This document summarizes a presentation on digital storytelling. The presentation covers how storytelling has changed from a print-centric model to a digital landscape that allows for fast, live reporting using multimedia and multiple voices. It discusses tools for digital storytelling like liveblogging, video, data journalism, and social media. The presentation provides practical advice and questions to help journalists adapt their practices to the new media environment.

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DIGITAL
STORYTELLING
Patrick Smith, 14 December 2011
@psmith
Slides available to download at
www.slideshare.net/patricksmithjournalist

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About me
• Editor of TheMediaBriefing.com
• B2B journalist covering the media industry
• Visiting lecture at City in online journalism

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About you

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What we’ll do today
1. Storytelling (i) The
old and new 2. Storytelling (ii)
storytelling Practical digital
landscape storytelling tools
3. Live, mobile 4. Journalism as
reporting conversation - social
media in news

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A Tale of two Times
4 December 1788 December 9 2011
Spot the difference?

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The model of production and storytelling hasn’t
changed very much for 300 years … until now.
What do you think?

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Q&A – print media
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of publishing stories
in print ?

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Old media
• Slow, constrained by deadlines
• One-dimensional
• Static, unchanging
• Expensive
• Singularity of voice

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Number of stories (printed magazine with website)
45
40
40
35
30
Number of stories
25
20
15
10
4
5 3 3
2
0 0
0
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Number of stories (print-centric B2B title)

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Number of stories – print vs digital title
45
40
40
35
30
Number of stories
25
20
15
15
12 12 12 12
10
5 4
3 3
2 2 2
0 0
0
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Number of stories (print-centric B2B title) Number of stories (digital B2B

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The news pyramid
In Print:
• Text story
• 300-600 words
• No links
• No updates
• No multimedia
• No social sharing online
• No mobile device capability
Is there more to
news online than
this?

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New media
1. Fast and live, unconstrained by deadlines
2. Multi-media
3. Multitude of voices

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Q&A – new media
• What are the benefits / drawbacks of publishing stories
online?
• Is the digital / print resource split right in your business?

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(i) Fast and live, no deadlines
• “The deadline is now”
• Why stick to a print deadline online?
• Your readers want the news now
• Liveblogging is changing journalism
• Social media is happening now

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Liveblogging
• An entirely new form of digital journalism
• Not a “story”, not an “article”, a breaking news format that
is revolutionising reporting
• One static page or a client programme
• Allows internal and external collaboration
• Excellent way to integrate social media output / input

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Liveblogging is (says Guardian.co.uk’s head of blogs):
1. The quickest way to publish information on
incrementally updating and developing stories
2. The quickest way to incorporate (and verify)
contributions from social media
3. Participatory - Guardian live blogs attract thousands of
comments and the community co-ordinator role in the
news room helps feed those back to the journalist for
either inclusion in the piece or for follow up
• (More at http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2011/05/newsrewired-liveblogging-panel.php

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News intro – main
facts at the top
Lots of
interaction
Automatic updates
No Guardian
edition on
Sunday

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Excellent for aggregation. You can link to your
own stories….

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And other
people’s:

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By the way, the Guardian’s liveblogs can be read by more than…
4 million people
Compared to 220,000 sales in print….

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Practical Q&A
• What news stories would be suited to liveblogging?
• How many staff would it need to run?
• Are there stories you could and should update throughout
the day as they unfold?
• p.s. there’s nothing wrong with a the old-fashioned article

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(ii) Multidimensional
• Multimedia
• Video, audio
• Breaking out of the printed metaphor

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Video and audio
• Video/audio can be done cheaply, effectively
• Can build a existing and new audiences
• Liberating and creative for reporters
• Huge growth in video advertising 2012-2015

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Video as news reporting tool
Guardian’s
investigation into
the death of Ian
Tomlinson

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Video as reportage
Vaughan Smith
In Afghanistan

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Video as expert commentary
Flight Global’s
Mary Kirby (aka
Runway Girl)

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Multimedia: Data journalism
If words can’t describe how big
something is, why use them?

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Using data to tell big stories…

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Video and data Q&A
1. What stories you regularly cover would benefit from
video coverage? What are the benefits of doing video?
2. How much training and equipment do you think staff
would need? What are the barriers?
3. When is data journalism effective and appropriate?
4. What kind of data do you hold internally that could be
turned into a story?

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Wordle.net

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(iii) Multiple voices
• Think social
• Think aggregation
• Publishing as a service to your readers – it’s not about
“winning” at the news game
• What value can you add by including contributions from
• Rivals?
• Readers?

