DIGITAL STORYTELLINGTuesday, 13 October 2015 9:00 a.m. CT

Voltaire Santos Miran Co-Founder & CEO voltaire.miran@mStoner.com 312.420.6778 @vsantosmiran

1. Why Stories? 2. Show and Tell 3. The Six Elements of a Digital Story 4. Creating a Smart, Sustainable Solution

PART 1. WHY STORIES?

Story— whether delivered through films, books, or video games— teaches us facts about the world; influences our moral logic; and marks us with fears, hopes, and anxieties that alter our behavior, perhaps even our personalities.

Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

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• They educate us.

• They help us to solve problems.

• They give us pleasure.

• They assimilate us into community and culture.

• They teach us ethics.

• They bring order and meaning to our existence.

• They connect us to each other.

STORIES MAKE US HUMAN

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• Character

• Predicament

• Attempted Extrication

STORIES HAVE A STRUCTURE

Just about any story— comic, tragic, romantic— is about a protagonist’s efforts to secure, usually at some cost, what he or she desires.

- Jonathan Gottschall

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• They can appeal to our senses of sight and hearing.

• They can convey difficult concepts clearly and effectively.

• They can invite interaction and conversation across time and distance.

DIGITAL STORIES ADD LAYERING AND DIMENSION

PART 2. SHOW AND TELL

CASE STUDY

SNOW FALL

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THE STORY

Snow Fall tells the harrowing story of skiers caught in an avalanche.

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• Published by The New York Times in December 2012

• Received more than 3.5 million views in the first six days of its release

• 20% of Snowfall references came from Facebook and Twitter, half from mobile devices

• Touted as the future of journalism

• Won a Webby, Peabody, and Pulitzer

THE UPSHOT

Multi-Chapter, Long-Form Narrative with Integrated Video and Audio

Multiple, Interwoven Story Threads

Interactive Graphics for Concepts Difficult to Convey Solely in Words

Thoughtfully Planned Responsive Elements

Open Comment Function to Invite Conversations

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• Required the team to build the story outside of The Times’ content management system Scoop to give them enough flexibility to do what they wanted to do

• 11-person graphics and design team, plus a photographer, three videographers, a researcher, and the reporter John Branch

• Took six months to create

• One in four readers made it through the entire piece

• To “snowfall” online content became a thing

THE PUNCHLINE

CASE STUDY

A CLASSROOM AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

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UT graduate students and professors have an adventure of a lifetime during a week in a remote Arctic island chain.

THE STORY

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• Created for Alcade, the official publication of UT’s alumni association

• Written by the assistant editor of the magazine, who accompanied the group to Svalbard

• Created simultaneously for print and interactive

• Won a CASE Gold Award

THE UPSHOT

Arresting Photography and Bold Typography

One Multi-Panel Page, Microtransitions, and Parallax

Immersive Audio

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• One of several signature, interactive presentations developed by Alcade

• A team of five writers and editors, plus a designer, video producer, and producer

THE PUNCHLINE

Content Elements: 2014

“When we first started this we were more taken with the flash than we are now. It’s like a young writer who is amazed and thrilled at first by her ability to turn rhetorical cartwheels. As we have matured, like young writers tend to do, we try to move the reader back into the center of every decision. Is this feature necessary? Does it add something to the story? You can see the Times backing off the flash, as well. And that’s natural and OK. Doesn’t change the fact that the power is still there to tell stories better. It’s just about how you use it.”

- Alcalde Editor Tim Taliaferro

THE PUNCHLINE

CASE STUDY

WTF?

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Comedian and BU alum Marc Maron’s WTF podcasts give millions of listeners something different: reality.

