Share: Think back to this past Christmas season. What was number one reason people got online? According to Pew Research, it was not to buy gifts, but to send email. They wanted that emotion of warm, human connectedness.

2. Inform: People have a need to know, which is why they come to news and weather sites, for example, and why MSNBC.com and CNN.com are so highly rated. 96% of web users are seeking information, says Jakob Nielsen.

3. Create: This is the flip side of inform and this is one of the ways, obviously, the web is so different. For just one example, think about any forum, or my new favorite, Plastic.com, where users are creating content.

4. Entertain: The game sites certainly satisfy this goal, but so does Shockwave with its animations, so do all the goofy indie film sites, so does AdCritic.com, where you can see the best TV ads of the week.

5. Transact: To buy and sell. Need I say more than Amazon and eBay.

5 rules for Internet engagement

Network - The web is the great distributed medium. It has no boundaries and it thrives on mass. Napster succeeds not just because it offers music. Its strength is based on its network. The more people who participate, the greater the value of the network.

2. Time and place - In old media, in print, you're pretty much limited to one time frame, the past. A newspaper is, in fact, an artifact, a snapshot of a certain point in time. But on the web, time is fluid ﾑ and it's a powerful tool. Time is information. And information is time, web consultant Mark Teflian reminds us. On the web, time can be both timely ﾑ up to the minute ﾑ and timeless.

3. Interactivity - This is one of great differentiators of the web. This is what web guru Jakob Nielsen means when he says that doing is more memorable ﾑ and makes a stronger emotional impact ﾑ than seeing.

4. Data - No where else but the web do you have the opportunity to provide so much data; it's literally limitless. You also have a plethora of different data types ﾑ such as audio, video and Flash files. Mining data and creating relationships between them is something the Britannica site does so well.

5. Personality - This is something people tend to forget about on the web. As we're all try to figure out the new rules, everyone ends up looking like everyone else. But when you consider the immensity of the web, the billions of pages out there and the ubiquity of information, perhaps the only thing that's going to set you apart is creating a personality: a tone, a voice that mirrors who you are. That's why successful sites have a personality, why Suck is different from Yahoo and Flowerbud.com.

I think of narrative as storytelling: that is, as a way of ordering events and thoughts in a coherent sequence that makes them interesting to listen to. It therefore has a strong oral heritage. -Anne Fadiman

A story is told using: character, scenes, time, technique, and purpose. -Joel Rawson

Much of journalism does not tell a story, nor is it intended to; many newspaper pieces have no more ambition than to present information. Tobias Wolff rightfully says “information is the death of story” which means that as far as storytelling goes, much journalism is dead at birth. The stuff is useful to people who want that information: Red Sox 3, Tampa Bay 2; it does not tell a story. Sometimes people don’t want to make the effort to read a story, to be cajoled and led along; in these instances journalism, as opposed to storytelling journalism, is the right format.

Storytelling journalism employs the techniques of fiction: point of view; time; scene (which includes setting, characters, dialogue)’ and narrative. Yet it remains true to the tenants of journalism: accuracy; honesty; integrity of intentions. -Gerald Carbone

(The idea behind this slide: Narrative psychology/theory/intelligence = think of your life as a collection of experiences, narrative is the string that holds the pearls together, an analogy of David Hume. When you take away the ability to create the string, you take away the ability to construct reality, even to the extent of recognizing one’s spouse. Evidence from pathological cases are resolving a very old debate between philosophers about the nature of self and identity.)

Storytelling appears throughout all cultures and is an inseparable part of human life. Our brains seem to be ‘hard-wired’ for constructing narratives, for putting events in sequences, for selecting details, for reporting our experiences to others. We begin doing these things in very early childhood, practically as soon as we learn to speak.

If it is the case with individuals, it is equally true for cultures and communities, who share stories in the form of myths, legends, and historical narratives. Robert Atwan

I always thought it was telling the reader or viewer a story through your own eyes sort of like the character Sarah Jessica Parker plays, Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex in the City.” Ruth Bashinsky

Show, don’t tell. Mark Twain: “Don’t say the old lady screamed - bring her on and let her scream.” Donald Murray

At a minimum, narrative denotes writing with: set scenes, characters, action that unfolds over time, the interpretable voice of a teller - a narrator with a somewhat discernable personality, some sense of a relationship to the reader/viewer/listener, and all arrayed to lead the audience toward a point or realization or destination. Mark Karmer

A narrative or story is a form of vicarious (or substitute) experience. The story transports the reader to a place and a time not otherwise available to the reader. Roy Peter Clark

Many of the great journalistic narratives of recent years (done by fellow travelers Jon Franklin, Tom French, Tom Hallman, etc.) require considerable use of reconstruction. In the days post-Jayson Blair, I’m wondering if we need to reprise our discussions about where the line is drawn on reconstruction and credibility. Jacqui Banasynski

http://sixbillion.org/ - Six Billion - online magazine of narrative journalism

I like what Nabokov wrote: “The term ‘narrative’ is often confused with the term ‘plot,’ but they’re not the same thing. If I tell you that the kind died, and then the queen died, that’s not narrative; that’s plot. But if I tell you that the kind died, and then the queen died of a broken heart, that’s narrative.” Jan Winburn

Narrative journalism goes beyond the mere facts of traditional news writing to tell a human story.

Narrative journalism is often described as nonfiction written with the techniques of fiction, but I don’t think that’s an adequate explanation. The inviolable rule of narrative journalism, of course, is that everything must be absolutely verifiably true. Matt Schudel

Narrative is the process of taking the reader for a trip that feels both foreign and familiar. Jeff Houck

Narrative stories also follow the “hero’s journey,” explaining how the person changed, either profoundly or in some small ways, as a result of the circumstances that confronted him. Amanda Kingsbury

Newspaper writing that unfolds like a story, from the point of view of the characters, rather than a summary that unfolds from the point of view of the reporter. Mark Lorando

Narrative is everything that comes after “who” and “what.” Pat Thomas

A story that features characters rather than sources; communicates experiences through the five senses and a few others; a sense of people, sense of place, sense of time, and , most important, a sense of drama; has a beginning that grabs a reader’s attention; a middle that keeps the reader engaged, and an ending that lingers in the reader’s mind like the reverberations of a gong. Scanlan

Has a beginning that grabs the reader’s attention. Contrast these two leads on the same story:

A 28 year old Queens woman was stabbed to death early yesterday morning outside her apartment house in Kew Gardens. Neighbors who were awakened by her screams found the woman, Miss Catherine Genovese of 82070 Austin Street, shortly after 3 am in front of the building three doors from her home. (NY Times)

The neighbors had grandstand seats for the slaying of Kitty Genovese. And yet, when the pretty, diminutive 28 year old brunette called for help, she called in vain. (NY Herald Tribune)

Choose your endings with care, drawing on vivid details that will resound in the reader’s mind.

“Of the many definitions of story, the simplest may be this. It is a piece of writing that makes the reader want to find out what happens next.” Bill Bufford

The best news stories can be found at the intersection of civic clarity and literary grace.