Artist charged with sexual assault of four women – ABC News

Story

Well-known Australian street artist, Anthony Lister, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with a number of offences, including allegedly sexually assaulting multiple women.  ABC News covered the story with the headline: Artist charged with sexual assault of four women and tattooing one without consent.

 

Headline

The headline for this story could have been more searchable if it had included Lister’s name, given his status in the art scene. The length of the headline might benefit from being shortened for readers on mobile or tablet devices, as the full headline is cut off when appearing in search results on mobile. 

 

Hypertextuality

The story did not include any links, aside from photo captions that when clicked, lead to a page showing a larger version of the image. The author could have provided a link to the original source of the statement quoted. Additionally, links to other stories involving high profile sexual assault allegations, or on Lister himself, would have given the reader more motivation to stay on the website for a longer period by looking at related stories.

 

Interactivity

Adding a comment section would increase the ability of readers to share their opinions at the end of the story. Another way of increasing engagement or participation from the readers might be to include the journalist’s Twitter handle and email on the page, opening himself up to being contacted about the story.

About Nicole Chew 3 Articles
Nicole Chew is a Master of Media Practice student at the University of Sydney. She has an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology and has written for Human Resources Magazine. Contact her at nche6235@uni.sydney.edu.au

1 Comment

  1. Good story choice, and a good analysis nicely structured using subheadings (with heading tags instead of bold text, enhancing SEO for your post). You also use shorter pars and plenty of white space, making the post scannable and easy to read.
    Good use of the appropriate naming conventions for the features and functions of online journalism; in part 2 of the assignment ensure you refer to Bradshaw and other readings to support your analysis.
    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.
    Your hyperlink is embedded in text (good) but opens in the same page and not a new tab (not so good). Your suggestion for links to other sources of information in the Lister story is a feasible way of adding interest and validity to the story. It is also observant of you to have noted how a link to the author’s contact details on the page could add to the interactivity for users (I found a Twitter handle by clicking on the byline link, but no email address).
    Your headline is SEO friendly and shorter than the one the ABC used (agree with your assertion theirs may be too long, though they may have wanted the “tattooing without consent”, which is unusual, to tempt readers to click). You should also consider whether keyword tags are used by the ABC, and also assign them to your own post.

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