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INTERACTIVE JOURNALISM
CRAFTING FOR IMMERSIVE NEWS EXPERIENCES
STORY FIRST
@gholubowicz storydesign.fr | geraldholubowi.cz

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- I -
TIME TO SHARE
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HOW I GET MY NEWS ?
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THE GUARDIAN/AJ+/LE
MONDE WHEN I WAKE UP
and I’m still too lazy to move

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THEN, RADIO FOR
BREAKFAST
mostly France Inter for fresh news &
interviews
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A LOT OF TWITTER
on my way to the office
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OR/AND A LOT OF FACEBOOK
when I’m in the metro
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EVERYTHING ON
MOBILE
easier to read at any moment
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FEEDLY AT
THE OFFICE

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30011
that’s the number of RSS feed I subscribed to…

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GAMING NEWS
FOR LUNCH
coz it’s fun!

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AGAIN, A LOT OF TWITTER
because I’m an addict
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OR/AND A LOT OF FACEBOOK
can’t help it…
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FEEDLY AGAIN ON
IPAD
easier to read and I can’t read
everything at the office

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TV NEWS AT SOME POINT
DURING THE EVENING

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OVERVIEW
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In the U.S and Europe

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- II -
LECTURE
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From ideation to structure: a basic workflow to start scripting interactive
journalism experiences

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WHAT IS A STORY?
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FOR A JOURNALIST,
A STORY IS:
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY AND HOW

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FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD,
A STORY IS:
BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END

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TELLING A STORY IMPLIES THAT WE USE A
COMMON LANGUAGE WITH OUR AUDIENCE
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THE EFFECT OF A STORY
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“STORYTELLING REVEALS MEANING
WITHOUT COMMITTING THE ERROR
OF DEFINING IT.”
Hannah
Arendt,
Political
theorist
&
philosopher

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“NARRATIVE IS RELATED TO THE IDEA OF
CONTEXT. NO MATTER HOW COMPLETE OR
COMPREHENSIVE A NARRATIVE APPEARS.”
David
Campbell,
Professor
at
the
Colgate
University,
New
York

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THE STORY OF STORY
From Gilgamesh to Vogler
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THE EPIC OF
GILGAMESH
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THE POETICS
by ARISTOTLE
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THE HERO’S
JOURNEY
by JOSEPH CAMPBELL
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THE WRITER’S
JOURNEY
by CHRIS VOGLER
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INTERACTIVE JOURNALISM
Type of New Formats
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INTERACTIVE FORMATS
• INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY
• LONG-FORM
• SERIOUS GAME
• PARTICIPATIVE EXPERIENCE
• And more…
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NON LINEAR STORY
STRUCTURE
A panorama of the different structures used in interactive documentaries.
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LINEAR STRUCTURE
The most classical way to tell a story.
Examples: Bucarest Below Ground – Le Corps Incarcéré – 127 Rue de la Garenne
+ : Easy to create, easy to use, that’s the traditional way to structure a story (chapters, pages etc) . You can easily control the narrative arc. Info overload
(difference between nb of stories available and stories actually seen) is null.
- : No interaction, little engagement, every users haas the same XP (experience)
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DYNAMIC OBJECT STRUCTURE
Very common structure for interactive documentaries. The user enter the story by a hub of “objects” (map, list, mosaïc). Not for fiction
Examples: The iron curtains – Behind the Veil
+ : Apparent simplicity, Liberty, possibility to aggregate non-homogenous pieces of content .
- : Risk to loose the intention of the author, Info Overload very high, the user can feel lost in front of these multiple choices.
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FISHBONE STRUCTURE
A very well known structure in interactive documentaries, that the used by ”Prison Valley”. A mix between linear and non-linear
structure that allows to visit additional content.
Examples: Pine Point – Prison Valley – The Defector
+ : Strong narrative structure, good interactivity, the user can see all the content, the author is “safe”.
- : Can be deceptive because if the story stands alone, why should see other contents? Info Overload moderate, be carefull not
to create more than 2 levels of content.
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BRANCHING STRUCTURE
The story gives different choices to the user (2 or more), at certain points of the story, the user has to decide whether he takes left or right and that
decision will shape the rest of his/her XP
Examples: Journey to the end of coal
+ : Interactivity very high, lots of choices, true sensation of liberty, Info Overload low, the user is engaged with the choices he/she makes.
- : High cost of production (lots of choices), a part of the story won’t be seen by the user, necessity to think about different type of scenario
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PARALLEL PATHS STRUCTURE
Branching story organized around gathering points, the user has to go through these points.
Examples: Jour de Vote – 6 million dead
+ : Interactivity very high, lots of choices, liberty a bit more limited but the feeling is still here, cost of production moderate, engagement is pretty high
due to good interactivity
- : Can be deceptive for those who expect a true freedom
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THREADED STRUCTURE
The story is narrated from different perspectives. It is a parallel story structure but with different characters in which different stories are crossing each
others.
Examples: Inside Disaster Haïti - Amour
+ : Good User experience, different stories can be experienced. The user can jump from node to node as he/she wishes.
- : Info Overload can be high, very risky to loose the user. The links between stories can be complicated. Complexity at the production level.
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WORKFLOW
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TRELLO
using troll as a project management tool to control your workflow.
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- III -
GROUP SESSION
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- IV -
ASSIGNMENT
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Blog post 2: Interview an interactive storyteller to discover its “secret sauce”,
what makes him interesting?