Snapchat for journalists (part 3): narrative

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In the first and second parts in this series I covered different types of stories and the different tools in Snapchat. In this extract from the ebook Snapchat for Journalists I cover narrative techniques in Snapchat, including the importance of variety and thinking about beginnings, middles and endings.

Snapchat book cover

You can find more tips and examples in this ebook (also available in the Kindle Store)

Snapchat Stories: variety is key

The best stories tend to mix both images and video, have more than one person, and employ a range of different techniques.

Just as you wouldn’t write a news story which employed a quote-quote-quote structure (you might instead choose fact-quote-background), stories are more engaging when you switch from one type of content to another.

One technique, for example, is to use a still image with a caption to introduce a speaker, before moving on to a video clip of that speaker. Continue reading →

Snapchat for journalists (part 2): the tools explained

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In a previous post I covered the different types of stories that work well for news organisations on Snapchat. In this second extract from the ebook Snapchat for Journalists I go into more detail on how to use particular tools: the pencil, stickers, and filters

Snapchat book cover

You can read a lot more about Snapchat in this ebook (also available in the Kindle store)

Using pencils

Aside from captions you can also illustrate images and video with filters, pencil annotations and stickers.

The pencil tool can be used by tapping the pencil icon in the upper right corner after taking your image or video snap. This will open up a slider which you can use to choose your pencil colour (to get black you will need to drag your finger past the slider and all the way to the bottom right of the screen; to get white drag your finger from the slider to the upper left corner of the screen).

The pencil can be used in a number of ways but common techniques include:

  • Highlighting some element in the image or video, by circling it, colouring around it, and/or drawing an arrow pointing to it
  • Making caption text easier to read by colouring behind it (text will always appear on top of pencil marks)
  • Writing text
  • Drawing on top of an image: for example giving someone sunglasses, a crown, halo, etc. Continue reading →

Snapchat for journalists: a great big guide

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Snapchat for journalists

I’ve put all these posts – plus a whole lot of extra help and examples – in this ebook

A few weeks ago I started writing a post about Snapchat for journalists. It ended up so long that I decided to turn it into a small ebook. But I thought I’d split that original draft – just under half the length of the finished ebook – across a number of posts here on OJB. I hope you find it useful.

In a long history of technologies journalists have struggled with, Snapchat could be the most frustrating of all.

On the one hand: promises of insane engagement and impressive advertising rates.

On the other, however…

Well. Firstly there’s the ephemeral nature of the tool: creating content designed to disappear is precisely the opposite of what journalists aspire to.

Secondly there’s that obtuse-to-the-point-of-arrogance interface that can be summed up with the advice ‘Just swipe somewhere.‘

And then there’s the amateurishness of the content.

If you struggled with the limitations of 140 characters, Snapchat takes things to a whole new level: vertical video, over-emotional stickers, and the choice between a) using a typeface that makes you look like a government bureaucrat in 1978, or b) scrawling bright red text on the screen like a demented crayon-wielding five year old.

Landscape video shown vertically

Fusion fail to realise that Snapchat is a vertical medium

But still…

There is that engagement. And an audience you can’t easily reach elsewhere.

And to be honest, once I got my head around Snapchat, I started to see storytelling possibilities that other platforms simply don’t offer. And I hope you will too. Continue reading →

Data journalism’s commissioning problem

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Square peg in a round hole

Data journalism is still a square peg in a round hole when it comes to commissioning. Image by Yoel Ben-Avraham

Peter Yeung has a good point: why is it so difficult to get editors to pay for data journalism?

In a series of tweets we tried to find some answers.

Firstly, commissioning isn’t set up for data journalism. Editors instead try to fit it into established structures for commissioning text-based news and features, with the result that:

a) The pricing doesn’t reflect the work involved; and

b) Any interactivity and visuals become incidental to the process instead of integral.

And yet the value of data journalism has been repeatedly proven, and organisations are spending money on it: just not on commissioning. As Yeung added:

“I find it strange publications invest in data editors and journalists, but not data budgets”

The FT’s Martin Stabe suspected it wasn’t just a data journalism problem:

“This probably extends to lots of digital-only content, not just data journalism.”

A related problem is the lack of standardisation in data journalism: there is no equivalent to the payment by wordcount which print journalists have so long worked by.

Instead, organisations ‘insource‘ data journalism work to internal teams, either data teams or ad hoc teams formed from existing personnel (think the MPs’ expenses or Wikileaks investigations…

…Or they ‘outsource‘ data journalism work to external agencies etc.

This is a problem also highlighted by Alfred Hermida in his research into Canadian data journalism, ‘Finding the Data Unicorn‘: only one job title showed up four times “and that was the general reporter/journalist category.”

That’s our take. What about yours? Why isn’t data journalism properly commissioned? And how do freelance data journalists get work?

Related:

My latest data journalism ebook is now finished

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Data journalism book Stories with SpreadsheetsMy third data journalism ebook, Finding Stories With Spreadsheets, is now finished. It’s a book which covers a wide range of spreadsheet techniques from basic calculations like proportions through to techniques for merging datasets, looking for errors and working with dates.

I’ve tried to cover all the functions used most commonly within data journalism, including some specific to Google Sheets, but if you know of any that aren’t mentioned, or have a problem which isn’t solved by the book, I’d love to know.

Likewise, many chapters have sample datasets to try the techniques out, but I’m always on the lookout for particularly illustrative datasets or examples.

I’ll continue to add to and update the book (one of the reasons I publish with Leanpub) as I come across new techniques and examples. Let me know if you want me to add anything.

What I learned at Jan Willem Tulp’s workshop at Tutki! 2016/NODA16

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Jan Willem Tulp

Jan Willem Tulp’s workshop

In a guest post first published on her blog, Maria Crosas Batista sums up the key takeaways from a session at the Nordic investigative journalism conference Tutki! 2016 by Jan Willem Tulp, the data experience designer behind Tulp Interactive.

Continue reading →

Hillsborough’s ending, and the story it tells for the next generation of journalists

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when saturday comes hillsborough front cover

Endings are important: they help us to tell a story that is memorable.

This week’s ending is especially important. For the families of those killed in the Hillsborough disaster it represents something truly incredible: a resolution many never expected to see.

For those of us who teach journalism it represents an important opportunity: to tell that story – and make it memorable – to the next generation of journalists, in the hope that they avoid making the same mistakes. Continue reading →

Yes. Yes you can #mrandmrspoole

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Previously…

@PhoebeJackson91 So much hard work & love went in to this day. We obviously didn't intent to trend on Twitter. You've made us look stupid.

Meanwhile…

https://twitter.com/sweetheartscene/status/724606716751519745

The end?

What next? How the news media can respond to losing

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A road crossing from high up

The infrastructure is complete. Image by Miroslav Petrasko

You can see the future coming.