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
 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
 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.
 Impacting how news is defined, the
way it’s 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
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?
 Traditional v. Digital
Storytelling
Traditional Digital Media
 Focus on  Immediacy
text  ‘Non-linear’
 Photos presentations
 Periodic  Richness in
updating words, pictures
 One- and sounds
dimensional  Shorter
 Long-form ‘segments’
narrative
The Five ‘I’s
 Interactivity
 Involvement
 Immediacy
 Integration
 In-depth
Interaction &
Involvement
Traditional Digital Media
 One-way flow  Multidirectiona

 Inform, l
educate and  Inform,

entertain educate,
 Editor/Report entertain &
er/ ENGAGE
 Editor,
Producer driven
 The ‘old’ reporter,
wire services producer &
 Interaction/Involvement
Continuum
The greater the interaction and involvement, the higher
the learning

Low High

T
Online
ext
Discussi Online
on Interacti Interac
Lurker Discussio
ve: ns tive
Static L Q Report
-Timeline er Game
Graphi ink uiz
c: - fact Email

Photo box Interacti

ve
Text -
Box Slideshow Flash

- map Content
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
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
 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/h
 Audio Slide Show
 Interactive Map
 Share Your Own Photos
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
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?
Making Interactivity
Work
 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”
 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
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”
 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
Digital Storytelling
Tools
 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.

Broadcast Internet
Print
 Types of Convergence
 Storytelling or presentation:
Using digital tools to create new
forms of story telling.

Print Broadcast Internet

“Easy” 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
“Difficult” Convergence
-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:  Links

 Tighter, shorter  Fact Boxes
copy  Graphics
 Section heads  Visuals
 Boldface type,  Audio
bulleted
presentations
 Pull out quotes

 Timelines
Digital Storytelling
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/time
 Quality Audio & Video
 Slide shows
 Story Boards