opportunity to add more than just words and pictures. Hyperlinks, videos and shortcuts to other stories can all now be included. Pretty-ifying has starting to happen to news stories. This expansion, however, has meant that the layout of stories has had to change. Now, more often than not, the look of a story changes depending on where you see it. It’s kind of like an online chameleon. The same story can have different headlines and pictures, depending on where it is on the website. This is all done to catch the reader’s eye, and to make the story more visually appealing.

This is pretty exciting for me.  While online layouts still have some kind of structure, there’s much more freedom as to how your story can look, and exactly what you can put on the page. Not being a tech genius myself, putting said things on a page might be a slight road bump, but having the possibilities there is exciting. Like I said, I like pretty things, and making things pretty is something I love to do.