Innovations in storytelling session at the 2016 IRE Conference Speakers: Adam Playford, Paul Cheung Summery: Animation. Data visualization. Virtual Reality. Annotated Documents. GIFs. Journalists can tell stories in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. This hands-on session will up your game in modern storytelling by visualizing and wireframing essential elements for your next story.

1. INNOVATIONS IN
STORYTELLING
06.18.2016
IRE
Convention

2. PRESENTERS
Paul Cheung
@pcheung630
Director of Interactive and
Digital News Production
Associated Press
Adam Playford
@adamplayford
Director of
Data/Digital Enterprise
Tamper Bay Times

3. Time
 15 mins: Us talking
 15 mins: Feedback
 15 mins: Hands on exercise
 5 mins: Discussion
 10 mins: Sketch
 10 mins: Pitch and feedback
 5 mins: Q&A

4. What is
innovation?

5. Bartenders vs
Mixologists

6. Story innovation
=
a mix of storytelling
approaches
+
a set of techniques

7. Story cocktails
Approach
 Text
 Photo
 Audio
 Video
 Information
Graphics
Technique
 Slideshow
 Animation
 Interactive
 Personalization/Cho
ose you own
adventure
 360/VR

8. Examples
The Other Disappeared
Divided America
Faded Grace

9. Three lessons
1. Every URL is a story. Starting with a chart.
tampabay.com/failurefactories
2. Technology as a narrative device. Javascript and
commas. tampabay.com/mentalhospitals
3. Sharp editing is key. Two-step steppers.
 Failure Factories — discipline story
 Farm to Fable

10. Wireframe Exercise
 Cheap
 Keep you focus
 Provide you a visual
roadmap of the story
 How it looks on various
screen sizes
 Determine development
and programming
requirements

11. Case Study
 The number of mass shootings has risen drastically in recent years. Stats over time.
Age of victims. Audio / video interviews with family members.
 Shootings that involve high-capacity assault rifles have on average far more victims
than other types of attacks. Weapon used in each attack. Statistical analysis
showing the type of weapon used is a better predictor of number of victims than any
other factor (scatterplot, regression, etc).
 Reform efforts have repeatedly failed to gain traction. Database of proposed
congressional bills, outcomes, votes; proposed state bills, outcomes, votes; NRA
contributions at both federal and state level.
Mass shootings in America have risen drastically in recent years. In a
12-month investigation, the Daily Planet has built a database of every
mass shooting in the country.*
* The Daily Planet is not real, and neither are these findings.

12. Time
 15 mins: Us talking
 15 mins: Feedback
 15 mins: Hands on exercise
 5 mins: Discussion
 10 mins: Sketch
 10 mins: Pitch and feedback
 5 mins: Q&A

13. Q&A
@adamplayford
@pcheung630