1. Multimedia storytelling
In some situations, the newspaper’s website could be the primary vehicle for reporting the
news.
Coverage is “web first” and often with a 24-hour news cycle as the core value.
But what is multimedia journalism?
It’s the basic fundamentals of good storytelling – strong characters, plot,
a narrative arc, a climax, a conclusion, along with new techniques and
tools:
1. Multimedia is nonlinear, meaning more than just reading or
watching from beginning to end; offers multiple ways into a story
2. Multimedia is multisensory – eyes, ears, mind and more – and
constantly evolving – successful journalists make use of the new
technologies and storytelling forms as they become available.

2. Web-only Changes
• The website for a newspaper often changes in
instances of a hurricane or other breaking news
• Sometimes, to better present the news as it
evolves – adding a bright red bar to the top of the
homepage helps report breaking news.
• For hurricanes and the like, links to external pages
such as weather and government sites
• You could stream live video of the storm via
Livestream or Youstream
• Interactive maps could help readers click on
particular areas of the campus and view pictures or
read reports of closures, flooding or damage.

3. Web-only Changes
• During an emergency or breaking news situation,
(think Casey Anthony murder trial) the mission of the
newspaper should be to serve the community by giving
them info right away and making is accessible
• That’s the primary purpose of journalism: to provide
citizens with the information they need and seek to be
self-governing.
And, your first loyalty, as a journalist, is
to your devotion to your citizens
without fear or favor
You are encouraged to read The
Elements of Journalism if you want to
learn more about what news people
should know and the public should
expect. It’s a great read!

4. Choosing the right medium –
attributions and limitations of each
• Don’t send a videographer out on every assignment or make a slideshow just
because there are photos.
• First, you need to think critically about what each medium offers, and also what it
takes to produce:
• Text: good for explaining concepts, providing background and context. Text may
be the best way to explain news.
• Video: captures action, sports, talent. Can be useful for showing motion
• Audio: stories with a strong sound component; personal interviews or marching
bands, parades, public speeches
• Graphics: handy when you have lots of info or numbers; maps
• Photos: particular moments in time or a collection of images that together tell the
story, a slideshow or audio slideshow

5. How to be a 5-pool player
• If you’ve got action, use video. If a story has a strong sound
component, like music, include audio.
• Make it interactive, too. Give readers something to do, click and
comment, or polls to share their opinions or experiences.
• Keep videos short and don’t be afraid to get close. People don’t
have the patience to watch long videos from far away. Put your
lens six inches away from a painter’s brush and get the bristles
bending.
• Write a script – simple two columns with audio and video
matched up – plan a strong of images in video and slideshows.
Multimedia stories should not at random
• Show, don’t tell – go the extra mile to make stories personal

6. Sound
• Audio can be used to enhance still photos or text.
• Podcasts and radio shows are free to produce and convenient
on mobiles
• Think about 3 types of sound:
• Interviews with sources: experts, witnesses, people reacting to a
story – will provide backbone of most stories
• Natural sound: also know as nat sound or ambient noise – sounds
around the subject: click of shoes, shutting of door, street traffic,
crowd noises, music playing, silence
• Voiceover or narration: provides context so listeners can better
understand the story
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtfQXwBXiPE&list=UUUHUeZ4_lS
XdYpoQS3_D2_g&index=24

7. Video
• Short, no more than 3 to 5 minutes – 90 is plenty
• Don’t tell whole story – tighten your focus to a narrow story or
small part of life – a portrait of a person that represents an
issue
• Use text and other media, too
• A-roll is interviews and B-roll is background or supplementary
footage, behind the scenes
• Narrative arc: clear and logical way to tell the story – may be
chronological or show a process
• Strengthen your story with a distinctive protagonist
• More than the interview – variety of content and shots

8. Before moving on to The
Scribe,
• Video stories need a story: narrative, thought,
sources from all sides, structure and a compelling
open and close.
• Sound familiar?
• If you want to, we can talk about you covering the
campuses using multimedia only.

