Online delivery analysis of a Huffington Post article: PM Warns Against Gatherings Of Over 500 People As Peter Dutton Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Although accurate in its use of hierarchy, hypertext and language for online audiences, the article in review seems lacking in several benchmarks of good online journalism.

Firstly, I would recommend adjusting the heading. As it stands, it conflicts with the article’s content: the former claims that the government has ‘warned against‘ mass gatherings, whereas the latter affirms that such events have been banned. The heading also suggests a link between the ban and Mr Dutton’s diagnosis, which I find misleading. Additionally, the main issue I detect is that the heading totally omits mention of the travel bans/recommendations, which take up a full sub-section of the article. That’s not good SEO, and could make the article miss potential clicks.

Secondly, there is almost no engaging multimediality (just an embedded tweet). The use of visuals could enhance interest, and video of the PM making the announcements could be relevant and attractive.

Thirdly, there is no interactivity. There’s no comment section and no community space. Admittedly, sharing is enabled at the top, but it’s not actively encouraged.

Finally, the keyword tags don’t include ‘Peter Dutton’, nor any reference to bans on gatherings or travel recommendations. I’d recommend adding them, for better SEO.

1 Comment

  1. Your analysis uses appropriate naming conventions for the features and functions of online journalism, and you make feasible suggestions for improving the HuffPo story.
    You have used simple language and shorter paragraphs, and you’ve structured the post well, but you could have used subheadings (with heading tags) to make the post more scannable and to enhance its SEO.
    Good observation regarding the tags omitted in the story you’re analysing, and good suggestions for the tags you think would improve the SEO. You should also assign key word tags to your own blog post!
    Good use of an embedded link that opens in a new tab.
    Images would add meaning to the post both as illustrations of the points you are making and as visual devices to break up text. In your future posts, ensure every image is captioned and attribution is given to the copyright holder or creator of the image.

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