17&19 feb 09 - 3340-digitalstorytelling

8/14/2019 17&19 Feb 09 - 3340-DigitalStoryTelling

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Digital Storytelling &

Tools

University of North Texas

Department of Journalism

Online Journalism 3340

February 17 & 19, 2009


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Todays 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.


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Examples of Website

Analysis What Im 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 Nielsens Top

Ten Mistakes in Web Design. This feature dates the newspapers

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.
http://www.andrewscountynews.com/http://www.useit.com/http://www.useit.com/http://www.andrewscountynews.com/


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Website analysis

continued 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-Ohs.

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 inany 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 Fin ll he h l r e-in he c m er m e r hic he


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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 operationan 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: 3INTERACTIVITY: 3
http://www.newsminer.com/http://www.newsminer.com/http://www.newsminer.com/


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Todays Tools Posting Images within blogs

Creating Polls: Polldaddy.com

Simple slide shows: slide.com
http://polldaddy.com/http://slide.com/http://slide.com/http://polldaddy.com/


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Importance of Interaction &

Involvement

Two key factors

1. Shift in flow of mass

communications from one-way to

multi-directional flow. Impacting how news is defined, the

way its presented and how

journalists do their jobs

2. What people learn from the news

- User-controlled, user-driven

content enhance learning

- Readers making mental connections


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What Makes Web Stories

Work Ask yourself:

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?


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Traditional v. Digital

StorytellingTraditional

Focus on

text Photos Periodic

updating One-dimensional

Long-form

narrative

Digital Media

Immediacy

Non-linear

presentations

Richness in

words, picturesand sounds

Shorter

segments


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The Five Is Interactivity

Involvement

Immediacy Integration

In-depth


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Interaction &

InvolvementTraditional

One-way flow

Inform,

educate and

entertain

Editor/Reporter/

Producer driven

The old

wire services

Digital Media

Multidirectiona

l Inform,

educate,

entertain &

ENGAGE

Editor,

reporter,

producer &


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T

ext

Static

Graphi

c:

Photo

Text

Box

Online

Discussi

on

Lurker

L

ink

Interacti

ve:

-Timeline

- fact

box

-

Slideshow

- map

Q

uiz

Interac

tive

Game

Interacti

ve

Flash

Content

Online

Discussio

nsReport

er

Email

Interaction/Involvement

Continuum

Low High

The greater the interaction and involvement, the higher

the learning


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Strategic

Interactivity NY Times 2002

Interactivity at all levels

DC Sniper coverage 26 choices Complete Coverage: End

of a Hunt

Interactive maps

Slide show

Streaming video

Discussion forum


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Strategic

Interactivity Dallas Morning News

Faces of TYC

http://www.dallasnews.com/invest

In-depth articles

Original documents

Audio/Video

Maps
http://www.dallasnews.com/investigativereports/tyc/http://www.dallasnews.com/investigativereports/tyc/


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Strategic

Interactivity

The Seattle Times Pike

Place Market

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

Audio Slide Show

Interactive Map Share Your Own Photos
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pikeplacemarket/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pikeplacemarket/


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Strategic

Interactivity

The Washington Post Rob Curley Loudoun County Extra

http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/

Hyperlocal: Local news driven by Interaction and

Interactivity

News

Blogs

Webcams

Extensive local listings

Businesses, schools, churches, high school

sports, calendar
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/


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Your thoughts

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?


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Making Interactivity

Work

Enhances user experience

Increases readers/viewers

understanding of story Extends medias reach into

the community

Expands access and contentdepth

Generates more timely,

relevant content


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Integration Among-media

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 three-headed monsters and do three times as

much work in eight hours, and you just

cant. And, furthermore, you probably

wont do it that well; particularly in

a market this size you cant afford tohave a mediocre person on TV or a


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Integration

Within-media 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

Better interviews

Greater consciousness of photos

Selected use of video

Fairness & accuracy still reign


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Digital Storytelling

Tools

Shovelware out, Within Media

In

Its no place for lazy

journalists

Dig deeper, report more,

drive to find more sources,

quicker

Need to be more accurate and

more thorough


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Types of Convergence Storytelling or presentation:

Using digital tools to create new

forms of story telling.

PrintBroadcast Internet


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Types of Convergence Storytelling or presentation:

Using digital tools to create new

forms of story telling.

Print Broadcast Internet


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Easy Convergence Difficult Convergence

-Central to organizations strategy

-Committed and focusedleadership

-Culture of innovation and risktaking

-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-airbroadcaster-Previous problems or no

relationship-Cultures not flexible-Located some distance apart-Presence of strong unions


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Tools

Rules of the road:

Tighter, shorter

copy Section heads

Boldface type,

bulleted

presentations Pull out quotes

Timelines

Links

Fact Boxes

Graphics Visuals

Audio


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Tools

Drilling Down What Really Works Timelines

Old School: Static graphic in chronological order

New School: Dates, images, description, audio

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

Quality Audio & Video

Slide shows

Story Boards
http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/timelineshttp://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/timelines

17&19 feb 09 - 3340-digitalstorytelling

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