Mamamia’s online article on the topic of whether schools in Australia should be shut down in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic could be improved in a number of ways.
Firstly, the title could better crafted to include keywords such as ‘coronavirus’ in order to improve its search discoverability. This also applies to the image displayed which does not have a caption.
Second, the text is rather long and although there are some paragraph breaks, the article would benefit from the use of some key headings that introduce the various points and keep the reader interested. Similarly, it might have been useful to present the reasons for the schools staying open in Australia in list format in order to make the text more succinct and readable.
Several statistics on the coronavirus pandemic are presented in the story, but there are no links to alternate sources. For example, there is a quote from Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy and including a link to the news report on YouTube would have increased the article’s credibility.
There is a video embedded in the article, however, it is not introduced or referred to in the story and does not include a caption, so the reader is left guessing as to its relevance.
This is not a news story. It’s an opinion piece, or commentary, which is stated clearly at the top of the story both in the headline and in the hot pink “Parent Opinion” category tag.
You suggest some good ideas for improving the content of the story, and in particular more hyperlinks and embeds as evidence for users of primary source material and research. You also make good observations of the elements that could be changed to improve SEO, and provide an example of a keyword that would improve discoverability.
Your analysis should consider the features and functions of the mamamia story using the appropriate naming conventions from Bradshaw and other readings (interactivity, hypertextuality, multimediality).
The keyword tags you assigned to the post are excellent, and your link to the mamamia story is embedded and opens in a new tab. You could use other techniques of good online journalism: provide links to the evidence you’re suggesting could improve the story you’re analysing, use subheadings, shorter paragraphs, bullet points, and images to break up or “chunk” your content.