This document provides information and instructions for Assignment 2 of the JN3800 course. It discusses the requirements of the assignment, which involve completing skills tests in video, mapping and data, as well as meeting editorial standards. It also provides guidance on creating a multimedia package, including defining what a multimedia package is, considering story and format, ordering content, conducting interviews, using hyperlinks, harnessing digital communities, using multiple platforms, and using geolocation and mapping. The document ends with questions about the seminar portion of the assignment involving creating a custom Google map.

1. JN3800
ASSIGNMENT TWO AND
GEOLOCATION

2. DEADLINE:
th December
5pm, 13
2013

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

4. Assignment 2: What the MIP says

3 skills tests: video, mapping and
data (80%)

Editorial mark (80%)
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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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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’

8. 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

9. 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)

10. 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

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

12. Questions?

13. Geolocation

Increasingly being used to assist with storytelling

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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

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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

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. Questions…
Key questions to ask yourself before making a map

Does it add value to your story?
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Does it make information more understandable?
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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?
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Is it understandable?

Is your piece stronger with it than without it.

18. 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.

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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.

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

20. 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

21. 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)

22. 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

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