(photo: Kyle James)

An online multimedia story is a combination of video, text, photos, audio, graphics and interactive elements where each aspect complements the others. It allows a reporter to draw on the strength of each medium to tell a more compelling story.

But making a multimedia story really shine requires forethought and planning. Even before going out to report, journalists need to think about how they’re going to approach the story, when they’re going to use video, text, sound or photos, and then tie everything together to create a cohesive package. onMedia’s Kyle James has tips on doing the prep work to make sure your multimedia story is a success.

Playing to their strengths

Really good multimedia storytelling is more than just posting a video or a graph alongside a text story on a website. It’s about taking advantage of the characteristics of each medium to present the different aspects of your story in the most engaging way.

I find it’s best to sit down at the very beginning and divide the contents of the story among the different media. I ask myself: “Would this aspect work best as a short video, or should I take pictures or maybe write a couple of paragraphs?”

When I’m breaking things down, here’s what I keep in mind:

Video: Best for action and movement, shows what is happening (a protest, a fire, a person cooking, a dance performance). Can capture emotion well and good for strong quotes (eyewitness to a significant event, person recalling a tragedy). Video really draws people in.

Pictures: Good for capturing a specific, important moment, especially if it’s emotional (a reunion of long-lost siblings, soldier returning from war). Photos are good for showing places, environments and things that don’t move (buildings, landscapes). People can study pictures, unlike with video. That old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” still rings true in many instances.

Audio: Conveys emotions, feelings. The voices of experts can give your story credibility. Background (ambient) sound, especially if combined with pictures, can give a good sense of place. Audio works best when combined with pictures or video.

Graphics: These work well providing complex information in easy-to-understand ways. Stories with lots of numbers and statistics can benefit from graphs, showing trends or relationships (clothing exports over the last decade, wage growth). Diagrams can show how things work or how something came about (where floodwaters reached, how the bridge collapsed). Maps show where the story unfolded and can be layered with interactive elements.

Text: The written word works well for abstract, complicated aspects of a story. It’s the place to provide background and analysis, as well as headlines and photo captions. Many multimedia producers save text for the information that can’t be conveyed with video, audio, pictures or graphics.

If we’ve got video of an event, why would we simply describe it with text? Video’s power is showing action, so we should use it. Pictures of people overtaken by powerful emotions or recordings of their voices talking about their experiences are going to be very compelling. Yet an opinion piece on a policy or development or an analysis what has been learned in the wake of an accident might best be suited for text.

Writing it down

Since I can’t keep all this in my head, I need to write things down.

Click here for a planning list that helps you organize your thoughts around a story and how you want to cover it. It asks for things like a working title, a short story synopsis, conflict/tension involved, the main characters, who you’ll interview, and what works best with video/audio/pictures/etc.

Those who are more visually minded might want to write up a chart instead. The picture below is a quick sketch of possible elements of a multimedia story that I’ll call “The Bridge.” While this isn’t a real multimedia project, the story is true. In 2010, a stampede on a bridge in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh during a big festival killed 350 people and injured 750 others.

In this instance, I’ve made headers of the main media elements and put in aspects of the story that could fall under each. The arrows between some of them point out aspects of the story could have several elements. For example, the hourly timeline would be an interactive graphic that would incorporate text and pictures.

Assembling a storyboard

Now that you’ve got the elements figured out, you will want to create a rough storyboard of your project. A storyboard is a sketch of how the story will be organized and laid out on the screen. It’s a good idea to do a sketch of the opening page of your multimedia story, the first thing users will see, and then subpages or sections as well.

I’ve quickly drawn up mock-ups for the landing page and one inside page.

On the landing page, the first screen people will see on coming to my story, I’ve sketched out (very roughly) the title and the kind of picture I think I’d like.

I’ve put a space for some text to give us the very basics of what happened (remember, text is good for background and context), and then a possible navigation menu with four categories.

