Running story thoughts

So, I was tasked to do another version of a running story (I've done something of that sort in a previous semester, and this one was just slightly different.)

Every single time I'm told to do something like a running story, I just have this innate need to include as much information in a story as possible, regardless of whether the information is actually truly necessary.

And this becomes why I don't usually have much time remaining as the clock ticks on towards the end of the "test".

Well, I think this time, despite the fact that I was rushing for time by the end of the sixth version of the story (the last one), I think I managed to tell the story decently without really missing any key points, although I do wish that I had managed to be a little more detailed when it came to the bigger parts of the story.

Leaving the room after I finished the test really made me think. I'm not sure how often this happens in the industry, this running story thing, but I definitely had newfound respect for the journalists who do this on an almost daily basis. Even as a test, this was stressful enough. But I do think that might be due to the fact that I was writing a running story that happened across a few days in just under two hours. If this was the "real world", yes, I would probably be still running a schedule, but at least I won't have to churn out six stories that quickly.

And yet, this also brings me to my next thought. Repeating a similar story for a week straight does get dreadfully boring at times, especially if not much new information comes in, yet you still have to produce a story. Doesn't that make the story more of an update story then? I guess if a story is big enough, even a small update story or the smallest of new information regarding that story can make the headlines. I probably wouldn't mind having to type the same story for a week straight. In a way, it's easier than writing a story from scratch.

From the running story exercise, I've definitely had a tiny taste of how a big headline story is prepared and edited throughout the week (or weeks) of its publication. Do you include this information? Would you provide some backstory for others who have just picked up on this piece of news? That all depends on the journalists. A piece of information regarding the story might have been a huge deal one day and then minor information the next. But then, that's news for you. It's ever-changing, and hence news stories are always changing to reflect that.

I can't help but feel that doing all these small tests in university will really help to prepare me for the real world ahead. Granted, I have no experience in the world of journalism besides running my own blog, but any and all skills that I've gained in university would definitely help me heaps.

An Introduction to Kharazim, the newest Hero from Heroes of the Storm

Kharazim, Veradani Monk

For those of you who are familiar with Blizzard Entertainment's MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, you would probably know that the game's newest hero, Kharazim, was introduced to the nexus just earlier this week. And for those who aren't too familiar with Heroes of the Storm, it is basically Blizzard Entertainment's own take on the highly popular DotA game, featuring heroes from their own franchises, such as Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo.

In this case, Kharazim is from the Diablo franchise, and is in fact a monk from that game, which is one of the six playable classes available. In Heroes of the Storm, all heroes are classified into certain "roles", which best explain what they bring to a teamfight. Kharazim is a melee support hero, and he is the first hero in the support role from the Diablo universe.

This article is a brief introduction to this new hero, and a short analysis of how a player can choose to play him in any game.

Similar to all other heroes so far, Kharazim has access to four different skills, with a selection of two "heroic abilities" and a trait. His first skill, Radiant Dash, allows him to instantly dash to an ally or an enemy. If targeted at an enemy, Kharazim will instantly hit that enemy with a basic attack. This gives the monk incredible mobility throughout the game, escaping with ease or chasing down enemies quickly.

His second skill, Breath of Heaven, is a simple area-of-effect heal that restores the health of any allies near him. This is a pretty decent healing spell, especially since it does not require any targeting. For a quick combo, Kharazim can Radiant Dash to an ally and follow up with an instant Breath of Heaven. This can pull many allies out of threatening situations, and hence is a very powerful save in certain fights.

Kharazim's third skill is Deadly Reach. This skill gives a short buff to the monk, increasing his attack speed and attack range for a short period of time. Using this makes Kharazim somewhat of a semi-assassin instead of a full support hero, giving him increased damage and the ability to take down enemy fortifications at a rapid rate. When combined with his mobility from Radiant Dash, Deadly Reach can, as its name suggests, be a deadly tool for taking down a single opponent.

The two heroic abilities available to Kharazim are Seven-Sided Strike, a powerful area-of-effect skill that damages everyone within it, and Divine Palm, which is arguably one of the best healing skills in the game. Seven-Sided Strike is a simple heroic that, when used, creates an small area-of-effect that deals a percentage of the enemy's health per hit. This can be used in any teamfight with great effect, either taking down enemies at low health, or softening them up for the team's assassin to take them out.