THE STORY

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• Produced for Bostonia, Boston University’s alumni magazine

• Digital version of the print article for the winter-spring 2013 issue

THE UPSHOT

Responsive Design

Replicable Format

Part of Bostonia’s Digital Ecosystem

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• Bostonia could have reused imagery from its print magazine but chose to create dedicated digital graphics

• Use of comments on a higher ed magazine site

• High polished visual presentation of related stories

• Reliance on tagging for predictive content

THE PUNCHLINE

PART 3: THE SIX ELEMENTS OF A DIGITAL STORY

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SIX ELEMENTS OF A DIGITAL STORY1. Strategy

2. Design

3. Structure

4. Seamless Multimedia

5. Engagement Opportunities

6. Technology

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• “How will we promote this story?”

• “What related stories or information can we use or bundle with this piece?”

• “How can we raise the recirculation value of this story?”

• “How can we approach the build to make this story replicable or to extend our storytelling technology toolkit?”

• “What will enhance our audience’s understanding of the content?”

1. STRATEGY

At the Huffington Post, a story cannot be published unless it has a photo, search headline, a tweet, and a Facebook post.

The New York Times Innovation Report

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• Beautiful interfaces that encourage reading

• Device-aware user interface micro-interactions

• Sufficient clear space to allow focus on the text

• Thoughtful consideration of layout flexibility in regard to viewport size and content load times

• Touch-optimized content interactions

2. DESIGN

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• Experimental story forms that support the narrative

• Atomic units of information

• SEO optimization plan

• Tagging and taxonomy

• Associated tweets and social posts

3. STRUCTURE

It’s not about ‘chunkifying’ news but adding structure. Yes, each “point” of Circa is a single unit of news — something designated as a fact, quote, statistic, event or image. We thread these points together to tell stories.

David Cohn, Circa

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Examples of Structured Data• Geographical Coordinates

• Timeliness

• Story Type

• Story Threads

• Story Tone

• Topics

• Related Content

• Usage Rights

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• Photography

• Video

• Audio

• Data visualization (infographics)

4. SEAMLESS MULTIMEDIA

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• Calls to action

• Commenting/reader contributions

• Ability to share socially

• Opportunities to follow the story through mobile push alerts and email updates

• Subscription opportunities (podcasts, playlists)

5. ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Far too often for writers and editors the story is done when you hit publish. At Huffington Post, the article begins its life when you hit publish.

Paul BerryHuffington Post

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• Content management system

• Experimentation capability to optimize content, based on audience behavior

• Analytics framework

• Metadata and keyword targeting to support search engine optimization (SEO)

6. TECHNOLOGY

In digital media, technology is not a wingman, it is The Man. How something is made is often as important as what is made.

David CarrThe New York Times

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PART 4: CREATING A SMART, SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION

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WHAT’S NECESSARY?1. Collaborative Planning

2. Transparent Assessment

3. Sharing Best Practices

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• Bring the entire team to the table at the outset.

• Keep in communication as the story develops.

• Story first, department second.

1. COLLABORATIVE PLANNING

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NYTimes’ UX Model• Writers and editors from the newsroom

• Design (crafting the user experience)

• Technology (bringing the user experience to life)

• Analytics (understanding the reader experience)

• Research and Development (imagining how user experience may change

• Product (crafting a strategy for combining these elements into a single, user-centric experience)

A significant amount of distrust and skepticism stems from speaking slightly different languages. People are referring to the same thing when one side says “content” or “brand” and the other side says “journalism.”

New York TimesInnovation Report

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• What flopped? Why?

• What flew? Why?

• How do we even judge what flops or flies?

• Could performance be enhanced with a tweak, or do we need a whole new approach?

2. TRANSPARENT ASSESSMENT

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• Explore emerging models.

• Learn from other departments, areas, or units.

• Develop standards and toolkits for digital storytelling to create consistency.

3. SHARING STANDARDS AND BEST PRACTICES

Adam Moss Editor, New York magazine

We’re constantly telling each other what’s working, what we’ve experimented with. About half the choices I make come about because someone from another site tells me something worked, so we adopt it.

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Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

-W. H. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951

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