17&19 Feb 09 - 3340-digitalstorytelling

Digital Storytelling & Tools University of North Texas Department of Journalism Online Journalism 3340 February 17 & 19, 2009

Today’s class         

Site of the day Website analysis Homework:

DUE: Tuesday, February 24 Report and write a 500 word news story. At least three sources!!!! Campus or community related. Must be for this class only. Include links to relevant sites and pictures and a poll if you like.

Examples of Website Analysis   

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What I’m Looking For:

Andrews County News: The Andrews County News is the local newspaper for residents in Andrews, Texas. This small West Texas town of 10,ooo people took their paper to the internet several years ago and unfortunately for them the website looks like it has not been updated since. First Offense: Scroll, baby, Scroll. The viewer is struck with scrolling text on the home page. Scrolling text is one of the items listed in Jakob Nielsen’s Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design. This feature dates the newspaper’s website and ultimately reflects the small-town mind frame. Second Offense: What is that? Along the left side of the screen is what appears to be a scanned copy of the front page of the latest issue. The purpose of this picture is unknown, other than to remind visitors that the company still prints actual hard copies. You cannot open this image to view a larger version.

Website analysis continued  

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Third Offense: Boring. This site is easy to use because there is not much to it. I imagine this was the goal of creators because West Texans tend to be set in their ways and unwilling to change. Non-tech-savvy residents could access the site without any problem, but why bother when it is so boring. Fourth Offense: Uh-Oh’s. The first story has an extremely noticeable spelling mistake of the word ‘local’, they chose to use the uncommon version ‘lo9cal’. Quick Fixes: The Solution. 1.) The paper should utilize the format of the hard copy and incorporate it into the site, which does not resemble the paper in any form. 2.) The online edition should offer more than teases of their top stories so a visitor does not have to subscribe and log in to view the full versions of the stories. 3.) As a former reader of this paper, I rarely saw grammatical errors and believe that they should not exist on their online version because it is much easier to correct, no re-prints involved. 4.) Finally, they should trade-in the computer mouse graphic at the

Examples of Website Analysis 

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks, AK) While it should have been a laughably bad site, this Alaskan newspaper's website, features a fair amount of content, and it all seems highly relevant to the audience. Functional and sleek, it's not nearly the two-bit operation an outsider would expect from an Alaskan newspaper. It's not hard to navigate, but the site is a bit cluttered with ads. The video quality is fair, and definitely better than expected. Most videos are ice-related, but likely highly relevant to the people of Alaska. The photos, especially their sports photos are top-notch. The site allows comments, the bare minimum for interactivity. Letters to the Editor are accessible, a good idea. CONTENT: 4 FUNCTIONALITY: 4 NAVIGATION: 3 A/V QUALITY: 3 INTERACTIVITY: 3

Today’s Tools   

Posting Images within blogs Creating Polls: Polldaddy.com Simple slide shows: slide.com

Importance of Interaction & Involvement 

Two key factors 1.

Shift in flow of mass communications from one-way to multi-directional flow.

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Impacting how news is defined, the way it’s presented and how journalists do their jobs

What people learn from the news -

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User-controlled, user-driven content enhance learning Readers making mental connections

What Makes Web Stories Work 

Ask yourself:  

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Can reader easily scan content? What are the elements of this story that can use multimedia? How can this story engage readers? Can they interact?

Traditional v. Digital Storytelling Traditional 

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Focus on text Photos Periodic updating Onedimensional Long-form narrative

Digital Media  Immediacy  ‘Non-linear’ presentations  Richness in words, pictures and sounds  Shorter ‘segments’

The Five ‘I’s     

Interactivity Involvement Immediacy Integration In-depth

Interaction & Involvement Traditional  One-way flow  Inform, educate and entertain  Editor/Report er/ Producer driven  The ‘old’ wire services

Digital Media  Multidirectiona l  Inform, educate, entertain & ENGAGE  Editor, reporter, producer &

Interaction/Involvement Continuum

The greater the interaction and involvement, the higher the learning Low

T ext

High

Online Discussi on Lurker

Static Graphi c:

L ink

Interacti ve: -Timeline

Photo

- fact box

Text Box

Slideshow - map

Online

Q uiz

Report er

Discussio ns

Interac tive Game

Email

Interacti ve Flash Content

Strategic Interactivity 

NY Times – 2002  

Interactivity at all levels DC Sniper coverage 

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26 choices “Complete Coverage: End of a Hunt” Interactive maps Slide show Streaming video Discussion forum

Strategic Interactivity 

Dallas Morning News      

‘Faces of TYC’ http://www.dallasnews.com/investig In-depth articles Original documents Audio/Video Maps

Strategic Interactivity 

The Seattle Times – Pike Place Market 

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/h

Audio Slide Show Interactive Map Share Your Own Photos

Strategic Interactivity 

The Washington Post – Rob Curley 

Loudoun County Extra 

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http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/

“Hyperlocal”: 

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Local news driven by Interaction and Interactivity News Blogs Webcams Extensive local listings 

Businesses, schools, churches, high school sports, calendar

Your thoughts 

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Is more interaction and interactivity good? Why? Do you learn more reading online, offline or watching the news? What tool most enhances your reading? How?

Making Interactivity Work  

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Enhances user experience Increases readers/viewers understanding of story Extends media’s reach into the community Expands access and content depth Generates more timely, relevant content

Integration 

“Among-media”  

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Shovelware Reproducing newspaper story as-is into newspaper Posting video from newscast onto the web “I think that the great fear was that we were all going to turn into threeheaded monsters and do three times as much work in eight hours, and you just can’t. And, furthermore, you probably won’t do it that well; particularly in a market this size you can’t afford to have a mediocre person on TV or a

Integration 

“Within-media” 

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Great reporting + multimedia using digital media tools: your pen, paper, digital recorder, digital video camera Long form narrative meets digital story telling Fully integrated into the story assignment process Ability for more in-depth coverage   

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Better interviews Greater consciousness of photos Selected use of video

Fairness & accuracy still reign

Digital Storytelling Tools 

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Shovelware out, Within Media In It’s no place for lazy journalists Dig deeper, report more, drive to find more sources, quicker Need to be more accurate and more thorough

Types of Convergence 

Storytelling or presentation: Using digital tools to create new forms of story telling.

Print

Broadcast

Internet

Types of Convergence 

Storytelling or presentation: Using digital tools to create new forms of story telling.

Print

Broadcast

Internet

“Easy” Convergence

“Difficult” Convergence

-Central to organization’s strategy -Committed and focused leadership -Culture of innovation and risk taking -Coordinating structure -Same ownership -Same values -Aligned systems and processes -Cable television partnerships -Past successes together -Cultures flexible or similar -Collocated -Lack of unions

-Not central; secondary or worse -Other leadership priorities -“Always done it this way” -No coordinating structure -Different ownership -Different values -Systems not aligned -Partnerships with over-the-air broadcaster -Previous problems or no relationship -Cultures not flexible -Located some distance apart -Presence of strong unions

Digital Storytelling Tools 

Rules of the road:  Tighter, shorter copy  Section heads  Boldface type, bulleted presentations  Pull out quotes  Timelines

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Links Fact Boxes Graphics Visuals Audio

Digital Storytelling Tools 

Drilling Down – What Really Works 

Timelines  

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Old School: Static graphic in chronological order New School: Dates, images, description, audio

http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/time

Quality Audio & Video Slide shows Story Boards