Categories, tags & series

Categories, tags and series are “taxonomies” used to organize content on the website to make it easier for our audience and search engines to find.

Categories

Choose at least one category for each story. Categories are arranged in a nested list, which means that some categories have sub-categories. If selecting a sub-category, also select the category to which that sub-category belongs. Adding categories is discouraged. (In fact, users with the role of Author — most students — are not able to add additional categories.)

For example, a story about a crime in East Lansing might have the categories:

  • News
    • Community News
      • East Lansing
    • Public Safety
      • Police

Tags

Tags help our viewers find related content that they may also be interested in viewing.

Think of tags as the key people, organizations and places in a news article. You should not create a tag for every person, place or organization in a news report, and authors should not create tags for themselves. Be sure to search existing tags before creating a new one. If a person, place or organization is not frequently in the news, it may not be a good candidate for a tag.

Rules for tags:

  • Keep names simple. Avoid using titles or middle initials unless necessary to avoid confusion with people who have similar names. Virg Bernero not Mayor Virg Bernero
  • Use acronyms only when deemed acceptable on first reference by the AP Stylebook. CIA is OK, but OTCA should be Old Town Commercial Association

Series

We use the series field to pull out special content onto landing pages. We have landing pages for work by Focal Point, MI First Election coverage and JRN 400 special projects, among others.