Storytelling Tools

Digital Tools forNews & Storytelling

Trends in Communication & Information TechnologyJOUR 4871-003

The digital storytellingtools you learn todaywill be used in yournext media job ...

But they’ll either changedramatically in years ahead,

or be replaced bysomething better ...

In your media/news career,you will continually belearning new tools that

do not exist yet.

A sea change in content-creation tools

FROM TO

Client-based software(InDesign, Dreamweaver, etc.)

More cloud-based services(Storify, ThinkLink, etc.)

Exceptions like QuarkXpress:Client tool publishes tomultiple digital platforms

Types of digital content-creation tools

Curation tools/services

Multimedia

Maps

Screencasting

Timeline creators

Data visualization

Curation tools and services

Free

Platform used by journalisticpartners (including independentjournalists); Demotix partner

Free or premium account

Free tool to read, publish, and share documents and written

works; sell them

Assemble content from your social-mediaaccounts; create timeline, Pinterest-like

collection board of contentFree, premium, or business

account; curate content intodigital “magazines”

Storify: Free, widely used curation toolEmbed what you create on website ... Easily combine original and curated content

Bundlr: Pinterest-like curation toolEmbed what you create on website ... Free or $19.99/year premium account

Multimedia tools and services

Free or premium account;innovative interactive images

Free for now (beta period)

Free or premium account;“better” alternative to Powerpointpresentations ... Also a good tool

for news presentation

Free or premium accounts;turns your photos, video clips, and

music into video in minutes ...embeddable; why not for news?

Free or premium account;create interactive collages;

embeddable, free

Free for now;combine photos, video, audio,

blogs into embeddablemultimedia presentation

Meograph: ‘4-dimensional’ storytelling tool

Combines maps, timeline, links, photos, video, audio into embeddable multimedia presentation;new form of interactive story that can be watched (TV-like) or explored at user’s speed

Currently free to use

ThingLink: Embed many forms of contenton top of photo, map, etc.

Freeor

premiumaccount

Sidebar/accompanimentfor text story...

ORself-contained

story

Prezi: Not just for presentations ... Why not news?

In-class assignment: Create a mock multimedia story

Storify.com

ThingLink.com

Meograph.com

Animoto.com

Prezi.com

East Coast hurricane

Impact on Manhattan

Tools Topics