I could add a video or more pictures. But right now, I don’t think I want much more on my opening page, so I’m going to keep it simple.

This second page is where users land if they click on the first link in the navigation column, and we go to the background page. I’m using text because it’s good for context, video because we might find some footage of the actual stampede, a map to show users where things happened, a timeline to take us though the day of the tragedy, and eyewitness accounts from people who were there that combine pictures and audio

A storyboard is not only a good organizing tool, it can help point out things you might have missed. It can also help show you if you’ve actually got the resources and time to do all the things you want to do.

Storyboards aren’t written in stone, they’re just guides. You might well start changing things around, or adding and dropping elements, after you begin doing your reporting and seeing what great material you get or what’s not going to come through after all.

Things to keep in mind

• Multimedia stories are multi-dimensional, they use different media elements that complement each other
• They require planning and forethought
• Start thinking in a non-linear way. Instead of “first part” and “second part,” think “this part” and “that part”
• After preliminary research, start thinking about the different media to use – draw on the strengths of each
• Come up with a rough storyboard – you can always change it as you go along

For more onMedia posts on multimedia, see

Visual storytelling and moving beyond ‘multimedia’

A look at what the New York Times is doing with multimedia

The test of the multimedia storytelling app, Stellar

Written by Kyle James, edited by Kate Hairsine

The question is: how do I make my SLR camera as “mobile” as my smartphone so I can transfer images quickly from the camera to another device and share them on the web?

Yes, I can use a USB cable to connect my camera to either my laptop or my iPad or take out the SD card and plug it directly into the computer. But another way is to use a WiFi enabled SD memory card and there are some interesting advantages of using these cards for covering events.

WiFi enabled SD cards have been around for a while now. The WiFi chip inside the card creates its own wireless network, which allows you to connect your camera via the SD card to another device.

In this post I’m going to refer to two Class 10 WiFi SD cards: the Eye-Fi mobi and the Toshiba FlashAir.

Shoot and upload on the run

At the recent Newsgames hackathon in Cologne I tested a 16GB Eye-Fi WiFi enabled SD card.

The hackathon took place inside a large seminar room. To document the event, I wanted to be able to walk around and shoot photos of the hacker teams, upload the images to my iPad for a quick edit and then send them to a blog and social media.

The Eye-Fi card allowed me to automatically push images to my iPad as I was shooting. To make the wireless transfer faster, I deliberately shot in .jpeg format to keep each image file size small – around 4-5 MB per image.

I was able to walk around up to 20 metres or so from my iPad and keep shooting, knowing that every image was being transferred to my iPad ready for editing.

This was exactly what I needed to cover this event in near “real time”. I was able to shoot lots of good quality images, far better than using my iPhone, and edit the images in batches in the Snapseed iPad application and then quickly upload to the blog, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s important to note that although the Eye-Fi card can record photos and video in various types of formats (.jpeg, RAW, .mpg, .mov, .flv, .wmv, .avi, .mp4, .mts, .m4v, .3gp) it can only transfer .jpeg files.

Fortunately my Fujifilm X100S produces excellent .jpeg images, and despite the smaller file size, my photos were published in The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, Page magazine and in several journalism publications.

But this workflow is not going to suit every situation.

One problem with the Eye-Fi mobi card is that it uploads every photo you take whether you like it or not. In other words, it uploads the entire album. This might be fine if you have the WiFi transfer mode on as you’re shooting, but if you capture a lot of photos and then engage the WiFi transfer mode, you might find yourself waiting for the best image to be transferred.

One work around is to shoot in RAW and then convert selected images to .jpeg format in the camera’s playback mode. The card will then transfer only the .jpeg files. Bear in mind that not all cameras offer in-camera .jpeg conversion. Another way is to “protect” the files you want to transfer. This might be a bit fiddly to do depending on your camera.

