Difference between revisions of "Advocacy Netizen Reports Guidelines"
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This page has moved to: http://community.globalvoicesonline.org/guide/advox-guides/advocacy-netizen-reports-guidelines/
Contents
Weekly Netizen Report
Guidelines initially set up by Rebecca.
The Netizen Report is a weekly publication that overviews the power dynamics between citizens, companies and governments on the Internet. It should serve as a quick weekly roundup of the most important news stories for people that are engaged with these issues around the world. It is translated into a number of languages and posted on Global Voices Advocacy. The report in its weekly form should be no more than 1,200 words long.
Content
The content categories can vary depending on the nature of news stories, but include things such as censorship, surveillance, online activism, privacy, Internet governance, and corporate power, among others.
Each story should have a brief explanation of the key issues involved. This should be about a sentence long. If an issue is very complex or needs context additional explanation of a sentence or maximum two is alright but please be succinct and use links to provide people with additional background.
Where stories relate to one another or there are different posts on the same issue, they can be written into a short paragraph.
New stories should be covered in each edition, but it is alright to have new updates on issues that have been covered before. It isn’t necessary to link to old articles.
All article links should be in English where possible.
The lead should normally be 1-2 paragraphs in length, and should highlight an issue of importance from over the week. Wherever possible, we should try to highlight news from outside the US unless there is a major story (ie. the SOPA protests) - so that we can give greater voice to issues that might not get much attention otherwise. Even when we highlight a US-focused story, if there is a global angle that we can take (ie. reactions from around the world) this will contribute to our readers’ knowledge. It is helpful if the lead story involves something for which there are pictures or other visuals.
Visuals
We need a photo or some other visual at the top of the Netizen Report. This image is also used as a thumbnail on the front page of Global Voices Advocacy, so the content should be easy to see even if it’s a small final size. It should also relate to the lead story. We must have the rights for any images that we include with our posts. This can include getting permission to use photos, using our own works, or using creative commons licensed work.
To find Creative Commons licensed work:
- Flickr.com advanced search: select “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.” Be sure to check the rights (in a text block to the left) on every photo, as there are different levels of permissions granted.
- Google images advanced search “free to use or share,” or other options so long as they are not “not filtered by license.”
- Wikimedia commons: all photos on wikimedia are cc-licensed.
- The CC Search Engine allows you to choose among numerous media services (images, music, etc.).
Style
The word Internet should always be capitalized.
Linked words or phrases should be short, no longer than a few words.
Word choice should be simple and active and sentences as clear and direct as possible, to help out the translation team.
Specific names of organizations, people, and dates should always be included, avoiding acronyms. It’s better to be specific than general.
Remember that our audience is global. That means non-American. You cannot assume that they are familiar with U.S. names, institutions, acronyms, cultural icons, etc. Everything must be spelled out and explained with a phrase when needed on first mention. Hyperlinks to a Wikipedia entry or web page for the institution or person mentioned are very helpful to readers who may be unfamiliar with what or who you are writing about.
When referring to government agencies, mention which government they are from, ie. US State Department rather than just State Department.
The tense should be active and 1st person plural (we, not I - or even better, the Netizen Report). While it’s alright to reference ourselves, it would be best to keep this to the lead.
Punctuation should consistently go inside quotes, eg. “word.”
Keep currency values in their original form, however when writing US dollar amounts use the abbreviation USD, not $ or US$.
United States should be abbreviated as US, not U.S.
MENA Netizen Report
This report is a monthly edition. As such, it is longer than the Weekly edition: we settle more in the 1,500-1,600 words. It covers all relevant topics from the MENA region (Middle-East and North Africa). The general guidelines about visuals and style (see Weekly Netizen Report above) apply here too. Some more specific remarks are below.
Get involved
You can get involved by:
- adding links;
- helping with writing;
- helping with editing;
- translating into one of the 2 relevant languages (see #Translations below for more).
To make things easier, we have set up this calendar. You can subscribe in the relevant section(s).
Basics
Every month, we settle a new draft. For now, we use Google Docs, we may perhaps want to change for this wiki. Each new draft is communicated to both the GV MENA Google Group and to the GVA Netizen Report mailing-list.
The basic structure of the MENA Netizen Report (NR) follows the Weekly NR's one. We thus have the following sections:
- "Censorship": covers everything about blocking websites, social media, etc.
- "Thuggery": reports about crackdown on netizens;
- "Voices Still Threatened": this is the only MENA-specific section. Contains reminders and links to the Threatened Voices profiles of endangered netizens;
- "National Policy": relates to any bills, laws, decrees, etc. regulating Internet on a national level;
- "Netizen Activism": tells about activities netizens have started (petitions, campaigns, etc.);
- "Cybersecurity": this also means "cybercrimes" :-)
- "Sovereigns of Cyberspace": reports about country-specific regulations which may be imposed by some of the mastodons of the Internet;
- "Surveillance"
- "Privacy"
- "Cool stuff": all-inclusive section about various positive online initiatives from the region that do not fit the "Netizen Activism" section above.
The Global Voices Events Calendar goes on the bottom.
Content
As it name gives it away, the MENA Netizen Report focuses on the most important news related to internet governance and online activism in the Middle-East and North Africa. Given that other languages than English are predominant in the region, we can include links to content in Arabic and French.
Names of people, places, institutions need to be clarified by a few words. A good idea is also to link them to their respective Wikipedia entry.
Visuals
We add an image to the MENA NR. So far, we have chosen illustrations from various netizen initiatives. In case we do not find such, an image with the appropriate license should be used. See #Visuals above for the search engines to use to find them.
Translations
Although the original report is written and published in English, having it translated into Arabic and French is crucial for greater outreach. That is why we aim at having all three versions going live more or less simultaneously on GV Arabic and GV French. Translators can volunteer through the calendar.
/!\ Since this is collaborative work, it is highly recommended to wait for all final edits to be made by Sahar (and/or any other relevant person). This is the Report's final version which is to be translated. Getting to translations beforehand may be a waste of time and effort. This final version is communicated to the respective Lingua editors who handle the translation as they see fit.