If the player chooses to build Kharazim in a more supportive role, Divine Palm is perfect for the job. When used on a dying ally, Divine Palm renders them invulnerable and heals them after a short period of time, provided the ally takes fatal damage. This heroic can force the enemy to not kill one of your teammates, or deny the enemy team a crucial kill. Timing this heroic ability correctly is the key to using Divine Palm.

The unique thing about Kharazim is his ability to choose a trait at the start of a match. He can choose between three traits, each of which has a different function. Transcendence is a powerful trait that allows the monk to "passively" heal allies near him while he is attacking, while Iron Fists makes Kharazim more deadly by adding more damage to his basic attacks. Lastly, Insight provides mana while Kharazim attacks, which gives him a lot of sustainability throughout the game. Simply put, for players who are looking to go for more of a support role, choose between Insight and Transcendence, and for those who are looking to build the monk into a more damaging hero, pick Iron Fists.

Due to his various unique talents acquired as he levels up in a game, Kharazim can be built in a variety of ways. Many talents support his healing capabilities, such as Echo of Heaven, which casts his Breath of Heaven twice, or the even more powerful Soothing Breeze, which allows Breath of Heaven to remove all forms of crowd control from anyone affected, an incredibly useful thing during major teamfights.

For damage options, Kharazim also has several options going for him. Way of the Hundred Fists gives his Radiant Dash a bigger kick, which is useful for finishing off dying enemies. Another option would be Fists of Fury, which increases the duration of the monk's Deadly Reach, giving him an even longer buff that could easily snag takedowns. Lastly, Blinding Speed gives Kharazim more charges to his Radiant Dash, which basically means that the monk can use it more often. When combined with Deadly Reach and the Way of the Hundred Fists talent, this can allow Kharazim to dish out a huge amount of damage within a short period of time.

Lastly, for Kharazim's "endgame" level twenty talent, he has the typical upgrades to his heroic abilities, but he also gets a talent called Epiphany, which is unique to the monk. Epiphany provides Kharazim with a quick chunk of mana, and refills all his charges of Radiant Dash. This allows the monk to quickly heal up his allies, escape or take down a fleeing enemy instantly after usage. Considering that at level twenty, the game is usually about to end, such a talent would provide Kharazim with a lot of utility and options during teamfights, allowing him to ensure a victory.

And there you have it! Heroes of the Storm's newest addition to their roster, Kharazim, the Veradani Monk, is available now in the in-game store for 15,000 coins. He is sure to bring a new playstyle to the Nexus, and will definitely be a welcome addition to many teams.

Speed vs Accuracy Test

The Speed vs Accuracy Test


So, the other day during the tutorial, I finally did the speed vs accuracy test that we had been preparing for. I must say, I have never done any tests like this before. There have been tests where I attempt to write a live story that is being continually updated, but even so, that didn't feel as hectic as this one did.

I'm somewhat happy that I probably did better in this actual test than I did for the practice exercise during the tutorial before this.

Now, more about the test. I can see that this test definitely trains someone to look out for keywords and key information in any important story, while "blocking out" the unnecessary details of the story, or details that just add fluff or lesser, more minor information. That is not to say that you don't include them into your story, but you learn that they are not the priority and hence you don't focus on them first. It makes you think about what your readers would want to know first, and so you focus on those details first, before moving on to the less crucial bits of any story.

I found myself scanning each story carefully, and luckily, I managed to extract out the "main story" before typing out the lesser details. Despite managing to do so, however, I must admit that this was still no easy task, especially with a timer ticking at the back of your head. Those brief, instinctive glances at the clock at the corner of the screen did not help with the stress. But I definitely gained an important journalism skill from this test.

The test reminded me of a few articles I saw on gaming news websites about a week back. Given that there are so many gaming news websites (like IGN, Polygon, Kotaku, etc), they are always in competition to get out the freshest and newest stories in the shortest amount of time. This is especially true if there are some big gaming news being revealed at gaming conventions and the like. About a week back, this was exactly the case. Blizzard Entertainment, a pretty big game developer, was preparing to announce their newest expansion for their award-winning MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) World of Warcraft.

