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Chapter 5
 

THE STORY CHANGES WITH THE MEDIUM

 

Examples

Visual storytelling

Exercises

 

SELECTING THE BEST MEDIUM FOR A NEWS STORY

 

The Advanced Media Institute has some quick hints for how to decide the best platform for a particular news story.

 

"Great natural sound of the truck starting up"—let Brian Storm walk you through the decisions for choosing a platform in sample news stories.

 

AUDIO

NEWS STORIES

 

In Michael Meckler's online radio journalism tutorial, you can read about some of the specific techniques for writing good radio stories in essays such as "Broadcast Sentence Structure" and "Using Numbers" (for broadcast stories).

 

This short BBC video provides a tutorial about recording audio with a smart phone.

 

Try using Audacity, a free online sound editor.

 

 

ONLINE NEWS STORIES

 

The BBC has a helpful discussion about how to write online news well.

 

Here are some straightforward tips for online newswriting from former journalism professor Bob Stepno.

 

See some of the best online journalism by checking out the Online News Association's annual awards.

 

 

CREATING MULTIMEDIA

NEWS STORIES

 

The Advanced Media Institute offers an online guide to telling better multimedia news stories.

 

You can follow up on the textbook's discussion of the Denver Post multimedia

coverage Aurora theater shootings coverage at the Pulitzer Prize website.

 

For some good examples of student multimedia news stories, see the Associated Collegiate Press contest winners.

 

For more examples, head over to our Innovations and Multimedia pages.

Featured

Snow Fall
 

In 2013, The New York TImes published a dramatic, long-form story about an avalanche that buried a group of skiers, killing three people.  The story included audio from interviews and the 911 dispatcher, videos, interactive maps and graphics—and became an instant multimedia classic.

A New Arab Generation
 

In another multimedia example, The New York TImeposted 23 videos with excerpts from interviews with people affected by the Arab Spring, allowing people to speak directly to the camera in their own words.

 

 

 

Television and Radio
 

You can see the script for this PBS story about Hurricane Sandy in the textbook. Watch the video here and note the ways the audio and visuals interact. Then, try listening to a radio version of a similar story, "Waves Pound Maryland Coast as Hurricane nears, at NPR.

Online and Print
 

Compare with the CNN online news story about the hurricane, "Sandy wreaks havoc across Northeast; at least 11 dead," with its links, slide show and short videos. Then look up The New York Times story, "Storm picks up speed and disrupts millions of lives" (this is the same story as the one that ran in the print edition, although you'll be reading the online version).

 

 

 

 

 

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A similar story told through different media

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