1. Digital storytelling
(especially liveblogging)
Steve Buttry
Heritage Media
April 25, 2012
#dfmliveblog

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

3. Think of an upcoming story
• Event (meeting, trial, game, festival)
• Type of breaking story
• Enterprise story
• How-to blog post
• 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. 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?

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Team liveblog
• Play-by-play
• Commentary
• Live-tweet (#liveblog)
• Find & add links
• Photos
• Moderate questions, comments

11. Why to liveblog
• Immediacy
• News value
• Storytelling
• Traffic
• Community engagement, loyalty
• Interactivity
• Saving time

12. Liveblog formats
• Update (time-stamp, reverse-chron) in
blog or story template
• Use CoverItLive
• Use ScribbleLive
• Live-tweet (on Twitter or feeding blog)
• Video stream (w/liveblog)
• Raw, edited or moderated

13. Tips, techniques
• Short, frequent takes
• Space isn’t an issue; engagement is
• Liveblog becomes notebook for story
• Consider links, polls, photos, audio, video
• Promote live & replays
• Tweet links to liveblog & replay
• OK to step away for question, video, etc.

14. Managing liveblog & print
• Liveblog is notebook: cut, paste & edit
• Note when you know you’ve written
good lead or passage for story
• Does summary (w/ web plug) work for
print?
• Plug “complete coverage” in liveblog

15. Liveblogging situations
• Breaking story
• Meeting
• Festival, event
• Trial
• Daylong (Election Day, heat wave)
• Sporting event (can use fans, HS journos)
• Live chat

16. Live chat techniques
• Give some questions to guests in
advance (fewer waits while they type)
• Phone conversation w/ guests, giving
time to work on questions
• Host chat w/ Community Media Lab
bloggers (dining, sports, entertainment)
• Group related questions
• Preview questions coming up

17. Liveblogging issues
• Accuracy (stress verification, ask
questions, seek links &
documentation, correct quickly and
candidly)
• Rough copy
• Sports credentials
• Multi-tasking
• Learning curve

18. Points to remember
• Standard of completeness changes;
commitment to accuracy remains
• Attribute, hedge, verify, seek verification
• Say what you don’t know, too
• Conversation, not monologue
• Consider tone (is opinion or humor
appropriate in this setting, for this
blogger?)

19. 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

20. 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

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

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