The Story Starts Before You Say a Word —Amy O'Leary on Storytelling & Feeds
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Journalism has changed a great deal in the last decade, and while we talk a lot about how the distribution of journalism has been disrupted, few of us examine how narrative principles and practices can draw readers into stories that now appear first on feeds, like social media or email. This quick presentation gives a few examples from The New York Times on how journalists can start to think about this challenge, and adapt their storytelling skills to work in readers' feeds.
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The Story Starts Before You Say a Word —Amy O'Leary on Storytelling & Feeds
- 1. The Story Starts Before You Say A Word www.amyoleary.me @amyoleary
- 2. We all know journalism has changed.
- 3. For over 150 years journalists made things like this:
- 4. Today, we might share the same information this way:
- 5. Same information, new distribution channel.
- 6. So, that’s the conceptual shift. But here is the single-best example I’ve ever seen of how readers have changed in the last decade…
- 7. This was the scene in Rome in 2005 when Pope Bendict was announced:
- 8. Just eight years later, this was the same scene when Pope Francis was announced.
- 9. (Note the early adopter, rocking that flip phone in 2005.)
- 10. So….how does all this change impact our actual storytelling?
- 11. Back in an age when information was scarce, having information alone was powerful.
- 12. Today, content is infinite. But attenion remains finite.
- 13. What’s more, we live in an age of feeds.
- 14. Feeds can be many things Email Mobile Alerts Google Search Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram Snapchat WhatsApp Other
- 15. This is now where our stories begin now. And we should care about that as storytellers.
- 16. So what kinds of things succeed in this space?
- 17. COMMENTARY CAT PHOTO BABY PICTURE FUNNY VIDEO FRIEND’S POST ALERT! RUMOR FRAGMENT JOKES ABOUT THE NEWS ARGUMENT NEWS AGGREGATED NEWS It’s a mix… emotion, awe, anger, postivity, humor, anxiety, surprise, useful information (and sometiems hyperbole).
- 18. You can’t control the feed. You can seed the feed.
- 19. So then, how do we tell good stories, now?
- 20. Let’s start by looking at some of the qualities of narrative storytelling we are familiar with. FACTS CONFLICT TENSION MYSTERY SUSPENSE SURPRISE CHARACTERS EMOTION STAKES DETAILS EXAMPLES ANECDOTE PLEASURE MEANING CLIFFHANGERS UNIVERSALITY SELF/IDENTITY REVERSAL FORMAT CONTEXT EXPLAINER
- 21. Most journalists are phenomenal at doing this stuff within our stories. CONTEXT TENSION EMOTION
- 22. But too often those storytelling muscles wither when our stories move beyond our own publication. Journalists Often Use Dull Methods to Share Their Stories Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? 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- 23. Neglecting that is kind of like dropping a message into a sea of information, and hoping somebody finds it.
- 24. …which is a shame, because instead we could be FLOODING THE WORLD WITH DELICIOUS STORIES to bring meaning and mystery and surprise to everyone, everyday.
- 25. Imagine…
- 26. MYSTERY SURPRISE CHARACTERS SUSPENSE EMOTION DETAILS UNIVERSALITY MEANING FACTS CLIFFHANGERS EXAMPLES ….a world where everyone’s feeds were rich with surprise, characters and strong narrative texture.
- 27. How can we do that?
- 28. 1. Get into feeds first.
- 29. Lydia Polgreen is one of my amazing colleagues. She’s fantastic at doing this on Twitter. @lpolgreen
- 30. She read this story…
- 31. EMOTION DETAILS STAKES And pulled out these powerful, human details for Twitter:
- 33. This is a lovely headline and package in our print edition.
- 34. But for the story’s video, a different approach worked better. PLEASURE MYSTERY
- 35. 3. Meet your audience where they live.
- 36. This was an exclusive story & video about an Iraqi soldier who survived an ISIS massacre.
- 37. A whole team made sure the story was translated into Arabic and promoted on social feeds in the Middle East, and highlighted elements of the survivor’s gripping tale. CHARACTERS SUSPENSE EMOTION
- 38. 4. Help your readers tell the story, with you.
- 39. This page was a package of stories about sex trafficking that had been reported over two decades by Nick Kristof.
- 40. The story was promoted through email to just eleven influential people,* but took off on social media. These stories reached nearly 500,000 readers. *As part of an experiment run as part of The New York Times 2014 Innovation Report, which has been publicly released.
- 41. EMOTION STAKES MEANING CHARACTERS ANECDOTES Readers helped tell the story, pulling out the most compelling narrative elements on social media.
- 42. Simple ways to start your story: 1. Get into feeds first. 2. Rethink headlines. 3. Meet your audience where they live. 4. Help your readers tell the story, with you.
- 43. IN SUMMARY This is just a short overview to get journalists thinking about how we’ve always spent great time and care crafting the “ledes” or beginnings of our stories. And now our stories are starting somewhere else. I believe it’s worth it to journalists to invest equal time and care in the new beginnings of our stories — even if they happen somewhere we don’t specifically control. While some ideas were presented here, the answers will keep evolving.
- 44. Thanks! This presentation is a version of one that was originally given at the Power of Storytelling conference in Bucharest, Romania in October 2014. It is an amazing gathering, full of passionate journalists and storytellers of all stripes, especially the team from Decât o Revistă — one hell of a narrative non-fiction magazine — whose editors have more heart than any team of journalists I’ve encountered in the world. You should go next year. www.amyoleary.me @amyoleary