The set up of the Eye-Fi mobi card though was very straightforward. You simply download a free iOS or Android app that works as the dashboard for transferring images and enter the card’s activation key. The card creates its own b/g/n WiFi hotspot allowing your smartphone, tablet or computer to make a connection. My camera also supports the Eye-Fi SD card and offers an upload option directly from the camera’s menu.

Only transfer the pics you want

I’ve also been using the Toshiba FlashAir (version 2) 32GB Wireless SD card and it works in a similar way to the Eye-Fi. The card creates its own WiFi network and you install an app on your smartphone or tablet to capture the images.

I think the big advantage the FlashAir has over the Eye-Fi mobi is the possibility of using selective transfer for the images. From the iOS or Android app on your device, you can see all of the images you’ve taken and then you can select the ones to transfer.

This could be really handy if you’re working in a team to cover an event. Photographers can get on with the job of shooting while editors can see the thumbnail images they are capturing on their tablet or computer and then select an image for editing and uploading to the web and social media.

The FlashAir also allows up to seven devices to connect to the card simultaneously. Again this could be useful for small teams covering conferences or panel discussions via “live blogs” and social media.

Great solution but not perfect yet

Both cards have their selling points but also a few drawbacks.

Connecting my iPad or iPhone to both the Eye-Fi and FlashAir card was not always instantaneous – even when both devices were side by side. Sometimes it would take a couple of attempts to connect. But once connected, the transfer of images was usually stable. Make sure you disable your camera’s auto-off function otherwise transfer will be interrupted when the camera goes to sleep.

Both cards can be draining on batteries.

On the Eye-Fi I encountered “Read Errors” messages several times. Ejecting and installing the card usually solved this problem and I have never lost images. However it doesn’t inspire confidence, especially if you want to use this in a professional capacity everday.

The Toshiba FlashAir also has a quirk. If you reformat the card in your camera, you will wipe the firmware that controls the WiFi chip. This means downloading and reinstalling the firmware from Toshiba’s website. It’s not a reason not the use the card, but it’s an easy mistake to make as in-camera card formatting is a common practice.

I also found the app for the FlashAir app a little bit clunky to use. It seems as if user interface was an afterthought in design. As an alternative, Photosync is a good mobile photo file transfer app that works with the FlashAir.

Hopefully competitors in this market will look each other’s products and produce a card that offers both quick and instantaneous connections, and a choice between batch transfer and selective image transfers.

Keep in mind the cost of these cards is usually two to three times that of normal SD cards, so expectations on functionality and reliability are understandably high.

Gradually, WiFi connectivity is becoming a standard feature in cameras. My new Lumix GH4 sports WiFi. And with Photokina in Cologne almost upon us, WiFi is bound to be a function that will become more widely available in new models.

For now though a WiFi SD card does a brilliant job of adding wireless functionality to “upgrade” almost any digital stills camera.

And while these WiFi SD cards are not yet perfect, they are well worth testing to see how they might give you more options for covering events and making your stills camera “mobile”.

Written by Guy Degen, edited by Kate Hairsine

The Boston bombings sparked a media debate about when images are too horrific to publish

Every natural disaster, shooting, terror attack or war nowadays triggers a flood of horrifying and violent images. Gone are the days when only press photographers captured grief and terror with their lenses. In the digital age, bystanders can also snap shots of severed limbs and burnt corpses with their phones and cameras and upload them directly online.

How should media organizations handle such graphic images? When is it justifiable to publish photographs of the injured, the dying and the dead? Is it sensationalism to splash the bloodied body of Libya’s dead dictator Muammar Gaddafi across the front page of a newspaper? Is it appropriate to print photos of children killed by bombs in Syria? What about the images of victims, some with shredded limbs, that were published following the Boston marathon bomb blasts?

In her 2003 book looking at representations of atrocity, “Regarding the Pain of Others”, US author Susan Sontag wrote, “Harrowing photographs do not inevitably lose their power to shock. But they are not much help if the task is to understand. Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.”

