Digital Storytelling: Making Smart ChoicesEmma Carew Grovum / @emmacarew

Who’s in the room?

Reporters, editors, students, others?

Why are we here?

Why are we here?

Make smart choices among alternative ways to tell a story to get the maximum audience impact with the least

expenditure of time, energy and effort.

Warm-up: 1 min

Brainstorm as many types of storytelling building

blocks as you can.

Warm-up: 2 min

● Who is your audience? ● What are they looking for from your newsroom?

● How do they ingest/consume your coverage?

Warm-up: 1 min

Describe the staffing, digital skills and

organization of your newsroom.

What’s in your storytelling toolkit?

Live blog

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/feb/16/westminster-kennel-club-dog-show-live

Common hurdles●Smaller newsrooms may not have an existing template for a live blog. ●Staffing for a live blog requires senior staff who can self-edit. ●Can be difficult to coordinate with some staff working on the scene/in the office.

Video

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/nytopinion/videos/1182146625133625/

Common hurdles●Gear can be costly.●Not all journalists have video training (both shooting/editing, as well as on-camera experience).●Video-editing software may not be available to all staff.●Video editing is time-intensive if it’s not your primary job.

Charts and Graphics

SOURCE: http://qz.com/685319/the-uss-infuriating-airport-security-problem-in-one-chart/

Common hurdles●Free/cheap tools may not match website aesthetic.●Not all journalists have data/spreadsheet skills.●Easy to fall into the trap of data for the sake of data. ●Free/cheap tools may not play nicely with CMS/website.

Spectrum of data-viz tools

Long-form template

http://www.vox.com/a/hillary-clinton-interview

Common hurdles●Templates needed to make long-forms easy to execute.●Can be a heavy lift for designers and developers.●Easy to fall into the trap of building one-off stories to save time that aren’t reusable.

Photo Stories

SOURCE: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/07/the-women-of-kobani/

Snapchat

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/nytopinion/videos/1168972886450999/

Common hurdles●Live events = audio quality may suffer.●Legacy newsrooms may dismiss as a storytelling tool.●Vertical video can be tough to repurpose.●Easy to fall into the trap of tasking an intern with this tool.

Facebook Live / Periscope

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/thedailybeast/videos/10154454770259203/

Common hurdles●Better gear can improve the quality of these videos, which can be expensive.

●Audio quality is not great.●Can be difficult to coordinate between staff in the field and in the office.

●Long videos are tough to keep an audience’s attention.

Facebook Q&A

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/foreign.policy.magazine/posts/10154585597580347

SMS/Chatbots

SOURCE: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/08/inspired-by-purple-the-new-york-times-will-text-readers-behind-the-scenes-updates-about-the-olympics/http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/02/with-an-interface-that-looks-like-a-chat-platform-quartz-wants-to-text-you-the-news-in-its-new-app/

Common hurdles●Requires heavy preplanning to design, develop and implement.●Specialized skills needed to utilize this storytelling tool. ●Many smaller newsrooms will not have resources for these kinds of stories.

Alternative Story Forms: Quizzes, Bingo Boards

SOURCE: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/05/from-bingo-games-to-brackets-the-washington-post-is-building-alternative-story-forms/

Common hurdles●Free/cheap tools may not “fit” or “play nicely” with legacy CMS/older websites.●Easy to fall into the trap of creating single-use stories that can’t be recycled.●Can be time-consuming to conceive and execute for breaking news.

Group activity: 5 min

Sort your storytelling toolkit: ● less than one hour● more than one hour● less than one day● at least one day

What’s important to this story?

●Fast●Exclusive/scoop●Comprehensive●Visually appealing

●Voicey or edgy●Update-able●Shareable●Interactive

Iterations●What’s the smallest, simplest piece of content this story needs to get out the door?

●How quickly will you update with the next version?

●And how much will the story/presentation grow with each step?

How much of the story can be told in...

●5 minutes●1 hour●3 hours

●6 hours●12 hours

Group Activity: 20 mins

Storyline 1:There’s a local natural disaster occurring (tornado, earthquake, flooding, take your pick).

How will your newsroom tell this story?

Storyline 2:All hell breaks loose at a planned event (like a concert, a sporting event, award show, etc.)

How will your newsroom tell this story?

Storyline 3:One of your reporters has a huge scoop, and you’re able to spend some time putting the package together.

How will your newsroom tell this story?

Report Back: 10 mins1. There’s a local natural disaster

occurring (tornado, earthquake, flooding, take your pick).

2. All hell breaks loose at a planned event (like a concert, a sporting event, award show, etc.)

3. One of your reporters has a huge scoop, and you’re able to spend some time putting the package together.

Emma Carew Grovum @emmacarew

ecg@thedailybeast.com

Photo by Gareth Simpson