2. Kidnapped was developed for CBC’s Fifth Estate in order
to enhance their 2012 season finale. This multi-platform
documentary examines the violent kidnapping of a
Vancouver university student in 2006, and the massive
police investigation that followed.
what is it?
3. According to host Bob McKeown, “the fifth estate and
cbcnews.ca teams have been looking for unique
opportunities to combine interactive storytelling with
investigative journalism...To explore new ways of telling
stories, and new ways of getting the audience
involved...Crime stories with victims and family members
and police officers all interacting have real drama and
turning points, points when crucial decisions are made,
and we want to get the audience to weigh in at those
points.”
what is it?
4. Kidnapped was a collaboration between teams at CBC
News’s the fifth estate, CBCNews.ca, and Fulscrn.
The project was fully funded and wholly owned by the
CBC News. Fulscrn was hired to provide strategy,
creative development, and interactive design and
development. The project team was made up of 12
people.
what is it?
5.
6. This project stands out because of its reach into new
demographics through the use of second screen and
multiplatform elements intended to bring in new
audiences and to enhance the experience of current
audiences of The Fifth Estate, a long running staple of the
CBC television.
why look at this project?
7.
8. +
to reach a younger demographic
+
to engage the audience and have them spend a longer time
experiencing the content
+
to develop new ways to tell stories, and new ways to present
investigative journalism reports online
+
+
+
+
to experiment with second screen interaction
to experiment with the multiplatform documentary form
to increase traffic to the season finale
to remain “respectful” to the underlying values and journalistic
integrity the fifth estate has established over several decades
project goals
12. Instructions & Promo
for Interactive TV
Experience
Starring Bob McKeown, who hosted the live, interactive event,
and promo was created that both served as a teaser for the
show and also an instruction manual to the show. This aired
several weeks leading up to the show in order to prepare viewers
for what to expect and also how to get the most out of the
experience. You can check it out here:
http://youtu.be/o5s3d2Tke68
ROLL OUT
13. Online
Interactive
Documentary
Kidnapped
Quiz
Timeline
of Events
Expert
Interviews
Two days before broadcast the online portal was was opened and an
documentary documentary, timelines of events, expert interviews and a
quiz were released. The documentary, which integrated many
gamification techniques, was the main draw. In this documentary.
online participants could help ‘police crack the case by gathering clues,
viewing video reenactments, listening to audio clips of ‘phone
taps’ (which did play a significant role in the actual investigation and
subsequent trial) and by reviewing an interactive police notebook with
collected evidence.
ROLL OUT
14. Online
Interactive
Documentary
Kidnapped
Quiz
Timeline
of Events
Expert
Interviews
In accordance with their goals to maintain the fifth estate standards of
journalistic integrity, “Much of the material comes from the people who
were at the centre of the story—the victim’s father, the Police Team
Commander and others who relive the day-to-day drama. An
international hostage negotiator also appears on the show (albeit in
shadow), to explain how such crimes often play out, and how the family,
the police and the media must proceed with caution so as not to trigger
a tragic outcome.” This documentary clearly has the same outcome
each time but gives users an opportunity to have a deeper
understanding of the case. This part of the project remains online on the
CBC portal.
ROLL OUT
15. The social media, mobile and QR aspects were directly integrated into
the live broadcast. Before each commercial break, viewers will had
the opportunity to interact and give their view or votes on how the
police investigation should proceed. Again, it is a documentary, so
they were not able to change the course of the story, but, to a degree,
could alter how the story was shown and how the presentation was
framed.
The voting was done through the a voting app that could be accessed
via the website, CBC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts or via the QR
code on your screen.
ROLL OUT
16. PST
MST
CST
EST
AST
As this was a live show, timezones/regions were taken into
consideration. The show was broadcast live in each timezone in
Canada, and the voting results tabulated per region, and presented
back with each successive live airing.
ROLL OUT
17.
18. How did this affect the traditional Fifth Estate
broadcast?
The fifth estate is normally taped for broadcast, but because this
episode was driven, in large part, by audience participation and
involved different outcomes the host’s links had to be performed and
broadcast live to each of Canada’s five different time zones.
Producing and delivering these elements of the show five times in
an evening was a major rollout challenge for the production team at
the fifth estate.
audience engagement:
Broadcast
19. During the live broadcast, what kind of prompts
and calls to action did you draw your audience
across platforms?
During the live episode, host Bob McKeown, would ask the viewer
to weigh in on what they had just seen and where the investigation
should go. During ad breaks viewers responded through the various
means described above. When the show returned their choices
were revealed and the show carried on accordingly. This varied by
region depending on the votes. Different tactics were promoted
throughout the show and in the promotions leading up to broadcast.
audience engagement:
Broadcast
20. How did you plan for different audience
responses to the content & the platforms?
The key to creating for multiple platforms is a lot of upfront creative
development and planning. Knowing the story and how it was going
to unfold on each platform allowed us to plan production around
assets that would be used both on Television and online. You have
to also plan out what you want online so in the content gathering
stage you get exactly the right pieces you need to create the
interactive.
audience engagement:
Broadcast
21.
22. How were the connected with the digital
elements? What made them stay?
There are several mechanisms that initially attracted the audience to
the digital elements {mobile, social media, online portal}. The initial
promos of the show made it quite clear that this would be a different
kind of viewing experience that would integrate several platforms.
Throughout the broadcast the audience was invited to take part,
vote and have a say in the show through social media and a QR
code invitation. During the broadcast the engagement was
maintained through the live nature of the show and the real time
data brought in from the voting.
audience engagement:
digital
23. How were the connected with the digital
elements? What made them stay?
In addition, in order to really follow through on their goals of
developing deeper and more connected viewers, there was a rich
online documentary experience on the online portal. This was
launched two days prior to the live broadcast and still continues to
today. Online a rich set of experiences were created in order to
develop a compelling story that would provide a deeper experience
for the viewer. Through this they are able, at their own time and
pace, to find out more about the story, the investigation, and the
people involved. This has given the project a much longer shelf life
than broadcast alone.
audience engagement:
digital
24.
25. How did you plan for this project? Did you create
a project bible?
A traditional show bible wasn’t produced but there was a lot of project
planning developed. Much of the planning focused on creating assets that
could be leveraged across the various experience platforms. Aligning TV and
interactive production schedules was also a priority.
With any journalistic venture new revelations or access to information comes
to light late in the game that requires you to change the story. This meant
planning contingencies that allowed all pieces of production to re-edit, redesign, and re-develop on the fly.
PLanning for
multiplatform
26.
27. Check out the project at:
+ fulscrn.com/work/kidnapped/
+ www.CBCNews.ca/kidnapped
Sources:
+ Sean Embury, Fulscrn
+ http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/cbcs-fifth-estate-goes-live-withspecial-interactive-documentary/1001049677/?&
+
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2011-2012/kidnapped
Kidnapped
