Like many people, I’m fascinated by the future of journalism and storytelling in the digital age. If, like me, you prefer quality journalism over quantity then you should buy a copy of Inside the Story, Adam Westbrook’s ebook about digital storytelling in the Web age.
The great thing about this book is that it allows those who already practice brilliant digital journalism to explain their motivations and tricks of the trade. Over 20 contributors write about everything from the importance of spending time on a subject (in our instantaneous world? What a radical concept!) to proper research, preparation and collaboration.
Priced at £3.50 all proceeds go to the charity Kiva.
Here in Ireland, the past couple of days has seen news coverage dominated by the forced eviction of an elderly couple from their south Dublin home.
What gave the story “legs” – to use old newspaper lingo – was the presence of a neighbour with a video camera, who captured the eviction and uploaded the footage to YouTube
There were photographers present who took some great shots – click here – but the real power comes from the amateur phone video and audio. I’m a great fan of professional stills but in this case the amateur wins hands down.
There is no way around this particular conundrum – for so many people the question is how to make quality, engaging content in as little time as possible.
If spending minimal time on the project is your main criteria, that you simply want to ‘get it out there’, then results will usually speak for themselves.
The audio will be awful, the images will be shaky and the entire project will lack a coherent theme and narrative that will render the work redundant.
This is already an important issue, but in the near future it will become crucial to any organisation whose business is partly defined by how it communicates with the outside world.
Remember this: By 2014 90% of web traffic will be video.
* The video posted above is called Afrikaner Blood and recently won first prize in The World Press Photo 2012 Multimedia Competition.
