Interactive Journalism - StoryDesign - Story First

INTERACTIVE JOURNALISM

CRAFTING FOR IMMERSIVE NEWS EXPERIENCES

STORY FIRST

@gholubowicz storydesign.fr | geraldholubowi.cz

- I - TIME TO SHARE

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HOW I GET MY NEWS ?

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THE GUARDIAN/AJ+/LE MONDE WHEN I WAKE UP

and I’m still too lazy to move

THEN, RADIO FOR BREAKFAST

mostly France Inter for fresh news & interviews

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A LOT OF TWITTERon my way to the office

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OR/AND A LOT OF FACEBOOKwhen I’m in the metro

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EVERYTHING ON MOBILE

easier to read at any moment

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FEEDLY AT THE OFFICE

30011

that’s the number of RSS feed I subscribed to…

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GAMING NEWS FOR LUNCH

coz it’s fun!

AGAIN, A LOT OF TWITTERbecause I’m an addict

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OR/AND A LOT OF FACEBOOKcan’t help it…

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FEEDLY AGAIN ON IPAD

easier to read and I can’t read everything at the office

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TV NEWS AT SOME POINT DURING THE EVENING

OVERVIEW

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In the U.S and Europe

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- II - LECTURE

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From ideation to structure: a basic workflow to start scripting interactive journalism experiences

WHAT IS A STORY?

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FOR A JOURNALIST, A STORY IS:

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY AND HOW

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FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD, A STORY IS:

BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END

TELLING A STORY IMPLIES THAT WE USE A COMMON LANGUAGE WITH OUR AUDIENCE

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THE EFFECT OF A STORY

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“STORYTELLING REVEALS MEANING

WITHOUT COMMITTING THE ERROR

OF DEFINING IT.”

Hannah  Arendt,  Political  theorist  &  philosopher

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“NARRATIVE IS RELATED TO THE IDEA OF

CONTEXT. NO MATTER HOW COMPLETE OR

COMPREHENSIVE A NARRATIVE APPEARS.”

David  Campbell,  Professor  at  the  Colgate  University,  New  York  

THE STORY OF STORYFrom Gilgamesh to Vogler

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THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

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THE POETICSby ARISTOTLE

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THE HERO’SJOURNEY

by JOSEPH CAMPBELL

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THE WRITER’S JOURNEYby CHRIS VOGLER

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INTERACTIVE JOURNALISMType of New Formats

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INTERACTIVE FORMATS• INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY

• LONG-FORM

• SERIOUS GAME

• PARTICIPATIVE EXPERIENCE

• And more…

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NON LINEAR STORY STRUCTURE

A panorama of the different structures used in interactive documentaries.

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LINEAR STRUCTUREThe most classical way to tell a story.

Examples: Bucarest Below Ground – Le Corps Incarcéré – 127 Rue de la Garenne

+ : Easy to create, easy to use, that’s the traditional way to structure a story (chapters, pages etc) . You can easily control the narrative arc. Info overload (difference between nb of stories available and stories actually seen) is null.

- : No interaction, little engagement, every users haas the same XP (experience)

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DYNAMIC OBJECT STRUCTUREVery common structure for interactive documentaries. The user enter the story by a hub of “objects” (map, list, mosaïc). Not for fiction

Examples: The iron curtains – Behind the Veil

+ : Apparent simplicity, Liberty, possibility to aggregate non-homogenous pieces of content .

- : Risk to loose the intention of the author, Info Overload very high, the user can feel lost in front of these multiple choices.

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FISHBONE STRUCTUREA very well known structure in interactive documentaries, that the used by ”Prison Valley”. A mix between linear and non-linear

structure that allows to visit additional content.

Examples: Pine Point – Prison Valley – The Defector

+ : Strong narrative structure, good interactivity, the user can see all the content, the author is “safe”.

- : Can be deceptive because if the story stands alone, why should see other contents? Info Overload moderate, be carefull not to create more than 2 levels of content.

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BRANCHING STRUCTUREThe story gives different choices to the user (2 or more), at certain points of the story, the user has to decide whether he takes left or right and that

decision will shape the rest of his/her XP

Examples: Journey to the end of coal

+ : Interactivity very high, lots of choices, true sensation of liberty, Info Overload low, the user is engaged with the choices he/she makes.

- : High cost of production (lots of choices), a part of the story won’t be seen by the user, necessity to think about different type of scenario

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PARALLEL PATHS STRUCTUREBranching story organized around gathering points, the user has to go through these points.

Examples: Jour de Vote – 6 million dead

+ : Interactivity very high, lots of choices, liberty a bit more limited but the feeling is still here, cost of production moderate, engagement is pretty high due to good interactivity

- : Can be deceptive for those who expect a true freedom

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THREADED STRUCTUREThe story is narrated from different perspectives. It is a parallel story structure but with different characters in which different stories are crossing each

others.

Examples: Inside Disaster Haïti - Amour

+ : Good User experience, different stories can be experienced. The user can jump from node to node as he/she wishes.

- : Info Overload can be high, very risky to loose the user. The links between stories can be complicated. Complexity at the production level.

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WORKFLOW

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TRELLOusing troll as a project management tool to control your workflow.

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- III - GROUP SESSION

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- IV - ASSIGNMENT

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Blog post 2: Interview an interactive storyteller to discover its “secret sauce”, what makes him interesting?