Peter Dutton Has The Coronavirus – Analysis

Analysis of Buzzfeed story 'Peter Dutton Has The Coronavirus' published Friday, March 13

This Buzzfeed article is relatively informative and quick to outline the 5 W’s and an H. However, there are a few areas that need improvement.

The headline excludes the title of ‘Home Affairs Minister’ which would give the story more context and enhance SEO optimisation.

Instead of using a photograph of Dutton, an embedded image of his announcement via Instagram is included. A feature image of Dutton himself within the article would be far more visually powerful.

The article does detail his role as Home Affairs Minister, with a hyperlink out to the National Security Committee of Cabinet (which he is a member of), highlighting the potential risk posed on others including the Prime Minister.

However, it turns slightly satirical, with an embedded tweet stating: “I guess Peter Dutton will have to be sent to Christmas Island”.  By including this tweet, an element of humour is injected, detracting from the severity of the situation. Furthermore, a comments section allows for members of the public to leave profane remarks about the ‘hilarity’ of Dutton, of all people, contracting the virus.

Thus, the conclusion of the article hinders the ‘breaking news’ element and importance of the story.

About Magenta Porter 5 Articles
Master of Publishing student at the University of Sydney, lover of art history, endlessly fascinated by #auspol. Twitter: @magentamporter

1 Comment

  1. The link to your story is embedded and opens in a new tab, which is great.
    You have structured your story using shorter paragraphs and white space, but using relevant subheadings (even in such a short piece) instead of randomly bold text, would have made the post easier to read. I understand that you are highlighting key ideas, but it could be unclear to a user whether the words In bold are links or not. It was an interesting technique to try, though!
    Good observation regarding interaction via a comments section – it would seem fairly obvious that it might invite profanity, and the first comment indicates how true that is. It is also questionable whether the inclusion of a wry tweet might be appropriate in this story (no matter how users might feel about Dutton), and it’s a good observation that it detracts from the story. Does it fit with Buzzfeed’s general tone and style?
    Interesting that you recommend inclusion of “Home Affairs Minister” in the headline to enhance SEO but then don’t use it in your own post title. Do you think people will search for his name, or his title?
    You could use images 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.
    When posting on WordPress, assign posts to only one category.

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