Multimedia
More often than not, I like to design and create my own multimedia. For me, multimedia is a part of the story as much as any word, and I like having control over the parts of the story I want to emphasize. Knowing as I do that visual multimedia elements can bring readers, particularly younger readers, into a story they might not otherwise read, I take care to make my multimedia thorough and engaging.
Jerry Boatner timeline/map
Jerry Boatner was an old gentleman who’d lived a long and full life. With the story focusing on understanding why he came to CCHS, the timeline was an integral part of communicating his journey visually. Students don’t want to read plain words over and over again, so the timeline helped provide a design break in the story while also supplementing the content.
Community Conversations question slideshow
In a story about a safety assembly that few attended, the verbatim questions asked at the assembly were an alternative way of conveying the messages discussed at the assembly. By including these questions – taken from a transcript of the account – readers could click through this slideshow without reading the full 600-word article. If their interest was piqued, they could seek full answers in the article or from the CCSD themselves.
The Impossible Dream sound-cites
Soundcites are one of my favorite ways to immerse a reader in the story. For people with distinctive voices or possessed by powerful emotion, listening to the way they speak can add powerful context to their words. In this story, both the main stakeholder Geneva Johnson Eberhart’s Southern drawl and tearful words about her son elevated the quotes, giving the reader a chance to put themselves across from Eberhart and hear her passionate invocation.
Volleyball schedule infographic
In one of my first stories as an established staff member, I wanted to highlight the varsity volleyball team’s upcoming games. With no infographic template to use, I took to Canva to list out their upcoming schedule as a supplement to the article I wrote. The infographic again provided information in the story more accessible to readers, while also preventing a bland, undesirable wall of text on the article.