Computer assisted reporting and multimedia storytelling

1. COMPUTER + REPORTING
Computer Assisted Reporting
& Multimedia Storytelling
BY UJJWAL ACHARYA
WhiteHouse GSM / BLAS / Semester VII

2. Newsroom a few years ago…
 In 1998, when I joined Nepal Samacharpatra, the
newsroom had no computers!
 Designers used computers – mostly Macintosh –
to typeset/design pages.
 Reporters handwrote news!
 In 2001, I moved to The Kathmandu Post and
was mesmerized to see computer on every desk.

3. Newsroom today
 Modern newsroom are incomplete without
internet-connected computer terminals.
 Computers are used to write, edit and copy-edit.
 Page designers use computers to design pages
and photojournalists use them to correct photos.
 More importantly, computers are increasingly
used for performing core journalistic activities like
newsgathering.

4. CAR
 Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR), sometime
also called Computer Assisted Journalism (CAJ).
 CAR is the use of computers and social science
methods to acquire and analyze information to do
stories that otherwise would be difficult.
 CAR also refers to researching for new
information and background for a story.
 CAR is closely tied to "precision" or "analytic"
journalism, which refer to the use of techniques of
the social sciences by journalists.

5. Why CAR?
 CAR enables us to publish stories obtained from
datamining.
 CAR helps us create, or improve, the watchdog
culture at our newspapers. A database, a
spreadsheet, helps us get some stories that just
can't be acquired any other way. They also help
us add depth and detail that fascinate readers.

6. Be Warned!
 CAR does not make reporting faster!
 Proper use of CAR needs intermediate level
computer skills.
 Computers do what you TELL them to do, not what
you WANT them to do.
 Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO)
 CAR is a supplementary of reporting!

7. 4 Rs of CAR
 Reporting
 Use of computer/software to interview, gather
primary information or data analysis
 Research
 Use of computer to search secondary information
 Reference
 Use of computer for checking facts, spelling etc.
 Rendezvous
 Getting tips from other in chatroom/social media
 Ron DeBrock (1999)

8. 3 COMMON USES
Email, Search & Reference

9. Email
 A medium of communication
 Advantages:
 Convenience: cuts distance / time / money
 Writer can edit messages.
 No requirement of being available at the same time.
 No transcription required.
 Archived!
 Disadvantages:
 Receiver may ignore it.
 No spontaneity as in the conversation.

10. Web Search
 How search engines like yahoo/google works?
 They have crawlers that regularly crawls webpages
all over the internet and indexes words.
 When you enter a word, it then searches on the
database and returns pages with that word.
 Web search is weird!
 It’s like looking for a needle in an stadium, but there
are ways to find the exact information you need.

11. Search Engines

12. Search Engines

13. Better Searching
 Use more words (six to eight is the best)
 Use unusual words (common are everywhere)
 Use phrases on quotation marks
 ―WhiteHouse GSM‖
 Use mathematics
 WhiteHouse GSM means either of the words
 WhiteHouse+GSM means both words
 ―WhiteHouse GSM‖ means the exact word
 WhiteHouse-GSM means WhiteHouse but not GSM

14. Google is more…
 Unit/Currency Converter
 41 lbs in kg or 50 meters in feet
 100 NPR in USD or 100 GBP in INR
 Sports scores
 Just type name of the club
 Manchester United or Chelsea
 World Wide Clock
 Time Kathmandu or Time New York (current time)
 Calculator
 13+45-65= or 5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=

15. Reference
 Dictionary
 Type define followed the word you want meaning of
in Google and it will produce you meaning from
various dictionaries
 Example: define:rendezvous
 Wikipedia
 Great source of information but needed to treated
with caution
 WordWeb
 Available at wordweb.info

16. Reporting for Online Media
Multimedia Story Telling

17. Writing for the Web
 Writing for Online Media?
 KISS (Keep it short and simple) paragraphs
 Use informative subheadings
 Link to other articles/sites you’re referencing
 Use bulleted lists to break things up
 Meant to be published and updated
 Includes list of relevant links

18. Writing for the Web
 Combine print and broadcast styles
 As in stories for print:
 Inverted pyramid style
 Write to be read rather than heard
 Like in stories to broadcast:
 Conversational tone
 Short, declarative sentences / simple words
 Immediacy is important

19. Multimedia Storytelling
 A multimedia story is some combination of text, still
photographs, video clips, audio, graphics and
interactivity presented on a Web site in a nonlinear
format in which the information in each medium is
complementary not redundant.
 Nonlinear means that rather than reading a rigidly
structured single narrative, the user chooses how to
navigate through the elements of a story.
 Not redundant means that rather than having a text
version of a story accompanied by a video clip that
essentially tells the same story, different parts of a
story are told using different media.

20. Multimedia Storytelling
 Choosing a story
 The best multimedia stories are multidimensional
 Video, audio, graphics/charts
 Nonlinear stories are better
 Stories that have tid-bits

21. Creating a storyboard
 A storyboard of multimedia possibilities created
before heading out into the field.
 Conduct preliminary research.
 Collect already available visuals -
photos, videos, maps and graphics - from your
sources.
 Identification
 Video best to show the action
 Best to interviews
 Text always essential
 Graphs/charts best for data
 Photo best to show the emotion

22. Reporting for Multimedia Story
 Requirement
 Camera (still and video)
 Recorder (and microphone)
 Laptop
 Essentials
 Batteries
 Cables
 Tapes / memory cards
 Cell phones
 GPS
 Lens
 Notebooks
 Pens

23. Editing
 Unlike other journalism, here editing comes
before writing (audio/video editing)
 Videos/Audios need to be clear and short
 Basically internet videos are low frame rate (fps) so
action-packed videos looks poor
 No background music and sfx for audio
 Audio should be high-quality and if possible with
subtitles
 Photos can be used as individual image or slide
shows
 Maps can have clickable areas/zooming feature

24. Producing Multimedia Story
 Multimedia journalists have multiple editors:
 There are your actual editors, and then there are
your designers and Web developers. You can’t—
and aren’t usually expected to—do it all yourself.
 Developers/designers fine-tune the layout, help with
technical glitches and make sure the presentation
follows the site's style.

25. THANK YOU