MASTERCLASSES

Friday 26 October 2012

Latest storytelling platforms for journalists - previewing MMJ Masterclass 52


One of the great challenges journalism faces is to find new ways of storytelling
Why do we need to do that?
Because the new media demand new ways of storytelling that are appropriate for them.
So how should we tell stories in the mutlimeda environments of websites or mobile devices, for example?
That's something we are still working on discovering.
Nobody has the definitive answer.
But we do know what tools we now have to work with. We know, for example, that a mobile's inbuilt GPS and camera create storytelling and reporting opportunities that we've never had before.
So in this masterclass we are looking at two brand new storytelling platforms that enable multimedia story finding and telling on websites, blogs and mobile devices.
We look at Grafetee, which is a location-based app that draws information from all sorts of other apps onto one platform, and which I think may have the potential to let you create a local or hyperlocal news resource that can be consumed on mobiles.
We also explore MyHistro, which lets you build multimedia timelines around a theme or story, apply them to a Google map, and embed them anywhere you like.
I'm not going to pretend that I've fully roadtested these two platforms, but from what I've seen I think they deserve serious consideration by anyone who wants to develop their new media storytelling. So this is very much a first look.
We also consider Conweets, which is more accurately described as a story-gathering device rather than a platform on which to tell those stories.
Conweets lets you track conversations between two Twitter users, or identify and follow any of the conversations a given user is having.
With so much news being made on Twitter, Conweets is a great device for easily following the conversations in which stories can be found.

Next: Grafetee: Create a local news site for mobiles

Friday 12 October 2012

Analytics for journalists; previewing Masterclass 51 at Multimedia Journalism


The latest masterclass at MMJ is about analytics, or the analysis of web traffic
We'll look at how to use analytics tools to chart the effectiveness of your journalism
Analytics show you not only how you have done, but can help you improve what you produce in the future.
If you work for a publisher or broadcaster, analytics tools will be built into the content management system you use. As a journalist, you may or may not have access to those analytics.
Here we'll concentrate on how you can install your own analytics tool on your websites, blogs and apps, and how to use the analytics tools built in to social media networks.
Google Analytics is a powerful free tool, and we'll look here at:
  • How to install Google Analytics
  • How to understand the analytics that Google gives you 
We'll also look at analytics tools for: