These are slides for a workshop on digital storytelling for the staff of the Shorthorn at the University of Texas-Arlington.

1. Digital storytelling
Steve Buttry
University of Texas-Arlington Shorthorn
August 15, 2012
#utashorthorn

2. Read more
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• Slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com
• @stevebuttry

3. Think of an upcoming story
• Event (meeting, game, concert)
• Type of breaking story
• Enterprise story
• Feature

4. Ask about each story
• What are potential multimedia elements of
your story?
• How can a map help tell your story?
• How can you engage the community?
• Can you cover the story live?
• What links will provide greater depth?
• Can data provide depth, personal info?
• What form will tell this story best?
• What content should you curate?

5. Multimedia elements
• Photos (individual photos, galleries, time
lapse, audio slide shows, submitted, social,
media, panoramic)
• Videos (raw, edited, in story, webcam,
webcast, security cameras, user-submitted,
social media, link to video)
• Animation (Flash, HTML5)
• Audio (alone, w/ photos or videos)
• Bring it all together

6. Maps
• Invite users to tell their stories & share their
photos on map
• Story unfolds live on the map
• Map as database
• Map is format for user-guided story
• Map in motion
• Crowdmap

7. Engage the community
• Crowdsource (investigations, features, events)
• Collaborate w/ or curate blogs
• Conversation on Twitter, Facebook
• Polls
• Contests
• Hashtags
• Sharing tools, ratings
• Ask for photos, videos

8. Live coverage
• Liveblog as the story happens (CoverItLive,
ScribbleLive, update story/blog)
• Live-tweet (feed into liveblog)
• Livestream with webcasts, webcams,
dashboard cam
• Feed tweets into blog/story using a widget
• Live data
• Text alerts

9. Links
Editorial reason: Context
Ethical reason: Attribution
Business benefits:
• Generate traffic
• Boost SEO
Sending users away works for Google; it will
work for you, too.

11. Databases
• Help users personalize story
• Answer questions
• Provide depth
• Provide detail
• Interactive
• Data visualization

12. Alternate story form
• List
• Graphic novel
• Timeline
• Map
• Graphic
• Self-directed, not linear

13. What is curation?
Museum curator: Journalism curator:
• Studies topic • Studies topic
• Chooses relevant • Chooses relevant
content (other content (social
sources & museum media, blogs, staff)
collection) • Authenticates
• Authenticates • Groups related items
• Groups related items • Provides context
• Provides context • Presents collected
• Presents exhibit content

14. NPR’s Andy Carvin
“I think curation has always been a
part of journalism; we just didn't call it
that.” – quoted in The Atlantic by
Phoebe Connelly

15. Curation tools for journos
• Google & other search engines
• Twitter Search (advanced)
• Other Social media search
• Storify, Spundge, Storyful, Chirpstory

16. Authenticate & attribute
• Ask: “How do you know that?”
• Ask careful questions of crowd to help
you vet & verify
• Check links, tweets & information on
sources
• Link to original source
• Attribute

17. Follow up
• Send links of your digital stories &
liveblogs to:
sbuttry@digitalfirstmedia.com
• These tips, tools & examples:
stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry

18. During lunch break
• Look around you
• Think about what’s coming up on campus
• School starting, entertainment, sports
• Come back with a story idea to discuss