WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA
The digital age has without a doubt changed the world of journalism and on Verde we work to use the web and multimedia in various ways to engage our audience and provide the rapid breaking news not possible in our print issue. As news editor, I especially engaged with this latter element. Especially as COVID-19 became a larger and larger concern and school plans were constantly evolving, it was common for me to sit on my computer with the screen split between the school board meeting and a google doc where I'd crank out a news story with my fellow news editor or an EIC. At the same time, I'd be switching tabs to set up our vupload (the Verde term for creating a new story page on the website). While I was completely overwhelmed by all the elements when uploading my first story on Wordpress, by this point the process is second nature. In addition to the basic elements of pull quotes and feature images, I learned to incorporate interactive elements like polls and slideshows to take full advantage of the digital form.
MULTIMEDIA
All Verde stories are published on our website and have a required multimedia element. From maps to slideshows to video to polls, my stories have incorporated a range of interactive elements. The Multimedia Broadcast section covers some of my audiovisual work but as you'll see here, the interactive elements employed in my stories go beyond that category. Look through the blurbs below to see more about how multimedia has been a part of my journalistic coverage. And click on the titles to see the full stories.
INTERACTIVE MAP:
COVID-19 AROUND THE WORLD
I organized and managed the production of this interactive map which includes video, audio and text interviews with people from around the world about their experiences with COVID-19. I had the Verde staff contact friends and relatives who live abroad and set up interviews with them. They sent me the content and I edited the videos and audios on Adobe Premiere Rush before consolidating them all in the google maps format. In addition to running the project, I conducted interviews with people from Canada, Germany, Mexico and Spain.
INTERACTIVE MAPS
Interactive maps are a great way to illustrate place based information and add an interactive element to stories. The below screenshot is from our map in "The calculating consumer." For another example, check out "The role of religion."
POLLS
For stories that don't have a whole lot of visual or auditive content to work with, adding a poll is a way to still incorporate an interactive element. The below screenshot is from my news story "Instagram experiments with private 'like' counts."
VIDEOS
Incorporating videos in a text heavy story adds some action and life. It is also an easy way to paint a picture of the scene so in stories covering a protest or rally I always try to include a video element. The below video is from my news story "Community celebrates Biden's election."
AUDIO
Incorporating short clips of audio or video from interviews gives the audience a chance to hear the source's voice and connect more with them and the story. We used this in my story "Digital deportation" which was especially helpful since it allowed people to listen in on the untranslated version (the interview was conducted in Spanish).
SOCIAL MEDIA
All stories are advertised on social media which provides opportunities for a wider audience to engage with our work and share it with their friends. Verde maintains a social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. A selection of my post designs and captions (adapted from the original story text) are shown below. Click on a photo to see the Instagram post.
INSTAGRAM STORIES
In addition to using classic social media posts across various platforms, we use Instagram stories to provide a sneak peak into a story. It also gives us the ability to incorporate interactive elements like polls or share in the action moments like videos from a protest. Below are some of the Instagram stories I have created.
