Digital storytelling (20.11.19)

About the event

Members of staff from across the College attended a panel event exploring the theme of digital storytelling.

A panel of digital and editorial experts from outside Imperial came together to share their thoughts and tips on how to create strong and engaging narratives using digital media.

About the panel

• Nick Jones (head of digital at HS2)
• Dawn Murden (training and support manager at Shorthand)
• Sam Joiner (interactives and new formats editor, The Times)

Discussion points

What is good digital storytelling?

• Engaging, interactive and emotive.
• Catches your eye and makes you want to read on.
• Moves the audience to action (e.g. share it on social media, sign up to something)
• Accessible on different devices (especially mobile).
• Tells a story in a different way e.g. adding personalisation to make a national story much more local

Example: Snow Fall, by the New York Times, in 2012. What does it mean for online journalism?

What new trends are you seeing in digital storytelling?

• The death of the infographic. Infographics rarely work on mobile. It's better to tease out what you are really trying to communicate.
• Simplification of graphics. There was a trend to focus on complicated, academic style graphics. However, these often throw readers. You need to make it obvious, guide people through it, and don’t use interactivity unless you need it.
• The power of storytelling. More and more people are recognising good storytelling, but it’s harder to stand out on the web today. Audiences are bored with unimaginative formats that don’t load well or buffer on your device. You have to work hard to keep your audience.
• Interactivity is becoming so much more important. You can personalise stories by asking people to do things – e.g. stop scrolling and engage directly with the content (e.g. enter a post code, explore data sets, watch a video) BUT, you must use interactivity in a considered way and make sure it helps the understanding of the story for the reader.
• Constructive journalism. People don’t just want negative news. They want to know the other side of it – the problem and the solution, e.g. the climate emergency, and what you can do about it.
• The power of podcasts. Podcasts have become so professional with high-value production. E.g. Boston Globe Last Seen podcast.

Which digital storytelling platforms do you recommend?

Before choosing your platform, make sure you know your story:

• Detach the story from the format to tease out what you want to say.
• Try and break it down into key elements, facts, figures and themes. Storyboarding is a good way to do this.
• Define your objective and your audience.
• Think about what tools will bring the story to life.
• Then choose the format and the platform

Digital tools to try:

• Shorthand – BBC uses Shorthand for longer stories and has had amazing engagement (averaging 7 minutes dwell time!) NB. Imperial is piloting the platform for Imperial Stories, and hopes to roll out the platform across College next year)
• Datawrapper (Create charts and maps etc)
• Wordpress
• Wix
• Canva
• Infogram (interactive infographics) NB. Imperial has an account with Infogram
• Share This (create sharing buttons)

TIP: when using timelines - on mobile they need to go down the page, not left to right. Always be aware of how the content you choose is going to be used.

How do you measure and evaluate success?

• There is a big difference between data and insights. You can often use choose a stat to back up what you want to say, but it’s not particularly insightful - it’s just what you want to say. To get a real insight, you need to look at something over a longer period of time. You can also try putting something out in two different formats and comparing their success.
• Know what success will look like before you start. Before you start, ask why you are doing it and what your objective is. You also need to have a benchmark first (e.g. what your existing content does) to know what you want to achieve. Experimentation could be a legitimate objective. Many people do a particular story just to see how it lands with audiences. Learning from your audience is an important process.
• Learn from each other. We encourage our community of storytellers to talk to each other and share best practice (via Slack or Pinterest).
• Ask for feedback. Qualitative data – like feedback from focus groups – can be valuable, but it’s time consuming. Even just showing work to colleagues and asking their thoughts is valuable.
• What makes a good story / appropriate topic for digital storytelling? And what pitfalls and challenges are there?

Questions to ask before you start on a digital story:

• Why do you want to do it in a different format?
• How will you measure success?
• How much text will it have and are there interactive elements you will introduce?
• How will you promote it?
• Do you have the time and resource to do it?
• What’s the shelf life? Is it evergreen (i.e. will it stick around forever)? E.g. Uni of Cambridge’s feature on Stephen Hawking)

Things to avoid:

• Squeezing too much in
• Relying on for gimmicks
• Overloading the web page so there’s too much buffering / it’s too slow to load
• No signposting or explanations for the reader (e.g. how long will they be reading)

What skills & training would you recommend to develop digital skills?

• Innovation happens in the wider space, so look beyond your job spec. Be curious and see what’s going on outside.
  • Go to events and meet ups e.g. Hackers (a group that links together developers and journalists).
  • Join communities on Facebook and Linkedin, and follow certain hashtags to keep abreast of what’s going on.
  • Use your specialism and don’t be afraid to apply for things if you haven’t got a background in journalism. Use what you know about subjects and specialisms to apply for things.

Final top tips

• Data won’t tell a story on its own. You always need a storyteller too.
• Make sure your story is discoverable (SEO - relevant words in the title).
• Gauge success by looking at metrics on social media and Google Analytics, and send it to people / your target audience on an individual level for qualitative feedback.
• Tools like BuzzSumo can show what topics are trending on social media
• AnswerthePublic tells you questions people are asking about particular topics.