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The Jarvis principle
• Instead of saying, “we should have that” (and replicating
what is already out there) you say, “what do we do
best?”… “what is our unique value?”
• When see a story that others have worked on, you should
ask, “can we do it better?” If not, then link. And devote
your time to what you can do better.
• In the re-architecture of news, what needs to happen is
that people are driven to the best coverage, not the 87th
version of the same coverage.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2007/02/22/new-rule-cover-what-you-do-best-link-to-the-rest/

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Aggregation and curation

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Telling stories through aggregation
This Huffington Post liveblog
links to
Telegraph.co.uk
Another HuffPo article
bbc.co.uk
Guardian’s political editor’s
Twitter

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Why link?
Linking is an essential part of attribution in online
journalism. Linking lets people see the full context of the
information you are citing.
Even when readers don’t click links, the fact that you are
linking tells them that you are backing up what you have
written, that you are attributing and showing your sources.
Steve Buttry, 2011

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• Here, on
TheAtlantic.com, live
aggregation is the service.
• The story is the links, the
experience is building up a
picture with different
sources.

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Storify

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@acarvin
Twitter as an aggregated
journalism tool
Telling his audience what
he’s hearing around the
world

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@acarvin

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Practical Q&A
• How are using social media right now?
• How could your journalists get more value from the
audience to feed into your journalism?
• Are there small steps you could take to be more social?
• Social media policy or not?
• You don’t want reporters and staff to embarrass you or
your brand
• But you do want them to have freedom and confidence.

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Part two: mobile and social reporting
• What is it?
• What do you need?
• What does it let you do?
• What are the risks?

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Mobile reporting toolkit
• Laptop – Mac, PC, portable eeePC (from Asus)
• Not too heavy – helps to have video editing software
• Smartphone – iPhone, Samsung Android etc…
• (With camera and 3G capability)
• 3G dongle/stick – for internet access on the go
• Camera – Kodak zi8 is good, for e.g.
• Tripod – Essential - have two ideally
• External mic – lapel mic and/or directional
• Extra batteries – for everything!
• Optional: Mouse, extra keyboard, laptop stand

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Being mobile is about being there
• Why are *reporters* sat at their desks all day and not out
there reporting?
• Do staff need to be at an office?
• Do they need to come back to an office to report?
• Should we force reporters to leave the office?

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Practical Q&A – live reporting
• Could your reporters spend more time out of the office?
• How do you cover live events now?
• How could that be improved?

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Video
At Journal Register Co. John Paton bought a Flip cam for
every reporter.
"They paid for themselves in about a
month. We have gone from about 100,000
video streams a month to about 2 million.“
Read more at bit.ly/TMBJohnPaton

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Simple video interviews work well

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And add a mix of media to stories
• End result is a
mixture of
• video
• text
• analysis
• and links

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Don’t forget the editing

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10 common mistakes with video
• 1 you don’t prioritise sound
With big thanks and apologies to
• 2 you get too caught up in kit @AdamWestbrook
• 3 you don’t use a tripod See the full article at
http://adamwestbrook.wordpress.com/
• 4 you don’t shoot in sequences.
• 5 you parachute into stories
• 6 you try to copy television
• 7 your stories are too long
• 8 you don’t understand storytelling
• 9 you tell and don’t show
• 10 you don’t play to video’s strengths

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Live mobile video
• Bambuser / Qik – Stream live from wherever you are

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Practical Q&A – video
• What stories you cover would be suited to video?
• How much training would you need

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Adding social reporting to the mix
• Don’t miss what’s
going on right now
• What can you add to
a breaking story from
your audience?

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Connect with an audience
• No matter what you’re
writing about, there is a
conversation happening
about it online
• Are there stories, readers
and influence you can
fine through connecting
with people?

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You only learn by listening
• Use social tools to tune in to what your audience is saying
e.g. Tweetdeck:

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What are people saying about you
and your area of interest?

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Why do I use social media?
• Drive readership and sharing
• Make connections, find stories, find sources
• Drive analysis of our stories and what’s going on
• To market products and events
• To offer thought leadership and help others
• …And in return be helped by others when I have a Q
• Plus, it’s fun!

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Practical Q&A – social media
• How are you using social media now?
• Is is something you might ask all staff to do, or just some?
• How might they best use it and why?
• What goals would you set?

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Links
• http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2011/05/newsrewired-liveblogging-
panel.php
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/skills/production/video-journalism/video-
journalism-tips.shtml
• http://psmithjournalist.com/2010/02/mobile-journalism-tools-broadcast-
yourself-with-audioboo/
• http://bit.ly/TMBJohnPaton
• http://adamwestbrook.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/10-common-video-
storytelling-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them-adam-westbrook-online-video/
• http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/you-can-quote-me-on-that-
advice-on-attribution-for-journalists/
•

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Contact me
Twitter.com/psmith
patricksmithjournalist@gmail.com
+patricksmith on Google Plus
Psmithjournalist.com