9. The Scribe: Newspaper or
News Organization?
• No matter how small the school or how tiny the staff, you
should think of your print publication as a part of an
integrated news operation that’s ready to cover news about
your campus community at every hour of the day and night.
• We are a news organization because:
• We publish content to the website first, not waiting for the
paper
• We post content to the website every day – or pretty close
• We cover news, including sports, arts and cultural events, as
it breaks.
• We use multiple media, audio, text, video, graphics and
photos to tell stories
• We use social media to find, report and distribute the news

10. Newspaper vs. News
Organization
• With the web, there’s no excuse to wait for your
print publication or limit yourself to what works
best in print.
• Some worry about cannibalizing their print
publication by posting to the web first; they think
people won’t read their story if it includes info
that’s already published online.
• But you must understand three fundamental
truths: (along with this: you can get anyone to
read anything if you write it well enough)

11. Newspaper vs. News
Organization
• Audiences for print and online are different – your
website goes to the world where alumni, parents and
prospective students and random Googlers can find it
• Print and online products are different – print offers
after-the-fact news accounts. Online reports news as it
happens in text, video, photo, etc., and can be updated
on a moment’s notice.
• Consumers now expect to read about news as it
happens – your readers don’t want to wait for the next
issue to find out what the college president said at the
press conference about tuition or who won the
baseball game.

12. Newspaper vs. News
Organization
• So, for each story, you should be publishing
something on the blog now. Why not? People
want news.
• For the reporters covering events like at Kennedy
Space Center, they should have filed a “reaction”
piece right after the event so it’s published
immediately. Better yet, the reporters should have
been tweeting their first reactions and telling the
readers what to look for on the website and in the
newspaper, eventually.

13. Newspaper vs. News
Organization
• The lesson here: online and print must work together.
• The more you start to think of yourself as a round-the-
clock news source, the more your readers will see you
that way and come to your website as the go-to
destination for news.
• How do you do this with a job, other classes and a
social life? You just start somewhere. Give it 20
minutes a day. It may not be worth a 500 word story,
but it might be worth a paragraph or brief. Don’t “news
dump.”

14. Online differences from print
• Immediacy – post stories in minutes after news breaks
• Space – there’s no limit to what you can run
• Multimedia – the web offers the ability to transmit audio and
video allowing you to tell stories in new and creative ways
• Interactivity – polls, quizzes, reader feedback, user-
generated content and discussion forums can all enhance
news coverage, engage readers and help the newspaper
gauge interest
• Linking – connect readers to other parts of your site and to
other sites you can add context and depth to your stories
(such as police reports and court documents or “ransom”
notes)

15. Writing for the web
• Reading text online is different than reading printed text.
• Eye-tracking research reveals that eyes often sweep across
a page from left to right when people read online and that
they tend to focus most on the top left corner of the page.
• They primarily pay attention to headlines and subheads,
boldfaced terms and images and often stop reading when
faced with long blocks of uninterrupted text.
• To keep your readers’ attention, writers and editors need to
present text in a different way online than they would in
print. Text needs to be easier to scan, for one.

16. How to make y/our website
more readable
• Write short: use short sentences and short paragraphs.
• Use bulleted and numbered lists: when you have multiple points to make,
create a list like this one that puts the most important info in boldface.
• Position your content where people are most likely to see it: Put the
most important content in the upper-left area of the screen.
• Frontload your content: put the most important words at the beginning of
the sentences, headlines, subheads and lists.
• Write clear headlines and subheads that stand alone: use direct, literal
language rather than puns or clichés.
• Don’t assume readers know where you are: avoid writing “the state” or
“our county.”
• Avoid or explain local references: readers may not understand inside-
jokes or nicknames.

17. You should have a blog. And
be writing.
• It’s free.
• You can get your name out there.
• Practice makes perfect.