Mobile Journalism
Writing for mobile media is a trick every future journalist should learn. What we see today is that all journalistic content is still written for traditional media and is 'designed' in terms of layout and placement for the mobile media. By mobile media, I mean mobile phones, iPods, iPads, tablet PCs, etc. What is necessary is that not layout, but content itself has to be re-written for smaller spaces and lesser word limits. So how does one learn to write for these new media? I had gone to train media students in Tezpur University at the beginning of this month. One trick I suggested is as follows: Write your story as you would normally do so in about 300 to 500 words. Now edit it to about 200 words. Again edit it to about 100 words. Take care that you don't lose the context and the important facts in the story while re-editing it. Now consider this: Facebook allows 420 characters to share with your friends Twitter allows 140 characters Your SMS allows about 150