Article on SpaceShipTwo Crash follows all of the Rules of P-I-C-K Journalism

Spaceship crashes in Mojave, California Leaving One Pilot Dead and Answers may Take a Year to Find

The article I chose that I felt showed good characteristics of P-I-C-K was an article names, “SpaceShipTwo crash investigation may take up to a year.” This article is about the recent spaceship that crashed shortly after its launch last Friday. One pilot was killed in the crash, and the other is still in the hospital fighting for his life. The company involved in the test was one that looks to use this flight method as a new and future type of tourism giving people a flight into shallow space. This article looks into what took place on October 31 and what could happen in the future with the investigation just getting underway. I picked this article displayed all four of the characteristics that makes up a good news source.

Personalization is where the article is made in the best interests of the viewer. This consists of presenting the information in a conversational style rather that in an expository style to peak the interest of the viewer. This article uses personalization very effectively. It has short paragraphs; every point is actually spaced out larger than normal. This is effective because it makes it easier for the viewer to read and comprehend the story because it is spaced out and in short paragraphs. A reader is less likely to lose interest in this article because of how it is laid out. This article also allows for readers to continue their exploration into of the story by adding a video, in-text links, and links on the side of the page that took the reader to another related article on the story if they were interested. Each of these little details allowed for good personalization that does a good job in creating and keeping good interest in the story from the reader.

Another characteristic that this article does a good job of including is involvement. The article has several subheads, which is good to have, but in these subheads they asked questions to get the reader involved. For example, one paragraph is started with the question, “Inflight Breakup?”

While this question is a rhetorical one and very simple, it introduces the topic that that paragraph will be discussing and allows the reader to begin thinking about that topic even before they have read the paragraph. Another example of involvement in this article is the video that was posted as a part of it. This involves the readers by allowing them to not only read the story, but to see it in a different way and hear it, too. This video helps engage the viewer allowing them to better understand the message that is trying to be delivered.

This article also includes good uses of contiguity. While there are no data graphics that were displayed to help the viewer, there were other uses of contiguity that created a coherence for the reader. A video was included in the story as a graphic that would help the viewer understand the points the author is trying to get across. This article also included a little section off to the side titled “story highlights” that helps create more contiguity in the article. Other little related videos are posted on the side as well. These things coincide with the article itself to help the viewer understand all of the important details of the story.

The last characteristic that I felt this article had was a small number of kick outs. There were links and videos posted on the page, but all were relevant and worked fast and effectively. I didn't feel as there were too many words in the article; the article was relatively short and the paragraphs were broken up with subheads. There were ads on the right side and a few on the left side of the web page, but there were none in the words themselves so I didn't feel as though they brought down the quality of the page. I felt that this page and author did a good job limiting any kick outs as this article and page were very well formed.

Article Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/02/us/spaceshiptwo-incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t2