A News21 specific presentation related to the project being built by the UC Berkeley team at the Graduate School of Journalism. Talks about some examples of multimedia storytelling that we could do during the summer.

1. MULTIMEDIA
STORYTELLING

2. WHO ARE WE?

3. FACTS:
• We publish once.
• Our audience will probably find us through
social networking, email, links on news/other
websites and maybe search (probably not).
• User loyalty doesn’t matter.
• Time on site does.
• We gain the most from evergreen content.
• We are a destination site.

4. GOALS:
• Innovate and experiment.
• Tell compelling stories and try to make a
difference.
• Get as many people to our content as possible.
• Get people to spend as much time on the site as
possible.
• Develop a project that will showcase your
talents to future employers.
• Get mainstream media to publish our content.

5. IDENTIFYING THE MEDIUM
THE INTERNET

6. THE INTERNET
It should not be just a distribution platform where we shovel
content onto the Web. Rather...
• The STORY will tell you the medium in which it wants to be told.
• Think convergence. Every medium is on the table.
• Stories often have multiple parts that can be told in a variety of
mediums.
• We are not defined as print, broadcast, documentary,
photography or radio journalists. We are journalists.

7. ACTIVE MEDIUM
CONCISION
ENGAGEMENT
HYPERLINKS
VISUALS
BROKEN DOWN INTO PIECES
INTERACTIVITY

8. PLATFORMS
Print stories
Video stories
Flash interactives
Data visualizations
Games, other interactives
Mobile applications

9. PRINT
Jakob Nielsen
How Users Read on the Web
They don't.
People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words
and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users
always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.
As a result, Web pages have to employ scannable text, using
• highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and
color are others)
• meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
• 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)
• the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
• half the word count (or less) than conventional writing
We found that credibility is important for Web users, since it is unclear who is behind information on
the Web and whether a page can be trusted. Credibility can be increased by high-quality graphics, good
writing, and use of outbound hypertext links. Links to other sites show that the authors have done
their homework and are not afraid to let readers visit other sites.
Users detested "marketese"; the promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims ("hottest
ever") that currently is prevalent on the Web. Web users are busy: they want to get the straight facts.
Also, credibility suffers when users clearly see that the site exaggerates.
ALSO READ PRINT VS WEB

10. VIDEO STORIES
According to studies, Web video
differs from TV news.
Broken down into short segments.
Give them more choices. Users
feel they have an entitlement.
More active (action, voice, drama,
humor, character)
Viral, sharable with embed code.
OLYMPIC RUN

11. DATA VISUALIZATIONS
Great way to simplify esoteric
stories in a visual way.
Possibilities for evergreen content.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that
many data viz projects can often
be complex, confusing or
overwhelming to users.
Most graphics lack context alone.
VERY time intensive, both on data Wikipedia incarceration Obama’s budget
collecting and production. State of Salmon

12. MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Creating a “lean back” experience
for the user.
Magazines, long form journalism, a
leisurely browsing experience.
Native apps should go beyond
duplicating a web site. (not just an
RSS feed)
Geo-location, SMS, phone, social
networking, augmented reality are
possibilities.

13. GAMES AND INTERACTIVES
Engages the user to participate
and become immersed in the
project.
Role playing, empathizing
situations.
Careful to not belittle the topic, or
to sensationalize an otherwise
serious issue.
MORAL COMPASS
Lots of work involved. VIRTUAL GUANTANAMO
DARFUR IS DYING
PLANE CRASH JOURNEY TO THE END OF COAL

14. FLASH INTERACTIVES
Visually stunning way to
really pull people into a
story -- initially.
The “tomb” of Flash
keeps search engines,
mobile devices out.
Go beyond the eye
candy. Have purpose for BLUE WHALE
the interactivity. WATERLIFE
FACING
DEPORTATION