Telling the story

By Holly EdgellWCPO, CincinnatiSeptember 2014,

Oklahoma Baptist UniversityTWITTER: @hollyedgell

What kind of journalist are you?

You may have a “first love” or affinity for a particular platform Audio Video Text Photography Graphics

Forget that for now!

Consider yourself a multimedia journalist

Assess your strengths and weaknesses.

Technology? Visual approaches? Writing? Interviewing? Data? Research?

New Tools = New Rules

Eric Newton: “The students of today actually are

going to create the journalism and mass communication of tomorrow. You aren’t stuck in formats created a century ago. You get to build the new companies and the new products and the new standards of the digital age. New standards? That’s right.  New tools create opportunities to make new rules.”

4 reasons we’re on the Web

Information we can use

Commerce

Connecting with others

Entertainment

How do we read the Web?

Mostly, we scan Jakob Nielsen:

highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)

meaningful sub-headings bulleted lists one idea per paragraph (users will

skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)

Inverted Pyramid Half the word count

F-SHAPE

IN THIS EYE-TRACK STUDY YOU SEE THAT READERS DON’T GET TO THE END

What is the best way to tell the story?

Basic info, updated as new developments come in

“Long-read,” magazine style

Fun: e.g. Listicle

Basic list

Q&A

Multimedia > video, audio, photos

Interactive

How do we read the Web?

READERS WANT TO CONSTRUCT A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

EXAMPLES:

Queen City Barrel

Exit 34

Tips

Make your copy “scannable” Clear hed Descriptive Dek hed Subhead Lists

EXAMPLES: It came from Pinterest 9 places country music fans can find

love for Valentine’s Day

Fun with story forms

Photo galleries/slideshows Example 1 Example 2

Audio slideshows

Links! Related content Resources

Incorporating audio and video Video player Embedding

INTERACTIVES

Makes data and trends real

Provide context

Examples: How much do NFL players make? Winning the lottery Ohio’s death row

EXTRAS: Timelines

Great for trends, historical context, narrative Example: 1969 (New York Times) Example: Inventing the Wheel

Tools

Videolicious

YouTube

Timelines Create your own: TimelineSetter Create your own: Dipity Create your own: Simile

Polls Example: PollDaddy

Maps embed a MapQuest Map embed a Google Map