JN3800
ASSIGNMENT TWO AND
GEOLOCATION

DEADLINE:
th December
5pm, 13
2013

The story so far
 All multimedia elements
covered






Images
Text (writing for the web)
Video
Data
Audio
Mapping (covered this
afternoon and tomorrow)
 First assignment
completed

Assignment 2: What the MIP says

3 skills tests: video, mapping and
data (80%)

Editorial mark (80%)










Newsworthiness
Choice of interviewees
Interview technique
Content presentation and
chunking
Social Media engagement and
distribution
Demonstrating an awareness of
digital publishing styles
Originality
Writing for the web
Newswriting/grammar
Overall multimedia
implementation

But what is a multimedia
package?

There’s a wide range of examples of
what a multimedia package could be:

Standard news story and feature with
multimedia elements EXAMPLE

Immersive and/or long form content
EXAMPLE and EXAMPLE

Video/Audio lead piece with supporting text
(and other media not included here)
EXAMPLE

Immersive geolocated ‘experience’
EXAMPLE

Timeline EXAMPLE

What is a multimedia journalism
package?
 Consider the story and the
form
 It is not a 1st person
reflection on the process
 It can be a ‘hard news’ story
 A more informal ‘blog’ or
soft feature
 An investigation around a
theme containing a number
of perspectives or media
elements

Order of content

Consider structure and how your
multimedia is placed around a
blog post or a collection of
individual pages

Consider:

What your strongest news point is/or
most compelling hook

What your readers first encounter on
your page

What is your strongest multimedia
element (both in terms of quality
and in terms of relevance to your
story)

Make the most of the ‘good stuff’

Interviews: the long and the
short of it (audio and video)

Voxpopuli: voices and talking heads
can add a richness to a multimedia
piece.

Vox pops are short and punch. One
question, and a range of answers
EXAMPLE

A longer interview can be
compelling and engaging. By
covering more in-depth
ground, your audio is performing a
different task to a “simple” vox pop.

A lengthy and ‘mediated’ can add
value to your overall piece. You may
script some of the links, allowing
multiple voices to appear and you
join them together

LINKING STRATEGY: Remember the link economy

Hyperlinks are a central part of the
web and digital literacy

Use them to provide a valuable
resource to your reader



Link to other websites for additional
information
Link to your own editorial to construct a
self-referential structure and create
added value
Link to other platforms where your
content may be found

Don’t overlink

Do link: layer the content and act as
an authority (but not gatekeeper)

(note: raw URL addresses are ugly)

DIGITAL COMMUNITIES
 Have you harnessed digital
communities for
 Leads and ideas
 Contacts and interviews
 Data and visualisations
 Opportunities to distribute
your content
 Opportunities to reach
different audiences

Multiplatform multimedia
 Consider different platforms
to host your content





Flickr
Vimeo
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
 What do you need to do to
maximise ‘reach’. Think about
‘discoverability’. Include:


Descriptions
Tags

Questions?

Geolocation

Increasingly being used to assist with storytelling




Mapping
Social sharing apps such as foursquare
Beginnings of augmented reality
Gathering and verifying citizen journalism from around the world

Can present information in an alternative way: uniting fragmented narrative into a cohesive whole

Smartphones and cameras now equipped with GPS capabilities: providing the data required to
map images

Visualisation tools allow both the display of information data, and provide users with opportunity
to manipulate it




Tools include Google Drive/spreadsheets.
Google Fusion Tables
Tableau Public
Development of open source mapping tools to allow a digital community to coalesce and input
data

Geolocation and mapping

Create visual impact

Uses open data to create new interaction and storytelling
opportunities

Can combine with other data to create mash-ups

News organisations have been doing this for a while

Can produce fascinating tools

Avoids dull text

Embedded video (although this function is not currently available
on Google Maps classic)

Publish original data

Good tool for local and hyperlocal sites

Man-made Google maps
 Offer a range of symbols to aid
understanding
 Route mapping and road tracking
 Video and image integration (within certain
constraints).

How to create a Google Map
 Go to Google Maps and log in
 Click my places
 Click Create Map: Classic allows a basic
embed function
 Begin to fill in fields

Questions…
Key questions to ask yourself before making a map

Does it add value to your story?

Does it make information more understandable?

Could the data be expressed in a more effective way? (examples include graphs, timelines, pie
charts and tables)
Key questions to ask yourself after making a map

Does the data tell the story in the way you intended?

Is it understandable?

Is your piece stronger with it than without it.

Seminar
What

Take one news stories from any news-based publisher in the UK that has a strong ‘where’
element

Create a custom google map and place relevant images, text and hyperlinks on the map.



The bubble content must contain a link to a website version of the article
The bubble content must also contain one additional link to a website related to the story.
Create a new blog post on your blog and embed your google map in the post with some
explanatory text.
How

The choice of articles is up to you but you should obviously look for those with a strong
‘where’ element. The creation of a Google map should be straightforward but you should
explore the options available such as custom icons to effectively communicate your story.

Google maps – classic
https://maps.google.com/

DATA GATHERING: MAPPING
- OPEN A NEW GOOGLE SPREADSHEET
- USING THE =IMPORTHTML() FORMULA
FROM LAST WEEK, SCRAPE THE LIST OF
CHELSEA PLAYERS FROM
- HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/LIST_OF_CHELSEA_F.C._PLAYERS

DATA GATHERING 1
- CAN YOU ANSWER?
- WHAT COUNTRIES HAVE THE
PLAYERS COME FROM AND HOW
MANY?
=ImportHtml("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._players", "table",1)

DATA GATHERING 1
- COUNT THE UNIQUE ENTRIES USING:
=UNIQUE ({START CELL:ENDCELL})
E.G =UNIQUE(B2:B166)
- COUNT THE NUMBER OF TIMES EACH ENTRY IS
MENTIONED USING:
=COUNTIF({STARTCELL:ENDCELL}, {VALUE})
E.G =COUNTIF(B2:B166, I3)
SEE THIS IN ACTION
ATHTTP://BIT.LY/JN3800DATACHELSEA

CAN YOU MAKE..?
A HEATMAP OF YOUR COUNTRY TABLE