TAKEAWAY: When producing a multimedia story, practice the role of curation to avoid unnecessary bells and whistles.
Recently, a panel of journalists and editors gathered in New York City to talk about sports reporting in the digital age. I wish I had been present, since the discussion was not limited to sports reporting. In addition, the journalists discussed multimedia journalism, social media practices, longform narratives, and business models.
It so happens that this gathering coincided with my own lecture on Multimedia Storytelling for my Columbia University class, in which I had guest speaker Gabriel Dance, formerly of The Guardian, and now with The Marshall Project. My lecture and Gabriel’s remarks emphasized the importance of beginning with a good story, with solid reporting, and then considering what additional elements can enhance the story.
“Always begin with good reporting,” Gabriel told the students. “Such elements as video, audio, graphics are complimentary to the text.”
How true. How important.
So, as I read this article concerning the gathering of the sports journalists, and their 10 tips for writing multimedia stories, there was one of those tips that stood out.
Tip 2: CURATE THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR STORY
“It’s easy to overdo the bells and whistles of parallax scrolling and stunning visuals. But you don’t have to include everything — edit down to the essentials.
“The idea was, what are we going to leave out, rather than what are we going to put in?” Ward said. “We made sure we kept the slideshows to maybe four or five [photos] though we had 15 pictures of a certain subject.”
Indeed, a tip worth remembering. Simply because the technology allows it, and because there are no space limitations (as in print), does not mean that we need to overload that story with superfluous material.
Curate. Edit. Evaluate how each element compliments the story.