This announcement would be livestreamed on both Twitch and YouTube, so that the rest of the world could watch it unfold. Naturally, me being an avid World of Warcraft fan, tuned into their livestream. It lasted for about two hours. And well, as with livestreams, stream lag happens and you might miss out on some information, so I decided to go online and see what articles might have been posted about the event.

I didn't know it at first, but some articles that I read would reflect on the importance of the speed vs accuracy test. Most articles that I read were published mere minutes after the livestream ended, but had obvious, glaring grammatical or spelling errors. Maybe most readers wouldn't mind such a thing, but I couldn't help but notice them. These errors were corrected in a few hours, when I went to check on it again, but the fact was, I'd already seen them.

And then some other articles, probably published slightly later, were "flawless". They had all the relevant information in them, with no grammatical or spelling errors. I found myself preferring these articles, even though they might have been published a couple of hours later.

Looking back, this made me realize the relevance of the speed vs accuracy test in the industry. Do you want to be the first to publish a story, only to have it riddled with errors? Or would you prefer to make sure everything is perfect before releasing a story, even if you may be later than your competitors?

My guess is that most companies would choose the former, and correct their errors later. It makes sense, because you have to keep up with the competition, who would probably be doing the same thing anyway. If I were ever put in such a situation though, I would still like to make sure my article that would be posted would contain as little errors as possible, even if it means spending about five minutes more on it (five minutes could be crucial in the industry), simply because it makes my work look more professional and credible.

As a reader though, I would not mind waiting a little longer for a more perfect article.

What do you think?

5 ways a blog could help a journalism career

Blogging.

It seemed only a few years ago that I started my first blog when I was a teenager. At that time, I thought it would be pretty fun, and since my friends were all getting into it, I tried it too. There weren't any insightful or interesting posts when I first started blogging. All I posted were mostly regular updates about my life or my interests (which usually had something to do with gaming and movies).

But in all honesty, nobody really wants to read a blog that only contains entries about someone's mundane life. There are blogs dedicated to that, of course, but these days, blogs are more than just an online journal. Blogs can be used as a brand, as a platform to publish creative works, or as a tool to get your voice out in the vast internet landscape.

In this post, I list out the five top reasons which I feel a blog can be helpful to journalists, or aspiring journalists (like me) in their career.

1) Unique Voice

When I think of interesting entertainment or gaming news, I think of articles that really stand out and bring a new opinion or angle to a story. Sometimes, these articles even have a unique way of writing or a unique style that puts itself above the rest. For someone like me, who aspires to me a "game journalist", this is really important, and a blog would help me (and others like me) to find my unique voice.

Writing blog posts regularly is basically practicing writing. The more you write, the better you get, and as you continue writing, you start to find a unique style of writing that best suits you, and accurately reflects who you are. This "voice" is crucial in differentiating yourself from others, and is what makes you noteworthy. This will, in turn, hopefully get you noticed just before you step into the industry.

2) Brand Recognition

This second point is somewhat related to the point above. With a proper blog, the articles you write make up the blog's theme. My blog would probably be mostly about gaming news, articles about games, and game reviews from time to time.

Why is this important? Well, in my opinion, having a theme for your blog represents your strengths and your interests. Usually, people would write about what they like or what they're good at writing about in their own blogs. For example, a person who is really interested in writing political news article would probably write everything to do with politics in their blog, instead of sports news. Of course, one can like both of those things. In that case, writing about both in their blog would be good as well.

But if you know that your strengths lie in a certain kind of article, then you should continue to focus on that, in order to create sort of a "brand" for yourself. You want people to visit your blog and go "wow, this person knows what they're talking about". This also makes your posts more credible, a very important factor for journalists. If you were to be writing about something that you dislike or are not interested in, it can reflect in your articles, making them sound dull. And when this happens, it doesn't put yourself in a good light.

3) Awareness

Similar to most jobs, having a portfolio would boost your chances of landing a job as a journalist, or a writing job. Having a blog would be a huge benefit in this case, as you can list your blog in your portfolio.