To help journalists decide whether to publish a certain images, German journalist Simon P. Balzert has composed a code of ethics for the use of graphic images. Balzert’s experience on the topic stems from research for his thesis which compared the publication of explicit images in German and Spanish newspapers (the result – Spanish newspapers published images of the dead and wounded significantly more often that German papers).

Simon P. Balzert

The guidelines though aren’t about presenting journalists with a fool-proof recipe for dealing with explicit images. “It always depends on the context,” Balzert said.

“Sometimes it is important to publish graphic photographs in order to document the horrors of war. For example, politicians may be interested in propagating the myth that it is a clean war,” he said.

• Before publication, journalists should ensure the photograph isn’t being printed solely for its shock or entertainment value, or for purely aesthetic reasons. Rather, the image should be chosen because it conveys pertinent and newsworthy information.
  Before publication, journalists should see if it is possible to avoid publishing the photograph by conveying the information contained in the image in another manner.
• Journalists should try to publish those images which are most emotionally appealing and least shocking. Instead of using a photo of a dead child, for example, publishing a picture of a child’s clothes covered with blood conveys the same message but is less upsetting.
• Journalist should apply the same standards to the use of graphic images of events in other countries as they would to the use of images from their own country. This avoids prejudices about other countries and other cultures.
• Journalists should avoid general rules such as “no photos of corpses”. Rather, they should decide which is the most suitable image on a case by case basis. Death and public discussion about death are part and parcel of an enlightened society and shouldn’t be inhibited by the media.
• Journalists should ensure that their publication sets aside sufficient space for an accompanying comment or text. If this space isn’t available then they shouldn’t publicize the image.
• Journalists should justify the use of a graphic image in an accompanying text (the picture caption doesn’t usually allow enough space for this). If possible, journalists should use an appropriate place in the publication to warn readers that a photo of a graphic nature follows.
• Journalists need to be aware that continued publication of graphic images lessens their overall effect. Therefore, they need to ensure that the publication of each explicit image is absolutely necessary.
• If journalists believe the publication of a graphic image is justified, they shouldn’t refrain from publishing the image because of concerns about whether it is appropriate for children or the audience’s reaction.
• In weighing up the pros and cons of an explicit image, journalists should concentrate on the context of the photograph and not allow themselves to be swayed by the codes of ethics of other media organizations.
• Journalists need to be aware that images on the printed page can leave a stronger impression than online images. They should consider publishing particular graphic images only online. That way readers can choose for themselves if they wish to view an image or not.
• Terrorist attacks often aim to maximize publicity. Journalists should therefore carefully weigh up the public benefits of publishing such images against the need for restraint.
• Journalists should be especially careful about publishing graphic images that were taken a while ago. When an image is no longer newsworthy, its publication is difficult to defend. Victims or their loved ones can suffer emotional distress and harm by suddenly being confronted with such images.
• Journalists should always consult with other editorial staff if they are in doubt about whether to publish certain images. However, journalists need to remember that they and their colleagues might have less inhibitions about seeing graphic photographs than average members of the public.
• Journalist need to consider the layout of the page when publishing graphic images. Readers tend to be more disapproving of an image’s publication when a headline or an advertisement focuses attention on the image.
• Journalists shouldn’t sensationalize explicit photos in any way. Instead of using a large front-page photograph, it is possible to use a smaller image elsewhere in the publication. In addition, instead of publishing a series of graphic photos, pick the most expressive and publish that one instead.
• Journalist should ensure victims are not identifiable, at the very least blurring victims’ faces. This especially applies to photos of the dead out of consideration for the deceased’s families and loved ones.
• Journalists should ensure that the image maintains the dignity of the person depicted. This is especially true if the person is identifiable.
• Images of an individual who has died by suicide should not be published.
• Journalists should be prepared to engage in a dialog with their readers and publish letters to the editor regarding controversial photographs.

Author: Steffen Leidel