Using the Media Module
emdoublegee
With all the hype and bluster about the Military module and the Political module, the Media module often gets swept under the rug or given nothing more than a sideways glance. However this module is one of the best ways to get yourself plugged into the biggest part of the game: the community! The Media module is a great place to get information out to people or to just get to know everyone!
Getting Your Paper Started
Probably the first thing you should think about when getting started in the Media module is what your niche is going to be. Your paper is your way to communicate with everyone else and you should decide what you are going to write about. There are 6 categories for articles in eRepublik: First Steps, Battle Orders, Warfare Analysis, Political, Financial, and Social Interactions/Entertainment. Each article you write will have to be put into one of these categories.
There are many different types of papers and articles out there. If you know what you want to write about, go for it! If not, I'd suggest reading at least a few of the newspapers currently in circulation and deciding what you want to write about. My biggest suggestion is writing about something you enjoy, because if you don't, you'll get burnt out really fast, and then that 2 gold is a waste. Oh yeah, by the way, did I mention it costs 2 gold to start your newspaper? If you are just starting, this might be a little bit hard to come up with, but it really isn't too bad once you get going.
Writing Format
When you are writing your articles, it is not a good idea to have just a giant block of text. Depending on what your purpose for writing is, i'd suggest adding in some pictures, or at the very least some headers like I have in mine. It breaks up the article into more manageable chunks. I'd also try and keep things separated into paragraphs for the same reason.
When you are writing these articles you can use BBCode to change the way your text looks. Here's a few of the basics to get you going; just take out the space inside the first bracket i've added so you can read this:
[ b]text[/b] =Bold
[ i]text[/i] =Italicized
[ u]text[/u] =Underlined
[ url=link URL]text[/url] 😕
inked text
[ img]image link[/img] 😛
icture
Wrap Up
The last few things I wanted to talk about before closing out this article are comments, votes, subscriptions, and shouts.
Comments - You are able to comment on any articles by typing in your comment at the bottom of the article. Beware though, oftentimes trolls (people posting inflammatory or offtopic messages) will hit your comments up. Keep your calm and don't take anything in the game personally.
Votes - In order for your article to get on the top rated list, you will have to have a large number of votes. Because of this, you should vote for your favorite articles/writers, to get their articles up there. The vote button is in the top left of articles. If you want your article voted up, you can ask your friends, or buy votes, although that is quite expensive, so i'd just suggest talking to friends.
Subscriptions - Subscriptions are a way to keep track of articles written by authors you enjoy reading. The subscription button is located in the top right of articles. Subscribers to your newspaper will be able to quickly get to new articles you write. Also, once you get to 1000 Subscribers, you will receive the Media Mogul award and 5 gold.
Shouts - Finally I'll talk about shouts. This isn't so much in the media module, but is actually on your homepage. On the right side of your homepage is a box called "My Feeds" with tabs on it for your friends, MU, and Party. You are able to "shout" things here, and everyone in that list will see what you write. This is a good way to get out information about new articles you've written, or to get information out quickly. The downside is you are only able to type 160 characters.
Well that concludes this article. I hope that you found this article informative and it inspires you to start writing your own articles! I look forward to reading what you have to say here in the future!
Emdoublegee (aka Matt Gegner)
My link
IRC Office Channel: #emdoublegee’s
Department of Education Newspaper
Comments
Voted! Good stuff!
Here's a few other things:
Use the Code: [code] [/code] tags to show code without it being formatted.
Beware of the official article editor! If you spend too much time editing your article with it or it will eat your article. Constantly back it up, use notepad, or Santirubs article editor to prevent losing your work!
Thanks Mike, I tried the tags and it inserted "code:" in front of each of my codes....[code] tags and it inserted "code:" in front of each of my codes....
o7 Great Stuff!
Nice article as always, keep up the good work.
Good job! Great read.
V
I supose I should V+S to you now?
V+S
It's time to hit the screen. Plato, we want WoMD for all!!
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/weaps-of-mass-destruction-for-all-armas-de-destrucci-n-masiva-para-todos-2049472/1/20
As a veteran of the Media Module, I HIGHLY recommend that you write your articles offsite. Open up notepad, or Word or Google Documents. Get the article set, and then copy/paste it into eRepublik. eRepublik times out after a few minutes of inactivity (typing doesn't count). I've lost plenty of articles, and it's the worst feeling.
Yeah, i write it in word, then transfer it here and reformat it
Nice guide.
voted and subscribed
just looking through old news and came upon this, very helpful as I just started a newspaper.
Subscribed