Ballotpedia:WikiProject News
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This is the Ballotpedia project for keeping up with what's happening in the world of elections and ballots. There are two main types of articles you can write on Ballotpedia:
- Basic encyclopedic articles that are the vast bulk of Ballotpedia's content, such as California Proposition 12 (2008).
- News articles. These are generally short articles that feature and focus on breaking news. They are generally not the type of article that are updated and expanded on over time, since their main purpose is to introduce the reader to some breaking news in the world of ballot measures. As an example, see Will Bisphenol A go on the Prop 65 list?
This article explains how and when to write a news article.
Basics of breaking news articles
Where do news articles go?
Articles in the news category use a MediaWiki feature called "DynamicPageList", or DPL.[1]
The DPL feature means that anytime you write a news article, adding the appropriate news category tags to the article as defined below, your news article will automatically appear on other pages on Ballotpedia.
For example, if you write a news article about something to do with California ballot news, and add the article to Category:California 2009 news, your news article will automatically appear in two places:
- It will be featured as the most recent news article on the California page under the heading "California ballot news". (As soon as you or anyone else writes another news article about something else, the content on the California page will be bumped and the newest story will instead appear on the main California page.)
- It will be featured on the California ballot news, which is a permanent record of any news articles anyone chooses to write on Ballotpedia about California ballot-news-related items.
When is a news article appropriate?
Over the campaign span of a ballot measure, from the time it is a gleam in someone's eye to the vote having taken place, numerous events will take place. Not all of these events merit a breaking news article on Ballotpedia. Here are some that generally do merit a breaking news article:
- Ballot language has been filed. (This merits a news article only some of the time. It depends on how serious the petition effort is likely to be.)
- A petition drive has commenced.
- Signatures have been turned in.
- A legislative body has voted a measure onto the ballot.
- Significant legal events regarding the ballot measure have occurred.
- Vote and election round-ups.
- Laws governing the initiative process have changed or been introduced (if introduced, depends on how serious).
Bear in mind that if you do write a breaking news story about one of these events, you will almost certainly also want to:
- Start a permanent article about the ballot measure, if one does not already exist.
- Expand on a ballot measure's permanent article with the news you are reporting, if such an article already exist.
Help in deciding
You can turn to the Assignment Desk for ideas on events that merit a breaking news story. Links to resources are (or might be) followed by the code {{bns}}, which indicates that in the judgment of whoever put the link there, it merits a breaking news story. If instead a resource is followed by {{exp}} or {{Start}}, the indication is that a permanent article should be started or expanded on.
Key components of your article
A complete breaking news story has these elements:
- A descriptive title which normally incorporates a verb
- A date header in the form ==='''[[BC2009#June|June 25, 2009]]'''===
- A location stamp in the form: '''MONTCLAIR, [[New Jersey]]:'''
- A 1-3 paragraph news article incorporating at least one footnote/citation.
- If an article exists on Ballotpedia about the ballot measure the news item refers to, include a link to that article in a "See also" section in the news article.
- The code you need to type for your footnote to materialize, which is ==References== followed on the next line by <references/>
- The BPNews template: {{bpnews}}
- The state news template: {{State news}}
- The template for the state your news is about. Examples: {{Arizona}}, {{Colorado}}.
- Appropriate categories. At a miminum, this always include the category for the news in the state from whence the news originates. That category is always typed as.
- This code: __NOEDITSECTION__
- This code: __NOTOC__
- On the article’s discussion tab, type the code for the state and the code for WikiProject News. Here's an example {{az}}{{wn}}
See the next section on "Code for news articles" for further elaboration.
Code for news articles
Use this code for your news stories
==='''[[BC2009#MONTH|DATE]]'''===
'''CITY, [[STATE]]:'''
==See also==
{{bpnews}}
* [[STATE 2009 ballot measures]]
* [[TOPIC ballot measures]]
==References==
<references/>
{{state news}}
{{STATE}}
[[Category:STATE 2009 news]]
[[Category:2009 ballot news]]
[[Category:TOPIC news]]
__NOEDITSECTION__
__NOTOC__
Categories for aticles
Almost always
[[Category:STATE 2009 news]]
[[Category:2009 ballot news]]
[[Category:TOPIC news]]
- Typing Category:2009 ballot news on your article causes your article to automatically be added to The Ballot Initiative Gazette page.
- Typing (for example) Category:Florida 2009 news on your article causes your article to automatically be added to the relevant state news page, such as Florida ballot news.
Ballot law
[[Category:Ballot title law news]]
[[Category:Signature law news]]
[[Category:Single subject law news]]
Mandatory:
[[Category:Ballot law news]]
List of issue categories
If you add one or more of the categories that appear below to your news article, your news article will automatically be added to the appropriate news page that collects news stories about that particular issue as it pertains to ballot measures.
- Category:Tax news
- Category:Planning and zoning news
- Category:Marijuana news
- Category:Law enforcement news
- Category:Immigration news
- Category:Hunting and gun rights news
- Category:Gambling news
- Category:Election law news
- Category:Abortion news
State news pages
On Ballotpedia, there is a ballot news page for each of the fifty states. You can access each of the fifty articles at {{State news}}.
Content on these state-specific news pages is created whenever anyone writes an article and puts it in a category in the form Category:California 2009 news or Category:Maine 2009 news, and so on.
We're standardizing this text for the pages.
{{bpnews}}Here you'll find a collection of ballot news stories from [[STATE]].<DPL>
category=STATE 2009 news
ordermethod=firstedit
order=descending
userdateformat= M d, Y
addeditdate=true
include=%1
eliminate=templates
format= ,¶<h3>'''[[%PAGE%]]'''</h3> __NOTOC__,
</DPL>
==See also==
*[[STATE 2008 ballot news archive]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{state news}}
{{Washington}}
[[Category:Washington]]
[[Category:State news pages]]
As soon as we transfer all the news pages to DPL, we'll move [[Category:State news pages]] into [[Category:State news]]. We're separating them now so that we'll know which ones we've moved.
Page requirements
Make sure these pages have the following:
- They have the {{state news}} template.
- They have the {{Note on news pages}} template.
- They have the state's template at bottom of page.
- They have the {{WikiProject News}} template on discussion page.
- They use the {{TOCnestright}} convention.
The above list was completed for all state news articles on March 14. MMH 13:56, 14 March 2009 (CDT)
Page templates
- {{WikiProject News}} or its shortcut {{wn}}
- {{bpnews}}
- {{State news}}
- {{Assignment Desk}}
Assignment desk
If you want to help by writing articles about news, you can check out the Ballotpedia:Assignment Desk. You can also add the {{Assignment Desk}} template to your user page as in this example. This allows you to quickly access the Assignment Desk, or any state subsection of it, quickly and easily from your user page.
You can use the Asssignment Desk feature in these ways:
- Add links to resources or news articles that can be used as the basis for starting a new article or adding content to an existing one. By adding the link, you might be:
- Storing the link in a convenient place so you can find it the next time you are on Ballotpedia and have time to start that new article or add that content to an existing article.
- Adding the link there in case someone else has time to incorporate its content into Ballotpedia.
- You can also use the Assignment Desk to look for material in case you have some spare time to edit or start articles on Ballotpedia. The links there are a good indication of information that others thought would be valuable additions to Ballopedia's content.
Note: If you utilize the information in a link you find at the Assignment Desk to edit an existing article or start a new article, please delete the link from the Assignment Desk page. However, leave the section heading in place (such as "Maryland").
Project templates
{{State news}} | {{WikiProject News}} | {{bpnews}} | {{na}} {{Exp}} | {{User WikiProject News}}
References
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