2. NOT JUST ABOUT LENGTH
Would you feel drawn to a movie or a book simply
because it is long? (“Oooh—you should really read
Moby-Dick—it’s super long.”)
4. A NEW NEW JOURNALISM?
If long-form doesn’t fit, what term is elastic
enough to encompass the varied journalism it
has come to represent, from narrative to
essay, profile to criticism.
It is reflective
It gives context
It takes time
5. ONE DEFINITION
a piece of “long-form,” as we now
call multi-thousand-word,
narrative-driven reported
articles…. Can be both boring
and not worthy of the attention
it has received…
6. OR ANOTHER DEFINITION
Digitally ambitious journalism, “Snow
Fall,” a narrative of skiers buried in
an avalanche that was told through
the layering of words, video, and
graphics in the New York Times.
7. THE BAD
When a long magazine story goes
from being one part of a steady
diet of journalistic consumption
to something artisanal, a treat
for connoisseurs. (NYT)
9. AND THE GOOD
Whether a long-form story is published in a
magazine or on the web, its goal should
be to understand and illuminate its
subject, and maybe even use that
subject to (subtly) explore some larger,
more universal truths. Above all, that
requires empathy, the real hallmark of
great immersive journalism.
10. DIFFERENT TYPES OF LONG-FORM
Personal essay
Narrative story-telling
Multi-media reportage
Investigative
Data- exploration
But they are all ‘immersive journalism’ of some
type
11. COLUMBIA J’SCHOOL FORUM ON LONG-FORM
One point of agreement throughout the day was that
long-form, though experiencing a new jump in
popularity, is not at all a new form of writing. “I think
longf-orm is just a new name for feature magazine
stories,” said Columbia j-school professor Michael
Shapiro, who recently founded the long-form website
The Big Roundtable. “For me, it’s not an essay, it’s a
reported piece of journalism,” he said.
12. WHAT MATTERS
What matters is knowing what matters,” Srinija
Srinivasan, at Yahoo and its former editor in chief.
“The glut, the variety of stuff coming at us is
accelerating more rapidly than ever before. It’s a very
simple matter: Be useful. In order to be useful, you
often need way more than the soundbyte [where] you
can only be salacious, you can only be misleading, you
can only be kind of cheap-shot.” To stand out among
the online media outlets clamoring for attention,
13. BENEFIT TO STUDENTS
Real journalism involves leaving the house
Real journalism involves working long hours
Real journalism involves talking to lots of
different people establishing a narrative, a
timeline, a voice
18. BEST PRACTISE EXAMPLE
Maj and multi-media assignment
19 students
Broken up into multi-media project teams
Given 8 to 9 weeks
The end result: Not just good stories
But a true learning curve
19. THE WEBSITE STORY
..Reports in media suggested that lots of
female students from universities
around Ireland were signing up to meet
older wealthy men on a particular
website
21. THE STORY
They posed as potential ‘dates’
They met with potential ‘older men’
They contacted other women on the
site
They spoke to the police
They spoke to a psychologist
22. WHAT THEY DISCOVERED
The site had dangers
Some of those contacting the site
were young female students with
debts who were not aware of what
they were getting in to…
24. ETHICAL QUESTIONS
“reasons why the story was very much in
the public interest: It addressed issues
of the safety of women, a potentially
illegal activity and the recruitment of
college students into something which
resembled prostitution”
25. SOURCE DIFFICULTIES
“finding sources who firstly were
happy to discuss their experiences
with journalists, this reflected a
problem finding sources in general,
as we encountered a contrasting
challenge gaining legitimate
organisational voices for the project.
“
26. WHAT THE STUDENT LEARNT
“The project for me was an extremely useful opportunity
to gain experience into what is involved in undercover
investigations, and the skills which they involve, along
with the need to defend why its methods are
necessary to bring the particular story to the public. It
was also an incredibly useful and unique experience
to give so much time to a story and to see what can be
added to a story if significant time is given to delve
deep into the issue at hand.”
27. WHY LONG-FORM
Journalism is changing
Those we train must be distinctive in their
abilities
They should be able to dig deeper
They should be able to layer a story
28. THE BEST OF JOURNALISM
In the end, it doesn’t matter if one is
writing about a huckster or a fraud.
The best work still enables readers
to experience their subjects as
human beings, not as mere objects
of curiosity.( NYT)
