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In the wake of SXSW interactive earlier this week, the web has lit up with talk of new technologies for revolutionizing news content and consumption. Speaking of which, here are the winners of the festival’s web award winners, sneaking you a glimpse of the future apparently. Though that was on Monday, so it just about balances out as the present. One of the buzz words in the ‘future of journalism’ panel was the idea of context, and essentially how the outpouring (and overflowing) of real-time news via all the now widely-accepted feeds are actually numbing the public’s interest in important topics as opposed to stimulating it. The answer? Many suggested harking back to narrative approaches, with the most-often quoted perfect example of detailed, informative and, most importantly, engaging reporting coming courtesy of This American Life and their Giant Pool of Money episode. For those of you hearing about it for the first time, TAL is one of the best podcasts out there, is streamed for free every Monday, and is available for subscription through itunes. Go. Now. Subscribed? Ok. You should also try Radiolab too, which is of the same ilk. Please – if you can recommend any more, leave a comment or email me – I’m in the process of creating a links page where I’ll house this aural treasure trove.
The reason why these two podcasts are so phenomenally successful and effective? Because of the way narratives are interwoven with the raw data of a topic. We meet the characters, we hear them explaining their actions from their point of view, and we get a sense for why they acted the way they did – whether they’re mortgage brokers or first-time buyers taking out loans they can’t afford to pay back. Obviously, TAL’s medium is different from mine, so my focus is visual, but it got me thinking – what are other ways to incorporate narrative in news reporting?
Photojournalist Ed Kashi has embraced a multimedia approach by creating a fast-streaming slideshow of his photos around Iraqi Kurdistan – somehow bypassing the intrusive glare of a videocamera to present a far better portrait of the subjects in his shots than I’ve seen in any live feed. I especially like that Ed’s shots include sequences that wouldn’t necessarily be chosen using the standard means of narrowing down a selection for an editorial piece. One much-trumpeted yet arguably not so effective use of multimedia is the launch of VIVmag, one of the first digital-only magazines focusing its production around the soon-to-be available technologies of the ipad. For all its whistles and bells however, I can’t help but think that the information being presented in this sample article below is still appearing in standard blocks of text. Granted, the transition from block to block is cinematic, but that strikes me as more of a fancy page turn than a fully interactive approach using narrative innovation. One example of this is at 0:34 secs in, with the ‘You Might Get Aids’ header. Your comments welcome.
Now let’s move the spotlight to a couple of different online apps, the Survivors Connect Map and this incredible one of Haiti, courtesy of Ushahidi. Both are open to (better yet – dependent on) the public for submissions, displaying all data that is submitted in an unfolding narrative of the situation on the ground. This isn’t just news, it’s a tool for NGOs to more effectively channel their resources where they’re needed. Suddenly Haiti isn’t just another global disaster a million miles away – it’s heartfelt messages coming from specific addresses that make it feel like it’s happening next door. (Where did all those Haiti donations go, by the way?). A similar technology is available domestically through twitter, allowing you to search for specific terms used near a location, although presumably you have to go through following whoever you find before you can contact them directly. Of course, one thing missing from the real-time turnaround (as mention above) is someone to lead you through that data. But who?
Look no further than Edward Tufte, the ‘Da Vinci of data’, who has recently been appointed by the Obama administration to a committee tasked with presenting a coherent, intelligible layman’s guide to the Federal Stimulus package. And, more importantly, where all the several hundred billions of dollars of it went. Of Tufte’s many innovations are what are called ‘sparklines‘ – succint snippets of information, standing in defiant opposition to the cluttered complexity of a standard graph. One example of how fascinated we are by infographics, one of Mr Tufte’s specialities, is this one which was recently one of Digg’s top picks, despite lacking links or any substantiating evidence whatsoever.
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