Writing articles and putting them up on a blog means that you're effectively putting your work online for the world to see. This creates awareness and traffic to your blog, which would mean that your articles are being read by strangers. You reach out to a wider audience, which is a useful tool to have at your disposal as a journalist.

As more people read your posts, some of the readers might leave comments. These comments may be helpful as constructive criticism, or as a healthy discussion topic regarding a certain article. This might, in turn, improve your writing, or it could generate even more traffic to your blog, significantly increasing your reach. Either way, it would help in your future career.

4) Meet industry professionals 

As your blog grows and you become more proficient in writing and in your field (be it sports news, gaming news, political news, or anything along those lines), industry professionals may eventually run into your blog and read your articles.

If they like what they see, you may be contacted by them, or have a chance to contact them. This would help immensely in your growing career. For instance, if you're like me and you write about gaming news, you might get to meet people who are considered "famous" in the field. This could be someone from a popular game developer, or someone who plays games for a living, notably YouTubers like Markiplier or Pewdiepie.

And if you're lucky, they might be willing to grant you an interview or give you an insider's scoop about an upcoming game, or just about the industry in general. Such key information and such a golden opportunity is hard to come by, and would definitely aid in your career.

5) Your blog could be your business

Lastly, a blog could turn into a small business if it gets sufficient traffic and awareness. You could get a sponsorship from a big company to write an article for them, and generate revenue through ads on your blog.

In recent years, being a "blogger" can be considered a proper job and can support oneself, if the blog is popular enough. It would probably take some time before you get there, but it can definitely happen. And even if you already have a desk job as a journalist, your blog can generate some side income.

Based on everything above, a blog definitely has the potential to kickstart your career in journalism. However, that's not to say that it only applies to journalism. The benefits of a blog definitely apply to other jobs as well.

So if you haven't started a blog yet, now might be a good time to start!

Online News: How to make the most of what you have

Being a journalist that writes for online platforms, one has to know what kind of news attracts the online audience, and what story to write at any time of the day. They also need to make sure that their online news platform can engage their audience, and generate site traffic.

Online news has the advantage of being more updated than regular news programs, or newspapers. This is because news programs usually run at certain specific times, and newspapers are usually only published early in the day, while online news platforms can be updated throughout the day. This means that online news platforms can immediately publish a new story about an ongoing story, or a brand new top news story at any time, effectively delivering such a story to their audience very quickly.

But before they can even write the story, journalists need to know what kind of stories their audience is interested in.

Online news platforms tend to publish top news stories or breaking news stories, similar to newspapers or news programs, but because they are online and are updated throughout the day, sometimes it is necessary to come up with other news stories for their audience. These stories can range from local stories to entertainment and gossip news, sports news, the weather, and general "fluff" pieces.

Any news is news, and online news platforms can use that to think up of new stories to publish. It is also important to remember that social media and the internet are good ways to gather new news or information. Online news platforms should also make use of their own social media pages to generate traffic and interest their audience.

There are some things to note when running an online news platform. The homepage, and honestly, any page that has an article on it, should not be too cluttered. This means that they should not attempt to fill up the page with links to other articles or other news pieces everywhere, and keep their advertisements to small corners that are not intrusive to the reader. If the website and its pages distract the audience or is a hindrance to them, then they are not helping the audience enjoy their content and hence, will probably lose readers.

It is also crucial to remember to update news stories, which is another advantage that an online news platform has. While newspapers and news programs are unable to edit an ongoing top news stories, or any news story, the online news platforms can edit their articles at will, and update them as the story progresses. Similarly, they have the ability to "link" a story to another related one, which would help a reader understand a story better. Newspapers and news programs would usually have to include some background information to their story, and even that, such background information would not usually be as informative as an entire story. Online news platforms can publish this background information as a full story, and then link this article back to the original story easily, which, again, gives the readers an easier time.

With the advancement of technology and the rise of smartphones, online news platforms also can have "apps" that allow their audience to easily access their content without having to use a computer. This also means they can regularly notify their audience through the smartphones about new news stories.

While it is clear that newspapers and news programs still have a place in mainstream media, online platforms are the go-to source of news for most news audiences. With that information at hand, journalists and news organizations would definitely have to make the most out of the internet and social media to better deliver news stories across the world.