Every publication needs a style. Many take cues, or follow exclusively, the Associated Press Style. We’re going to do the former. Below are the specific style treatments that every assignment should follow. For everything else, we’ll defer to AP Style.
Acronyms: When an organization or group refers to itself as a acronym, the first mention of said organization should use the full name. Subsequent reference will use the acronym only. Never put the acronym in parenthesis after the full name.
Attribution and links: Cite sources in the body of your piece using hyperlinks, and link to other relevant sites mentioned in your story.
Captions: Our captions are “informational,” meaning they need to include more than just a name or locator. Captions should be full sentences and include information that’s part of the story. They can also have identifying information.
Credits on photos you took should be formatted as follows:
First name Last name / Multimedia Storytelling
Headlines: We’ll use down style headlines. The first letter of the first word in a headline should be capitalized, along with any proper nouns in the headline. Every other should be lowercase.
Human Sources: Every person will be referred to by first and last name on first reference. Titles (such as mayor, senator, officer, etc.) will appear along with these names. Subsequent references will refer to people by last name only.
Non-Human Sources: Must have a first- or second-degree connection to the story; an establishment’s website does NOT count as a non-human source.
Photos: Every post should have a featured image. This can be a photo you took or a screenshot from a video you made. It must be original material. All photos need a caption and credit.
Videos: Must be embedded in your post, and cannot appear as a URL. No “floating links.”
Temple University Multimedia Storytelling 